Summer 2024 Voluntary Internship Opportunities

Archival Internship

10 internships available at the Barack Obama Presidential Library in Hoffman Estates, IL 

Tasks & Responsibilities:

• Interns’ primary task is to prepare documents for digitization. Details are as follows:
• Remove fasteners (staples, clips, etc.) and bindings
• Remove non-scannable items & materials (envelopes, boxes, bags, etc.)
• Identify & alert LP-BHO (Obama Presidential Library) staff of any non-scannable/textual items or materials (AV, electronic textual, artifact)
• Create Preservation Copies where needed

Professional Development Opportunities:

• Physical document processing, team work, time management.

Work Environment: The work is mostly sedentary and performed while seated, yet interns must be physically able to perform the duties of this position. Physical demands may include climbing ladders, moving heavy carts of records, and handling boxes of archival records typically weighing up to 50 pounds.

Education & Qualifications Requirements:

• Educational Level/Program:
  • Current or former associate's degree, bachelor's degree, or graduate student
• Qualifications:
  • Physically able to climb 15-foot ladders and work with boxes weighing up to 50 pounds
  • Can work independently and effectively
  • Can work collaboratively as part of a team
  • Attention to detail

Schedule:

• Internship Date Options: flexible
• Weekly Schedule Options:
  • 10-20 hours per week
  • 20-30 hours per week

Area(s) of Interest: Archival Processing, Digitizing Archival Materials, History

Public Relations/Communications Internship

1 internship available at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, MI 

Tasks & Responsibilities:

• Prepare press releases
• Create social media posts
• Update the Presidential Library & Museum website

Professional Development Opportunities:

• Public relations and communications experience in the federal government

Work Environment: Work may occur in an office setting, in museum galleries, and in other similar settings. Interns may be required to stand for periods of time or to sit at a computer in the course of their work.

Education & Qualifications Requirements:

• Educational Level/Program:
  • Current or former bachelor's degree student
  • Preferred degree program or major: Public Relations or similar
• Qualifications:
  • Research capability
  • Can work collaboratively as part of a team
  • Excellent verbal communication skills
  • Strong writing ability

Schedule:

• Internship Date Options:
  • Monday 5/28 to Friday 8/2
  • Monday 6/3 to Friday 8/9
  • Monday 6/10 to Friday 8/16
• Weekly Schedule Options:
  • 10-20 hours per week
  • 20-30 hours per week
  • more than 30 hours per week

Area(s) of Interest: Communications & Marketing, External Affairs & Public Relations, Museums & Public Programs (including at Presidential Libraries)

The selecting official for this internship may also request a writing sample.

Retail Internship for the Museum Store

2 internships available at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, GA 

Tasks & Responsibilities:

• Basic arrangement and description of small portions of series within textual and AV collections
• Scanning and metadata description of items housed in textual and AV collections for preparation to put onto the library & museum website/National Archives Catalog
• Implementation of inventory and transferal of unprocessed materials in the archival collection into proper housing for preservation purposes

Professional Development Opportunities:

• Basic archival functions
• NARA cataloging methods
• Qwareness of the archival unit's fit within larger the larger presidential library & museum structure

Work Environment: Work may occur in an office setting, in museum galleries, and in other similar settings. Interns may be required to stand for periods of time or to sit at a computer in the course of their work.

Education & Qualifications Requirements:

• Educational Level/Program:
  • Current or former bachelor's degree or graduate student
• Qualifications:
  • Competent using computers for tasks including data entry, word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations
  • Can work independently and effectively
  • Can work collaboratively as part of a team
  • Coursework or practical experience in archival work including holdings maintenance, processing, or description
  • Strong writing ability
  • Attention to detail;
  • Strong organizational skills

Schedule:

• Internship Date Options: TBD
• Weekly Schedule Options: 10-20 hours per week

Area(s) of Interest: Archival Processing, Digitizing Archival Materials, Education & Exhibits, Museums & Public Programs (including at Presidential Libraries)

2 internships available at the National Archives at New York City, NY 

Tasks & Responsibilities:

• Work with school groups in a museum setting
• Support teacher professional development workshops and institutes
• Design K-12 education programs for school visits
• Design education activities

Professional Development Opportunities:

• Interns will gain real world experience as a museum educator during the internship. They will work alongside professional museum educators and have the opportunity to design education programs and materials for K-12 school visits. Interns will assist in facilitating teacher professional development programs that will allow them to understand teacher needs. Interns will also have the opportunity to work with museum public programs specialists and visitor services coordinators in order to understand how museum education programs synthesize and support the full range of education in the museum.

Work Environment: Work will occur in an office setting, in museum galleries, and in a museum classroom. Interns may be required to stand for periods of time or to sit at a computer in the course of their work.

Education & Qualifications Requirements:

• Educational Level/Program:
  • Current or former bachelor's degree or graduate student
  • Education or museum studies major preferred
• Qualifications:
  • Can work collaboratively as part of a team
  • Excellent verbal communication skills
  • Strong writing ability

Schedule:

• Internship Dates: Monday 5/28 to Friday 8/2
• Weekly Schedule: 20-30 hours per week

Area(s) of Interest: Education & Exhibits, Museums & Public Programs (including at Presidential Libraries)

The selecting official for this internship may also request both a writing sample and a letter of recommendation.

3 internships available at the National Archives at College Park, MD 

Tasks & Responsibilities:

• These interns will assist with the holdings maintenance of textual records, create box and/or folder lists for access by researchers, and help develop finding aids for a series or a collection of records for either a civilian agency or military subject area.

Professional Development Opportunities:

• This internship will provide students with a well-rounded archival experience working with textual records. It will offer them an opportunity to learn more about the archival profession by working directly with the documents.

Work Environment: The work is mostly performed in an office setting. However, interns must be able to manage multiple tasks, understand, and apply existing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). In addition, interns will need to lift and carry boxes of archival records typically weighing up to 50 pounds.

Education & Qualifications Requirements:

• Educational Level/Program:
  • Current or former associate's degree, bachelor's degree or graduate student
  • Degree program in history, museum studies, library science, or a related field
• Qualifications:
  • Competent using computers for tasks including data entry, word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations
  • Physically able to climb 15-foot ladders and work with boxes weighing up to 50 pounds
  • Can work independently and effectively
  • Attention to detail

Schedule:

• Internship Date Options:
  • Monday 5/28 to Friday 8/2
  • Monday 6/3 to Friday 8/9
  • Monday 6/10 to Friday 8/16
• Weekly Schedule Options:
  • 10-20 hours per week
  • 20-30 hours per week

Area(s) of Interest: Archival Processing, History, Reference Services

The selecting official for this internship may also request a letter of recommendation.

3 internships available at the National Archives at College Park, MD 

Tasks & Responsibilities:

• Collaborate closely with the  communications coordinator and public affairs and social media teams to brainstorm and develop out-of-the-box, innovative, and strategic approaches to support NARA's Legislative Archives, Presidential Libraries, and Museum Services organizational and Agency goals.
• Assist in developing and maintaining stakeholder lists to reach local/national audiences and an editorial calendar to coordinate/track/schedule content across the organization.
• Support additional communications needs across the organization including key message development and media responses.

Professional Development Opportunities:

• Enhanced understanding of communications principles and the media landscape for a government agency
• Create communications strategies/creative concepts and tactical deliverables to reach targeted and diverse audiences.  Tangible work products include but are not limited to communications plans, press releases, key messages, responsive questions and answers, editorial calendars, and resource library/toolkits (social media, editorial calendar, email marketing templates, etc.)
• Learn and experience how to contribute and/or respond to inquiries from major news outlets
• Hands-on experience working with communications professionals/experts

Work Environment: Office space with cubicle

Education & Qualifications Requirements:

• Educational Level/Program: Current or former bachelor's degree student
• Qualifications:
  • Can work collaboratively as part of a team
  • Attention to detail
  • Excellent verbal communication skills
  • Strong writing ability

Schedule:

• Internship Date Options:
  • Monday 5/28 to Friday 8/2
  • Monday 6/3 to Friday 8/9
  • Monday 6/10 to Friday 8/16
• Weekly Schedule: 20-30 hours per week

Area(s) of Interest: Communications & Marketing, Editorial, External Affairs & Public Relations, Legislative, Museums & Public Programs (including at Presidential Libraries),

The selecting official for this internship may also request a writing sample.

2 internships available at the National Archives at College Park, MD 

Tasks & Responsibilities:

• Interns will be assigned basic conservation activities including assessment and repair of 19th Century documents beginning with basic mending and flattening and progressing to removing attachments and more complex tear repair or humidification. They will also have the option to rotate through treatment of oversize records such as preparation of 1960 census maps and custom housing activities related to RG 41 (ledger books). They will be given an overview of conservation documentation in the photo suite and an opportunity to learn about instruments in Heritage Science such as the portable FTIR for the identification of media.

Professional Development Opportunities:

• Interns will gain practical experience working at the bench. They will learn about the tools and methods of conservation appropriate to the treatment that is assigned to them, and will be introduced to ethical practice in treatment. The professional conservators will provide formal and informal presentations throughout the ten week period to enhance learning. Interns will be able to describe the steps for basic repair of historic documents and understand the correct tools to use and the tools to avoid. They will have at least ten treatments and associated documentation for their portfolio by the end of the internship.

Work Environment: The work is performed in a laboratory with large workbenches with other experienced conservators, specialists, and technicians. The work is largely done standing. Skilled fine-motor skill manipulation of paper is a requirement for this internship. While no chemical work is anticipated, there will be a health and safety debriefing on chemical hygiene.

Education & Qualifications Requirements:

• Educational Level/Program:
  • Current or former graduate student
  • Degree program in conservation of cultural heritage, history, museum studies, library science, or a related field
• Qualifications:
  • Can work independently and effectively
  • Can work collaboratively as part of a team
  • Attention to detail
  • Excellent hand skills for applied conservation treatment activities

Schedule:

• Internship Dates: open for interpretation based on graduate program schedule
• Weekly Schedule Options:
  • 10-20 hours per week
  • 20-30 hours per week
  • more than 30 hours per week

Area(s) of Interest: Archival Processing, History, Photo Services, Reference Services

The selecting official for this internship may also request a letter of recommendation.

1 internship available at the National Archives at College Park, MD 

Tasks & Responsibilities:

• Primary tasks will include digitizing photographs and/or other graphic materials in support of high priority projects and initiatives; performing basic holdings maintenance in preparation for digitization; and creating descriptive metadata for the scans generated.

Professional Development Opportunities:

• The participant will learn to perform holdings maintenance to support digitization projects, such as rehousing and assigning unique item numbers to photographic records. In addition, they will receive training on how to use a tethered camera and/or flatbed scanner, and how to create group and item level descriptive metadata to support access. The participant will also have the opportunity to attend up to 3 information sessions about Still Picture holdings.

Work Environment: Work will occur in a cubicle in an office suite where Still Picture staff and NARA volunteers also work on processing and digitization projects. Food and drink may be consumed in designated break areas, but not in the assigned office suite.

Education & Qualifications Requirements:

• Educational Level/Program:
  • Current or former associate's degree, bachelor's, or graduate student
• Qualifications:
  • Competent using computers for tasks including data entry, word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations
  • Can work collaboratively as part of a team
  • Attention to detail
  • Excellent verbal communication skills

Schedule:

• Internship Date Options:
  • Monday 5/28 to Friday 8/2
  • Monday 6/3 to Friday 8/9
  • Monday 6/10 to Friday 8/16
• Weekly Schedule Options:
  • 20-30 hours per week
  • more than 30 hours per week

Area(s) of Interest: Archival Processing, Digitizing Archival Materials, History, Photo Services, Reference Services

3 internships available at the National Archives at College Park, MD

Tasks & Responsibilities:

• Conduct research for EEO program responsibilities
• Assist with processing EEO cases and requests
• Support best practice efforts for all EEO programs

Professional Development Opportunities:

• The intern will be fully immersed in all EEO programs to learn processing timeframes. They will research projects for the respective EEO programs to support being a Model EEO Program. They will help write policy and support administrative efforts to build partnerships and increase EEO support to field offices. They will also be able to participate in Trend and Barrier analyses.

Work Environment: Work will occur in an office setting. Interns may be required to stand for periods of time or to sit at a computer in the course of their work.

Education & Qualifications Requirements:

• Educational Level/Program:
  • Current or former associate's degree, bachelor's degree or graduate student
• Qualifications:
  • Research capability
  • Competent using computers for tasks including data entry, word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations
  • Can work independently and effectively
  • Attention to detail

Schedule:

• Internship Date Options:
  • Monday 5/28 to Friday 8/2
  • Monday 6/3 to Friday 8/9
  • Monday 6/10 to Friday 8/16
• Weekly Schedule Options:
  • 10-20 hours per week
  • 20-30 hours per week

Area(s) of Interest: Human Resources

The selecting official for this internship may also request a writing sample and a letter of recommendation.

Human Resources Internship for the Office of Human Capital

2 internships available at the National Archives at College Park, MD 

Tasks & Responsibilities:

• Work closely with a communications specialist to develop HR communications for agency employees
• Assist in developing work products to support NARA’s executive workforce
• Assist in building NARA’s internships program
• Other duties as assigned.

Professional Development Opportunities:

• Learn what makes strong communications that draw attention from agency employees
• Build some basic HR and project management competencies

Work Environment: Interns will be issued a NARA laptop, and work will occur in a hybrid work environment, including both in an office setting and remotely. Work will be completed at a computer.

Education & Qualifications Requirements:

• Educational Level/Program:
  • Current or former associate's or bachelor's degree student
  • Degree program in communications, human resources, business administration, or a related field
• Qualifications:
  • Can balance multiple deadline-driven tasks or projects simultaneously
  • Attention to detail
  • Excellent verbal communication skills
  • Strong writing ability

Schedule:

• Internship Date Options:
  • Monday 5/28 to Friday 8/2
  • Monday 6/3 to Friday 8/9
  • Monday 6/10 to Friday 8/16
• Weekly Schedule Options:
  • 10-20 hours per week
  • 20-30 hours per week
  • more than 30 hours per week

Area(s) of Interest: Communications & Marketing, Human Resources

2 internships at the National Archives at College Park, MD 

Tasks & Responsibilities:

• Legal research and writing
• Drafting litigation related documents

Professional Development Opportunities:

• Exposure to a Federal Agency General Counsel Office,
• Exposure to a wide range of Federal administrative laws
• Develop experience with legal research and writing and administrative litigation

Work Environment: Work will occur in an office setting. Interns may be required to stand for periods of time or to sit at a computer in the course of their work.

Education & Qualifications Requirements:

• Educational Level/Program:
  • Current or former Law school student
• Qualifications:
  • Research capability
  • Competent using computers for tasks including data entry, word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations
  • Can work independently and effectively
  • Strong writing ability

Schedule:

• Internship Date Options:
  • Monday 5/28 to Friday 8/2
  • Monday 6/3 to Friday 8/9
  • Monday 6/10 to Friday 8/16
• Weekly Schedule: more than 30 hours per week

Area(s) of Interest: Legal

The selecting official for this internship may also request a writing sample.

1 internship available at the National Archives at College Park, MD 

Tasks & Responsibilities:

• The intern will be tasked with developing a scholarly resource from the heritage science lab’s reference material collection. Major duties will include assessing the scope of the reference collection, developing an understanding of how the materials are used by the lab to support archives research and preservation, and creating a framework for information management that makes the collection accessible and useful to the lab and outside scholars by capturing and linking key data. The intern will also be able to conduct preliminary user testing.

Professional Development Opportunities:

• The participant will be working with a team of scientists in an active research lab and will be exposed to a variety of types of analytical instrumentation to learn about their applications to preservation and conservation work at the archives. This project will develop information management skills needed to create a data architecture for the final work product. The final work product will be a functional database the archives can use, expand and share with other researchers interested in its reference material collection.  (Note: the emphasis of this project is NOT data entry.)

Work Environment: Work will occur in a cubicle space with a desktop computer in the heritage science research and testing lab, and may require standing for extended periods of time, lifting boxes of archival records typically weighing up to 50 pounds, or sitting at a computer. Personal protective equipment (PPE) will be provided for when working in the lab environment.

Education & Qualifications Requirements:

• Educational Level/Program:
  • Current or former bachelor's degree or graduate student
  • Degree program in library science, information science, computer science, any physical science or a related field.
• Qualifications:
  • Coursework or practical experience in archives administration, information, and/or library sciences
  • Competent using computers for tasks including data entry, word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations
  • Can work independently and effectively
  • Strong organizational skills

Schedule:

• Internship Date Options:
  • Monday 5/28 to Friday 8/2
  • Monday 6/3 to Friday 8/9
  • Monday 6/10 to Friday 8/16
• Weekly Schedule Options:
  • 10-20 hours per week
  • 20-30 hours per week

Area(s) of Interest: Education & Exhibits, History, Reference Services

The selecting official for this internship may also request a letter of recommendation.

1 internship available at the National Archives at College Park, MD 

Tasks & Responsibilities:

• Develop Microsoft Power Apps applications
• Transition Microsoft databases to Microsoft Dataverse
• Custom Python programming language development

Professional Development Opportunities:

• Develop user interface applications using Power Apps connecting to Dataverse

Work Environment: Work will occur in an office setting. Interns may be required to stand for periods of time or to sit at a computer in the course of their work.

Education & Qualifications Requirements:

• Educational Level/Program:
  • Current or former high school, associate's degree, bachelor's degree, or graduate student
  • High school applicants should have several AP courses in computer science
  • Associate, Bachelor’s, or graduate programs should include a major or minor in computer science
• Qualifications:
  • Can work independently and effectively
  • Attention to detail
  • Strong organizational skills
  • Experience using MS Visual Studio IE
  • Knowledge of programming languages like Python, Java, or any language used  to build Microsoft applications
  • Knowledge of or experience in developing applications

Schedule:

• Internship Dates: Monday 5/28 to Friday 8/2
• Weekly Schedule Option: 20-30 hours per week

Area(s) of Interest: Information Technology

The selecting official for this internship may also request a letter of recommendation.