Slate Valley (NY) Museum Summer Internship

Collections Internship Announcement
Summer 2012
Situated on the banks of the lovely Mettowee River in Granville, NY, the Slate Valley Museum is a thriving community oriented museum seeking collections interns for this summer. The Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) recently awarded SVM a grant to digitize the collection, which will take the museum’s collection and make the information, images, and recordings accessible to the public, beyond the museum’s walls.

Interns will support SVM’s mission to collect, catalog, preserve/conserve, exhibit, and interpret materials, artifacts, machines, and information that demonstrate the geology of slate and the history of slate quarrying and the quarrying communities in the Slate Valley of New York and Vermont from 1839 to the present. Interns will work alongside the Assistant Director/Collections Manager to photograph and scan artifacts, archives, and books. Duties also include cataloging and researching collection items. The collection contains three-dimensional artifacts like slate working tools, heavy machinery, clothing, as well as archives mostly relating to slate companies and families of immigrant slate workers. Knowledge and experience with PastPerfect is helpful but not mandatory.
Because SVM is a small museum, interns will have the opportunity to contribute to the Museum and gain meaningful experience in other ways which may include helping with assisting in the installation of exhibits, helping with educational programming, or greeting visitors. We encourage interns to pursue a personal project, separate from the digitization project, to create a more well-rounded experience.

The internship is unpaid and the museum does not provide housing.

Requirements:
Applicants must be enrolled in college, graduate school, or recently graduated, studying history, museum studies, American studies, or related field.
Please email questions to collections@slatevalleymuseum.org or call (518) 642-1417. Applications are dueTo apply, email a cover letter, resume, and contact information for three professional references to:
Amy Mincher
Assistant Director/Collections Manager
collections@slatevalleymuseum.org