As I am wrapping up a short 10-week virtual internship with the Biodiversity Heritage Library, I believe that I will look back on this experience as one of those pivotal opportunities that impact the course of life.
The internship was made possible by the LIS Education and Data Science for the National Digital Platform (LEADS-4-NDP) fellowship program through Drexel University and funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, in collaboration with BHL. LEADS-4-NDP has a mission to improve library services by providing LIS (Library and Information Science) educators and researchers with data science skills.
BHL offered an ideal data science challenge for a future LIS scholar like me to explore: a huge dataset of documents spanning five centuries, along with an engaged community of users and researchers interested in extracting new knowledge from these fascinating texts!