Intern, Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners’/Coordinated Statewide Emergency Preparedness, Boston MA

Posted June 19, 2013

From 2009-2011 a Simmons College GSLIS intern created a database of some 1,800 cultural institutions in Massachusetts, including libraries, town halls, museums, historical societies, etc. for the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners’ (MBLC) Connecting to Collections grant.  This database has lain dormant for the past two years.  COSTEP MA (Coordinated Statewide Emergency Preparedness: Your Emergency Management Partner for Cultural Resources) is planning a series of community meetings and risk assessment/mitigation planning workshops as part of an HMGP [Hazard Mitigation Grant Program] grant from FEMA.  To publicize the activities and advertise the meetings and workshops, the database needs to be updated.

Therefore, the MBLC and COSTEP MA are seeking a graduate student with database and conversational skills for an unpaid internship to update this database.  This will be a wonderful opportunity to work on database skills and gain a greater knowledge of Massachusetts’ institutions.  The intern will be based at the MBLC’s offices at 98 North Washington Street, Suite 401, Boston, MA and will have access to the tools needed to accomplish the task, including access to a computer, to lists and contacts that already exist, and a telephone.  The project is a bit open-ended, as it is not known how long it will take to update the database, but some current lists are available and can be easily checked.  However, it does need to be completed in a timely manner, as the community meetings are scheduled to begin this summer and will continue over the next year.  We expect that the intern should plan on between six and ten hours a week.

In addition, this internship will also involve developing a statewide database of disaster recovery resource suppliers.  Institutions affected by a disaster will need to have access to suppliers, both in their region and elsewhere to address their recovery needs.

Interested students should contact Gregor Trinkaus-Randall, Preservation Specialist at the MBLC and Co-Chair of COSTEP MA at (617) 725-1860 x 236 or (800) 952-7403 x 236 (in-state) or at [email protected]. If you call, and there is no answer, please leave a message with contact information, as he is often out of the office on business.