Internships
Internship Summary
MSU Archives and Special Collections (ASC) offers semester-long internships to provide learning opportunities and support a student’s degree ambitions. Internships can be taken for 1 – 3 credits. ASC internships provide specialized training in one of four areas of study to allow students to gain concrete skills in oral history, archival processing, public history, or instruction. Internships offer fundamental training in archival work, therefore prior library or archives experience is not required.
Download the ASC Internship Application Form
Application Deadline for Spring Semester 2025: December 6, 2024
Areas of Study
- Oral History: Create oral history recordings to be preserved in ASC. Interns will research, create, edit, and archive oral histories in accordance with best practices.
- Processing: Arrange and describe collections in ASC. Interns will rehouse, arrange, and write description to make archival collections accessible to researchers.
- Public History: Conduct research related to collections held in ASC. Interns will research topics that highlight ASC collections for a public display or presentation.
- Instruction: Work with an ASC Librarian to create a research guide that supports ASC researcher needs.
Academic Credit
Applicants must obtain written permission from their academic adviser to pursue the internship.
Internships can be taken for 1, 2, or 3 credits and as LSCI 498. The bulk of the coursework will be hands-on and require minimal work outside the archives, and therefore each credit hour will require 3 hours of weekly work. Internship hours are flexible and can fit around a student’s schedule but must be during the regular workweek – Monday-Friday, 9:00am-5:00pm.
1 credit – 3 hrs/week
2 credits – 6 hrs/week
3 credits – 9 hrs/week
Supervision
Students will be assigned an ASC Librarian most appropriate for their area of study who will serve as the course instructor. The instructor will determine specific project(s), provide training, supervise the work, and will provide the final grade for the course.
To Apply
To apply, please submit the following information via email to jodi.allisonbunnell@montana.edu by December 6, 2024:
- Statement of interest (500-700 words): Describe the skills you hope to learn through an internship with ASC and specify the Area of Study (see above) you would like to specialize in during your internship.
- Statement of how this internship will support your course work and degree (100-200 words)
- Letter of Recommendation from an employer, professor, or supervisor.
- Written adviser permission to pursue an internship.
Evaluation Criteria
Applicants will be evaluated on the following criteria:
- Relevance of internship to academic and professional goals
- Clarity of writing and completeness of application
- Attention to detail
