Maitland A&H Summer Blog Entry 4

 I returned and interned this week, and it was such a relief to return. One might find it interesting to be in a room all day to only scan and record papers for Maitland A&H. I find it quite relaxing. Kate was eager to have her interns return. Being back, I could look over the vast history of Maitland contained in one box. Also, returning to Maitland has allowed me to work with other class members who are also interning. These class members are reliant on me to complete their tasks. It was nice to be able to work with them as my task was to also scan necessary documents for their project. While working at Maitland A&H, their objective is to create a new permanent exhibit for Maitland A&H. To help them succeed in their job, and they are reliant on my end to have items ready to be available when they need them.

 Even though the task is not as demanding on my end as working on their project, I intend to show that the job of an archivist and the job of a curator are two different occupations. Both positions are necessary for both to work together to get tasks accomplished. While small museums may combine the roles into two, museums that can have people for both positions filled with different people should as the process will become much smoother. On the curator side, they will be able to spend more time doing the necessary planning and creating new exhibits for the museum. Maitland, over the last few weeks, had just a new exhibition released, and I was able to attend. I was able to ask people how long it took for the museum to create the new exhibit, and they responded that it took months for it to be made, set up, and ready for display. Having the ability to work on starting another exhibit at my job, I know that for it to take months is no exaggeration.

 On the archival side, helping create exhibits is challenging as the archivist has to be the one to prepare the display items. When designing a display, the archivist must clean items and be ready to be used before the museum can show them to the community. Most of the time, it is just dust on the object if it is too big not to be kept in an archival box, but a nice quick, safe clean will be sufficient to ensure it is ready. It will also be necessary for the archivist to prepare any new Items that arrive at the museum, either from newly added pieces or rental pieces. If the item needs to be assembled, the archivist must ensure it is all together before it is displayed. These tasks that I have discussed are still only a few other tasks that an archivist is tasked to do and should also be noted as there is more than just scanning and filling out reports on files and also to show the cohesion between the two occupations.

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