A Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School student helped re-house the Peirce papers.
For the fourth consecutive year, we have had the opportunity to hire a paid intern from the Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School (CRLS) to learn about our work by helping end-process our collections. Through the School-to-Work program, (STW), the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW) coordinates with the Cambridge Office of Workforce Development, Harvard schools/departments, and Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School to provide job training as well as learning opportunities for high school students.
This year, we have had the pleasure of working with Samrawit (“Sam”) Tisasu, a senior at CRLS. Sam has said, “This is my first year at Houghton Library; however this is my second year with the HUCTW internship program. I’ve always loved books ever since I was young and enjoyed going to libraries. I decided to choose to work at Houghton Library, because of my love for reading and all of the great things I have heard about Houghton.”
Sam has contributed to improved access and preservation of the Peirce papers by working with Harvard students who have been re-foldering, and removing staples and paperclips. She attached labels to new archival folders, helped verify contents, and recorded problems.
The Peirce papers were described in a catalog by Richard S. Robin, published in 1967, and “Robin numbers” are the standard scholarly citation. Over the years, both the Robin catalogue and the Peirce papers have seen heavy use by scholars, and inaccuracies in Robin’s descriptions have been identified. In particular, Christian Kloesel, for many years one of the editors of the Peirce Edition Project (PEP), heavily corrected his copy of Robin’s catalog. Over the past 18 months, with the indispensable help of John Old, Houghton staff Emilie Hardman and Melanie Wisner created an electronic finding aid (now integrated into the Library’s finding aid catalog, OASIS), adding many of Kloesel’s annotations to the Robin catalog. Researchers can view the original Robin catalog, Kloesel’s annotated version, and the new combined finding aid through HOLLIS. For the most part, the collection is now in new archival boxes and folders, and Sam has helped in the process of affixing updated labels for the over 2300 items.
Besides working at Houghton, Sam attended HUCTW program seminars once a week, participating in discussions, case studies, and activities designed to teach students about the workplace. Some of the sessions include topics such as resume writing, email etiquette, professional reputation, discrimination, transferable skills, and child labor.
Here are some images that were included with correspondence among the Charles S. Peirce papers.
In addition to working on the Peirce papers, Sam also helped construct and label custom boxes for bound volumes and other collections.
Sam has had a busy schedule this school year, juggling between her Houghton internship, and an after-school medical internship at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge. She will be going off to college in the fall; planning to major in nursing, and get her masters in hopes of becoming a nurse practitioner.
[Post contributed by Vicki Denby.]