Internship at the Polk County Historical Museum
Job/ Task: Digitizer
Task: Convert photographs into online format and assist with tours as well as rearranging a World War display.
Situation: In the summer of 2019 I was asked if I wanted to complete a project which was assisting at the Polk County Historical Museum to gain some sort of experience. I decided to take the internship although it had nothing to do with the career that I wanted to go into, but I decided to explore and gain different perspectives of what careers I could do.
- Programs I Utilized: Excel and Adobe
Task: When I arrived at the museum, I was tasked with the project to convert photographs into digital format, specifically photography that took place in my hometown, that would later be added to an album called the “Mulberry Pioneers” and uploaded to the Polk County Historical Museum page. I was also told that I would be assisting on tours that would take place throughout the time that I was there, and I was also assigned to rearrange a World War display. I also handled small tasks like steaming old war uniforms for the ladies’ display, making presentable for when the final set up was complete and making copies of documents.
Action: Taking on this task was no easy job especially since I had no experience in what I was handling. I also work by myself most of the time that I was there, so I was able to grasp the different programs that I had to use at my own pace. I first used an Excel sheet to organize the following pictures while giving them a PID number for easy identification and visual descriptions of the images and names of the people. Later I learned to use a scanner that would be able to convert the photographs into a digital format and gave some touchups on the most damaged photographs. While I was working on my project my boss handed me lots of great pointers and helped me when I got lost in any of the process.
Result: While working on this project I learned to work on various programs that I could not work on my first day. I was able to adapt easily to the different tasks that were assigned to me and developed an organized schedule for the time that I worked at my internship. Although I had no idea what I was getting into at the beginning of this internship I gain insight on a different career that I did not know about earlier and I was happy that I took this opportunity because I was able to figure out what kind of a person I was while working and gain experience on programs that I can now use for later projects.