Preparing for the Term

This week was all about getting resettled back into the rhythm of the History Center. The original supervisor from last term left about a week or two in to take another job, so I reported to the head historian. Now that empty position has been filled and we were discussing if I report back to that position or not. I am learning how fluid the entire establishment is and where the lines of jobs intersect.

The app was all about telling the history of the court  house and the community via the exhibits so meeting with the historian was apt. This semester is about the history center itself.

My goal with this internship is to provide the history center with at least a plan for them to do 1 of 3 things or possibly all 3: Create a braille map/3d representation of the history center, 3d print copies of artifacts and/or get state of the art haptic feedback gloves. I cannot guarantee these things for the history center with a budget of zero so my goal will be to look for funding via grants or donations. I will also be contacting the companies to get quotes on gloves and software.

I will also need to contact some people in the community with familiarity with making spaces like the history center more accessible to the visually impaired. I am going to build this week by week so that by the end I can hand in a plan for the history center staff to continue based on what kind of budget they will have the following year.

The history center was built in 1909 and an extension was put on it in 1926, there is a ramp and elevator but there isn’t much more to do structurally. They haven’t received any actual complaints so there isn’t anything for me to focus on initially, which is why I am reaching out to Riley, who is a classmate and friend who did her internship on this very subject. She will not be able to come visit the center for a few more weeks so in the mean time, I will focus on reaching out to tech companies to get some quotes and information for the upper tier options.

I am looking forward to doing this since it is far out of my area of study but still within the public history track. What I came to the master’s program for isn’t what I am doing, which was a more traditional history track with research, but its actually more rewarding since it gives me new skills.