My first year as an MLIS grad was an exploratory period thanks to an experimental fellowship launched by the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO).
METRO solicited proposal ideas from their community of GLAM professionals with the goal of defining areas of interest through direct feedback from practitioners. Interested applicants were then encouraged to read through the responses and consider how they might build a project with one of the institutions. I selected two submitted by the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Guggenheim Museum – both discussed the collection of an elusive born-digital record: email.
Instead of establishing a traditional residency at one of the organizations, I suggested working with both sites to consider a cross-organizational framework for archiving email.
My theory:
As a performing arts venue and an art museum, the two institutions operate on similar cycles of exhibitions/performances, and could offer differing examples of scale and staff management.
The final deliverable of my 10-month study was a report of trends in producer habits and collecting needs, as well as practical reviews of email archiving tools.
FINAL REPORT
https://perma.cc/7JV8-NA49