{"id":5418,"date":"2017-05-18T20:38:20","date_gmt":"2017-05-18T20:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/?p=5418"},"modified":"2019-01-14T20:22:55","modified_gmt":"2019-01-14T20:22:55","slug":"an-internship-in-the-vault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/2017\/05\/18\/an-internship-in-the-vault\/","title":{"rendered":"An Internship in the Vault"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Julia Rohn, Museum Studies Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

Picture this: My eyes are closed so as to not ruin the surprise. A heavy door opens, groaning. Parchment permeates the air, warm and familiar. I am told to open my eyes and a whole world is revealed: books line every wall, towering me. Instead of feeling small, my heart swells. I hunger for this knowledge. And then I look over to thank the hairy prince to my right\u2026<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Okay, okay. This is not exactly my<\/em> memory. But I have watched Disney\u2019s Beauty and the Beast <\/em>so often that the boundaries between the two have irrevocably blurred. However, this specific scene has always resonated with me. I identified with Belle\u2019s preoccupation with novels, forever reading, yearning for more tales. So naturally I sought an internship, which would place me in close proximity with them.<\/p>\n

My first day in Special Collections at the University of Iowa mirrored Belle\u2019s experience. When I was shown to the stacks, the inner me was spinning about in my head, cartwheeling like a gymnast. In fact, I had quite the headache afterwards. My supervisor granted me full access: to be able to reach out and peruse any book I wished. Granted, there was not time for sitting and reading its contents, but you must take your victories where you can. All of the sudden I had access to centuries of knowledge, and I was the gatekeeper. I know: your Nerd Alarm bells are ringing furiously. It even sounds curiously like the X-Files<\/em> theme song\u2026<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The thing about Special Collections is that it is impressively impossible to become bored there. Going about my business I will stumble across a collection of Edgar Allen Poe\u2019s poetry, which leads my to begin quietly whispering aloud Annabelle Lee, <\/em>hoping no one will hear me. Or maybe I come across a decorated Book of Hours, jewel encrusted, hinges worn (no matter who you are, or your opinion on history, these are flipping cool). Nevertheless, it\u2019s challenging<\/em>. As a mere guardian of the vault (my preferred title if you see me around) I feel an undeniable duty to not let my little ones (all materials under my dominion) down. The sounds of tearing spines, ripping pages, and flaking covers haunts my dreams; many a night have I woken up screaming to images of breaking the famed clay tablet. Mind you, I have managed to avoid these egregious mishaps so far.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mostly, gentle readers, its an environment highly conducive to imagination. There is an otherworldly feeling, in Special Collections. Not many have this access, and for that I am grateful. So let me take a moment insist you be our guest<\/em> in Special Collections (see what I did there?).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Julia Rohn, Museum Studies Intern Picture this: My eyes are closed so as to not ruin the surprise. A heavy door opens, groaning. Parchment permeates the air, warm and familiar. I am told to open my eyes and a whole world is revealed: books line every wall, towering me. Instead of feeling small, myContinue reading “An Internship in the Vault”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":5426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[464],"syndication":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5418"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/115"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5418"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6191,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5418\/revisions\/6191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5418"},{"taxonomy":"syndication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/syndication?post=5418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}