To gain practical experience in processing archival materials, I became a volunteer at the Gerber/Hart LGBTQ+ Library and Archives in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago in April 2024. I have nearly completed an inventory of the Equality Illinois collection as the first step prior to arrangement and description. Equality Illinois is the state's largest and oldest advocacy organization that defends the rights of the LGBTQ+ community. The collection, which spans circa 1980 - 2018, comprises 13 boxes of documents, memorabilia, awards, banners, and media in a variety of formats.  The experience of applying the principles and theories I have learned in courses for my certificate in Archives and Cultural Heritage Resources and Services has been instructive.  I have seen how theory does not always align with practice and learned to seek advice from library staff and online resources to bridge the gaps. During the process, I examined the organizational logic of the creators and learned about the history of Equality Illinois. As I approach the next phase, arrangement, I will consider the needs of researchers to determine how best to organize the collection for public access. As this project is ongoing, I have included a section of my inventory spreadsheet as an artifact for this outcome.

I channeled my interest in audio archiving, enthusiasm for podcasts, and experience working on the Free 'Em All podcast archive in this essay for LIS 889: Digital Curation. In the context of the recent podcasting boom, I researched projects that focus on archiving this new digital medium such as Preserve This Podcast, the Internet Archive, and PodcastRE. I compared their approaches and offered recommendations for those interested in preserving podcasts. Instead of focusing solely on the needs of cultural heritage institutions, I also considered the needs of podcasters and podcast enthusiasts.  One of my core beliefs is that archivists must not gatekeep our work. By sharing knowledge of best practices with the public, archivists empower others to join us in expanding the historical record. 

In September 2023, I co-presented a session of the Caritas Veritas symposium with project lead Kaitlyn Griffith and fellow MLIS student Leah Kirchhoff on our work with the Free 'Em All Radio Archive. As we prepared our presentation, we discussed how to adapt our explanations of the project to best teach our audience about the project. Would our audience be familiar with the history of the Black Panther Party? Would they understand information science concepts such as controlled vocabularies and linked open data? We included brief explanations of these topics to ensure that everyone had a baseline understanding. The majority of the people who attended our preservation were from departments outside the School of Information Studies. Attendees were engaged throughout the presentation and asked thoughtful questions. Surprisingly, several faculty members were in attendance and offered resources from their departments to support the project. 

The presentation provided an opportunity to gain public speaking and teaching experience. As the process of working as a team to design the presentation taught me, learning and teaching are collaborative activities. The presentation built my confidence in my ability to translate information science concepts for an academic but non-specialist audience.