Submitted by Maranda Christy

As a recipient of the Carroll Hart scholarship from the Society of Georgia Archivists, I was able to attend the Georgia Archives Institute in June of 2023. During this two-week internship, which included daily workshops and a hands-on experience processing a collection and creating a finding aid at Emory University, I gained valuable insight into the archival profession, from the preservation of fragile audio-visual materials to learning more about the newest trends in digitization.

I appreciated the breadth of the topics covered during the Institute, which provided a firm foundation in established professional standards and principles while also speaking to the rapid changes in technology which present both advances and challenges to accessibility. Overall, I also appreciated the chance to meet and converse with other professionals and take home their valuable advice to apply at my own institution. 

The three-day internship at Emory was the most enlightening aspect of the entire experience at the Institute since we applied the theoretical frameworks from the class sessions to an actual collection in an existing repository. My two fellow interns and I processed the J. Andrew Lipscomb papers and wrote the finding aid which was then uploaded to ArchivesSpace. Since Emory just recently transitioned to ArchivesSpace, this was a unique opportunity to create one of the institution’s first new finding aids on the platform. 

We also toured Emory’s preservation lab which was particularly fascinating since I didn’t previously have a strong background in preservation or conservation. After that tour, I was convinced that not enough institutions are putting an emphasis on the importance of the art of preserving and conserving materials. 

Thank you to the Society of Georgia Archivists for providing the means to attend the Georgia Archives Institute.

Visit the SGA website to learn more about our scholarship opportunities, https://soga.org/scholarships.