Citi Center for Culture + Queens Library Fellowship

The Citi Center for Culture and Queens Library extend an invitation to apply for a two-semester fellowship. Applicants must be currently enrolled students in the Division of Library and Information Science who are committed to specializing in the Archival Studies specialization. Fellows will each receive a $1000 scholarship from the Citi Center for Culture at the conclusion of the fellowship.

To enhance the professional prospects of our Fellows, we have developed a program that provides them the opportunity to diversify their exposure to collection management and use of archival collections. The Fellowship consists of semester-long rotations at each of our two institutions. We believe that the diversity of scope, mission, and collections managed by our respective institutions will serve to broaden the skills and enhance the profile of the students we select to participate:

  • Citi Center for Culture, 153 East 53rd Street, New York, NY, which manages Citigroup’s corporate archives and the company’s fine art collection. The Center provides a unique insight into the business value of cultural and historic materials. Students will be exposed to collection management challenges presented by diversity, language, and scale in a global financial services corporation.
  • The Archives at Queens Library, 89-11 Merrick Blvd., Jamaica, NY, one of the largest collections of primary and secondary resources documenting Queens, Kings, Nassau and Suffolk counties.  It consists of approximately 36,000 books and volumes of serials, approximately 2,500 cubic feet of manuscripts, 4,500 maps and broadsides, 105,000 photographs, 422 feet of vertical files, and 9,000 reels of microfilm. The bulk of the printed material and manuscripts are from the 19th and 20th centuries, but extensive 18th century material and some 17th century manuscripts are also held.
  • The Queens Memory digital archives program collaboratively maintained by Queens Library and Queens College, is both a collecting arm and a repository for oral histories and supporting visual records from both institutions’ archival collections and from the private collections and memories of Queens residents.

As a result, we are confident that students will gain meaningful first-hand experience in corporate and public library archives settings; and be more marketable when seeking future career opportunities. Specifically, the students enrolled in the program will gain direct experience in:

Citi Center for Culture:

Archival collection processing:

  • Conducting a survey
  • Producing a processing plan
  • Arranging and describing records
  • Writing a scope and content note for a finding aid
  • Metadata creation and TMS cataloging
  • Weekly Discussions that include topics such as:
    • Collection governance
    • Mission, scope, and funding model of corporate archives
    • Providing access to collections/ service to clients
    • Cross border legal and regulatory challenges

Queens Library:

  • Born-digital image and audio collection processing
  • CollectiveAccess cataloging
  • Creation of finding aids and EAD records for born-digital collections
  • Social media research, Wikipedia editing, and curation for digital archives

A maximum of four fellows will be accepted for this two semester appointment. They will work in groups of two for a full semester at each site. Site staff will work closely with fellows to introduce them to a wide variety of processes, materials and systems on-site. Fellows will be expected to spend a full day of each week during the 14 week academic term at their assigned site. Accepted fellows will enroll in the LIS 269 course during their semester working with archives staff at the Citi Center for Culture. They will fulfill all of the regular requirements of the internship course. In the alternate semester, students will enroll in Special Research & Projects I (LIS 901) to complete their semester with Queens Library’s Virtual Library Department and Archives Department. If accepted Fellows prefer not to enroll in LIS 269 or LIS 901, they must still meet the hourly requirements of the fellowship to ensure an equal experience for everyone in the program.

Students interested in the fellowship must contact Dr. Szylvian (Public History/DLIS)