Each spring semester the iSchool offers a Field Study opportunity for graduate students in the Archives, Records and Information Management specialization within the MLS program. The students can perform their field study in any one of literally hundreds of archival repositories in the greater Washington, DC area. These range from the National Archives and the Library of Congress to the Phillips Collection archives and the Frederick Historical Society. 

The students undertake a variety of archival tasks to serve the host institution and to gain hands-on experience with archival collections and functioning within an archival repository. The variety of projects undertaken is as varied as the students’ interests.  Many of the projects are routine, reflecting the usual nature of archival responsibilities.  Invariably, however, several students return with tales of unusual and extraordinary accomplishments during their field study.

In the spring of 2008, our students experienced the many out of the ordinary events in their work: Here are some of their stories:

One student assisted in processing a collection containing the equipment and personal belongings of NAZI saboteurs that secretly landed on the American coastline in World War II.  The unprocessed collection still contained uniforms, underwear, dried-up life-savers – all routine items.  The collection, however also still contained TNT to be used for making bombs.  Upon discovery, the TNT was removed from the collection and properly disposed.

Another student was able to assist in providing visiting Italian archivists documents regarding Iraqi monuments damaged during the war. The documents will be used to assist in the reconstruction of the war damaged monuments.  She expressed the great satisfaction it gave her to assist in this reconstruction effort and to see archival materials used to assist in contemporary activities.

Another student expressed the awe and sense of privilege she felt when she was able to see and handle documents associated with the first session of the U.S. Congress.  They included the signatures of several of the “founding fathers.”  The experience truly instilled the sense of “enduring value” infused in archivists by their information collections.

While students usually are used to address archival backlogs or assist with routine administrative tasks, they also are assigned other tasks regular staff cannot get to or can not reach agreement on.  One repository used a student, as a neutral outside party, to gather information on the multiple, conflicting metadata systems then in use and to provide a professional decision on the best path forward.

The prize for the most unexpected archival materials uncovered in the spring of 2008 goes to the student who, while processing motion picture films, opened several film cans and discovered “tasteful, artistic” soft core pornography.  The mystery of why the pictures were stored inside motion picture film cans may never be solved, but we can now picture what projectionists do while running a film for umpteenth time!