By Sofia Arias, University College Dublin student, MLIS Library & Information Studies

This summer, as part of my Master's in Library & Information Studies at UCD, I completed a 12-week work placement with the National Museum of Ireland. This placement gave me the chance to work at several Museum sites, including the Decorative Arts and History museum in Collins Barracks, the Archaeology museum on Kildare Street, and the Collections Resource Centre. My time at the National Museum of Ireland gave me not only a look behind the curtain into how a museum operates, but valuable work experience as part of the Registration team.

Collections Care

I worked closely with archivist Christina Tse to process and list archival collections that had come into the Museum. We also assessed materials for their condition status - that is, if we believed they would hold up to handling by researchers. In fact, much of our day-to-day work involved helping researchers answer their questions. Some days we combed through photographs and newspaper clippings in search of a single name - others we spent searching for a handwritten note from French artist Antonin Artaud.

I also toured the Collections Resource Centre with Sylviane Vaucheret, the Museum's Deputy Registrar. Here, Sylviane showed me around the CRC's freezers and quarantine rooms, where new objects are held before being cleared for pests by the Conservation team.

Digital Projects

One important aspect of library work is managing online collections and maintaining metadata—that is, data about data. As part of my internship, I worked on topographical and geographic data, helping to arrange data and create the hierarchical records for a new geographic placename thesaurus. I worked into Excel in anticipation of the data being reviewed by Documentation Officers and imported into the collections management system. I also helped transcribe fossil registers for the Natural History Division. This work also familiarised me with Axiell, the online collections management system used by the Museum.

I also had the opportunity to tour the Museum's reserve collections, including the furniture and textile stores of the Decorative Arts, Design and Military History Collections, and the Archaeology collection in the “crypt”. Here, I saw a sliver of the over four million objects held by the National Museum of Ireland!

Overall, I had an incredible summer interning at the National Museum of Ireland. Working alongside several divisions helped me be flexible while also remaining precise with my work. As someone with an interest in special collections, my experiences at NMI were invaluable.

More Information

To learn more about NMI's collections, visit the National Museum of Ireland's Collections & Research page.

To learn more about previous work placements at NMI, visit the Registration Corner.