During the Spring 2014 semester, I was able to intern for FSU’s Post Card Archive. The archive is located within Florida State University’s English Department, founded and supervised by Michael Neal. Still only a few years old, the archive is not too well known on campus, or even within the English department. Through the duration of the internship, I often found myself introducing and explaining the archive to anyone I spoke with. I was more than happy to speak about the archive, to promote it, so as to raise awareness of its existence. As a Studio Art and Editing, Writing and Media double major, I also tried to mention it to as many artists as I could. Most of them found the archive interesting and I’m sure stored it away in the back of their mind for future projects.

     Returning the focus back to English, I heard about the internship from my then WEPO (Writing and Editing in Print and Online), then later on Rhetoric, teacher. Though I was unsure as to what exactly this internship entailed, she mentioned how it could be completed during the spring semester alongside my regular classes and I immediately looked into it. I was walked through the job to come, asked if I was interested, and welcomed as one of the interns.

     As was forewarned by my supervisor, the workload was front ended. I was first given the task of adding cards into the archive, of helping it grow. Simple. But as with anything, there was a learning curve. On the first day, I was given a packet of how to properly classify and label each card. This packet became my lifeline. Not only did it give explanations for what each classification meant, it also provided the correct subject words to use (subject words in the archive are typical words that a person might use when searching for cards). I referenced it for almost every card I entered (I wanted to make sure I entered the proper information). Despite the packet, there was still some discrepancy as to certain labels, in which I had to decide how to classify certain (aspects of the) cards. For example, I came across a Christmas card with a slightly raised Christmas tree as well as holes poked through the card, which, when held to the light, made the candles drawn on the tree seem as though they were lit. There are labels for each of these card features: “Bas Relief” for raised cards and “Hold to Light” for cards which incorporate light somehow. I had to make the decision as to what to classify this card. I chose “Hold to Light” because that was the card’s main feature. There was a paragraph on the back explaining to hold it to the light in order to see the tree lit up. In “Archivist’s Comments” at the bottom of every card page, I did mention the card could also be labeled as “Bas Relief.” Not only does that cover both labels, but if anyone types “bas relief” in the search bar, the card will also appear in their search. In total, I managed to enter fifty cards into the system.  

     Though the work was front loaded, my supervisor eased us into it. The first week, he wanted us to only enter five cards. That was it. He understood we needed time to figure out what to look for on the card as well as grow accustomed to the system. The following week, he wished for eight cards, pushing us a bit more. After two weeks, we were expected to enter ten or more cards a week. Every weekend after the third week, I would sit and examine my ten cards. I wrote descriptions for each, transferred all the originally printed text, user added information on each card, scanned both the front and back of each card, and uploaded everything onto the Omeka system.

     Manually entering the cards was my favorite aspect of the internship. I found every image intriguing and some of the messages written were quite endearing. But, though I wasn’t expected to, I still found myself analyzing the cards, trying to understand the small rectangle of history in my hands. I believe this improved my overall observation skills. After a few cards, I knew where certain information was most likely to be printed or written on the card. For example, the serial number can either be printed on the bottom half of the front of the card or near the side margins on the back of the card. So when I was required to enter a serial number, those were the areas of the card I would glance at first. And if it was not there, then I searched the rest of the card.

     Mr. Neal had the group entering post cards for a few weeks before he introduced the editing portion of the internship. Each of us were given nine exhibits within the archive to edit for grammar, not necessarily content. As the exhibits were not of our own making, we could not completely change or delete information, simply reword it for the sake of coherence and flow.

     While the previous portion developed my observation skills, this portion of the internship definitely helped broaden my problem solving skills. When confronted with several sentence fragments, or too many “thats,” I had to figure out a way in which to strengthen the grammar and vocabulary, but keep the overall message/argument of the paragraph or sentence the same. Sometimes this required I simply move a word to a different location in the sentence, other times I had to rewrite a sentence, but mostly I simply deleted excess words; words that did not add anything to the sentence other than length. This part was not as time consuming as manually entering the cards, but it seemed more restricted. I enjoyed creating my own description for every card, having to make decisions as to how the card was to be labeled. I did enjoy reading through previous exhibits. It helped me gain ideas and familiarize myself with how exhibits were laid out within the Omeka system.

     My final task was to create my own exhibit. I had a bit of trouble locating source material, but otherwise had a good deal of fun creating my own exhibit (most likely because I got to create something from scratch). Creating the exhibit allowed me the freedom to research a topic of my own choosing as well as organize it how I wished. I chose to do an exhibit on Bas Relief Cards. I learned a quite a bit as I worked on the exhibit, about both the cards and the limitations of the Omeka system. The limits tested my creativity. In order to line up some of the words with the card images I had to create these huge spaces above them (meaning I had to press the enter key a few times). Though the system is rather basic, I tried to keep the layouts, and exhibit overall, interesting by incorporating pictures and videos to help explain or back up what the written information was saying. I tried to place myself as the viewer; if something does not completely click after reading the paragraph on the page, then there is a video or image there to help one more clearly understand the information.

     Overall, this internship was very independent. And, honestly, I loved that aspect about it. In being independent, it required plenty of self-motivation. Because of that, I set my own goals for completing the internship. All of my work was done on my own time, usually on the weekends along with my homework, using my own computer and scanner. It was not necessary for me to work in a specific place, during any specific hours. As long as I had an internet connection, I could complete the written component of the internship. Then, later, when I arrived home I could scan the post cards and upload the images.

     I’m always a bit uneasy when I have to depend on others with projects or tasks, and this internship had multiple interns, but we were each responsible for our own work. There were weekly meetings so Mr. Neal could take note of each person’s progress, but otherwise the job of completing everything was completely on me. I would rather have it that way. I know myself best, I know how long I will need with certain things, and I know that if I somehow do not properly complete a job, the blame will be on me and only me. The idea of the blame falling on me also served as motivation for doing a good job. I aim to please, especially under the employment of an organization such as the Post card Archive, which strongly depends on credibility. The archive can exist, but if the information entered is false, or incorrect, the credibility of the archive will plummet, something I did not want in the least.

     The aspect of having to later turn in a culmination of my work greatly helped me keep track of everything; such careful organization. If asked what I did, I can respond with a solid answer, with specific word counts, card counts, and description of each task as opposed to “Oh, I archived postcards.” This internship was more fun than I anticipated (not saying I thought it was going to be bad), and if I could, I would do it again. The second time through I would try to break my own records. I would set a goal to enter more than fifty cards, a goal to edit more words, and yet another goal to probably write more words for another exhibit. I would push myself a bit further, a trait applicable to any and every job. 


Written Word Count: 8,222
Edited Word Count: 10,339
Total Internship Word Count: 19,857