This post was written by Katie Connor ’25, Special Collections & University Archives Intern, in April 2025.
This spring, I spent my Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday afternoons interning in UMW’s Special Collections and Archives. I’ll be graduating this May, and while it’s bittersweet to be saying goodbye, I’m incredibly grateful to have ended my college career on such a high note. I found this internship to be a fantastic introduction to the world of rare books and the work of an archivist. I’m leaving with a solid foundation in archiving, stronger skills in writing and technology, and a much clearer idea of the career paths available to me.
I spent the first half of the semester developing sub-collections of UMW’s rare books. While we’ve had a rare book collection since 1964, there hasn’t been an easy way to browse our holdings. This project made our collection more accessible by organizing it into easily browsable categories, sorting books by genre, period, and author. I began by getting to know the rare books room, looking for items that might be of interest to students. Once I had a sense of the collection’s highlights, I researched authors, titles, and editions to build thematic groupings. For example, when I discovered we had works by Eliot and Pound, I started looking for other modernist poets in our collection and found quite a few! After developing the sub-collections, I photographed book covers using the Cobra Scanner and helped build an online database through Alma, which gave me valuable experience with the technical side of library work.
The site should be live by the end of the semester. It was a really exciting way to use what I’ve learned as an English major while also developing my digital skillset and learning about book history. Our hope is that the project will make the rare books collection less intimidating and more useful for students and faculty. This project is ongoing, with more sub-collections to be added by Special Collections staff and students.
In the second half of the semester, I created an FAQ guide for researchers interested in UMW’s history. The archives receive many similar research requests, and this guide is meant to make common topics of interest accessible. I spent a lot of time digging through issues of UMW’s student newspaper, as well as scrapbooks, photographs, and institutional records. It was a great introduction to archival research and gave me a lot of practice writing clear and engaging text for a public audience. Once the research was complete, I designed the site itself using LibGuides. This process taught me how to present information in a way that’s easy to navigate and digest. Working on this guide gave me a deeper appreciation of UMW’s history and helped me feel even more connected to campus. It was a special way to finish my undergraduate years, and I hope the guide helps future researchers and community members feel that same connection.
Beyond my two main projects, I got to do a little bit of everything that makes up the day-to-day work of the UMW Archives. I helped with scanning requests, researched our periodical collections, and even spent a day looking through old atlases in search of sea monsters. The archives staff made an effort to include me in their work, and I always felt supported and encouraged to explore new opportunities and challenges.
One of my goals going into this internship was to find a bit of clarity about what I might want to pursue as a career, and I can confidently say my experience at UMW’s archives gave me just that. This internship was an amazing learning experience, and Regan, Sarah, and Angie were fantastic teachers. My time in Special Collections deepened my appreciation for archival work, helped me see new possibilities for my future, and made me feel more connected to UMW than I have before.
