Carolina Murcia. BHL Product Development and Marketing Intern.

I am a designer. I am an artist. I am an illustrator. I am an amateur photographer, a daughter, a traveler, an adventurist, a niece, a walker, a cyclist, a friend, an intern, a professional, a foreigner, a Latina, a Colombian, a woman, a strong woman, a bilingual. I am a person that has grow and re-recognized myself since I started my journey with the Biodiversity Heritage Library. I know the value of real things and how lucky I am for the people and opportunities that life has placed my way.

Over the past eight months, I served as the BHL Product Development and Marketing Intern for BHL at the Smithsonian Libraries, designing products for the BHL Store and creating promotional graphics for those products. As a designer, I enjoyed creating products, managing scientific illustrations, taking pictures inside the wonderful National Museum of Natural History, and creating and imagining different graphical styles to advertise the products in each collection.

Botanic Wonderland products created for the BHL Store. Products and marketing materials designed by Carolina Murcia.

For me, as a designer, the most magical part of my experience was exploring the amazing illustrations in the BHL collection. I was awed by the skills of these illustrators, and I saw that many of these early scientists were real artists. The lines of the drawings, the colors, the perspective – how the illustrators translated the movement of nature to a flat page that persists over the years – is just wonderful.

I am grateful that my internship allowed me to experience every aspect of product development and marketing. I not only searched for and chose the images for a new collection in the store, but also edited each image to work within a given product, creating a complete family of products, and finally designed the marketing advertising graphics. I was involved from the beginning until the end of each collection, and for all of the products, I have a special affection.

My favorite product collection, however, allowed me to stretch my creative skills. After working with all of these amazing books and their illustrations, I had the opportunity to create my own graphic line inspired by the BHL brand. For this collection, I started from scratch. I didn’t have any base illustration or book to start with. I designed all of the graphics from my own imagination. I wanted to find a way to enhance the logo and produce amazing products that didn’t just look like simple souvenirs but that can compete with big brands.  I put the real and complete “me” in the graphic line, now I can say…. I am proud of the results. My hope is that BHL staff will use the products and be proud of having a t-shirt/Mug/Journal/etc. from BHL, knowing that it has design and style. I hope people really look twice every time they are near a BHL New Design Products.

BHL New Design products. Products and promotional graphics designed by Carolina Murcia.

So, after 8 months of learning, creating and designing, I decided that I liked everything about my experience. My favorite part of the internship was choosing and playing with the illustrations. I was like a kid with a new toy. I could spend hours just playing with the graphics, creating patterns, changing colors, etc. Working through the complete process of product development was the best way to develop my skills as a professional designer.

I want to say thanks to BHL, but especially to my mentor and supervisor, Grace Costantino, for being patient, for giving me the chance to come to the Smithsonian Libraries, for trusting in my abilities, and for helping me develop my skills. It has been 8 happy months where I got to know people and places that I love…and I hope that I will see them again.

Kai Alexis Smith, Virtual Marketing Intern, Fall 2013

I was the Virtual Marketing Intern at Smithsonian’s Biodiversity Heritage Library in fall 2013. I participated in this internship post graduation because while I have previous experience with social media and marketing from my previous career, this internship provided me experience directly promoting a library collection. Also, while my background and passion is in the arts, I always had and will have a special place in my heart for science, especially biology. For the position, I wrote seven blog posts that highlighted books from the BHL library. I also wrote Facebook and Twitter posts to promote the blog.

After graduating from the Pratt Institute School of Information and Library Science program in May 2013, I went to the University of Michigan to complete an Association of Research Libraries Fellowship where I worked on digitizing select items and created an Omeka exhibit for the Leonard B. Willeke collection. I started to wonder how this project would be promoted within the institution as the Omeka exhibit was in anticipation of the complete digital collection of 16,000 items. In August, this interest in promotion grew stronger when I was in Washington, D.C. developing a digitization strategy for vertical files at the National Gallery of Art as the ARLIS/NA Wolfgang Freitag Intern. I incorporated a promotion section in the digitization strategy, as it would be an integral part of discovering the project and spreading the word about its services, if implemented. I also, visited many libraries while in D.C. and part of my inquiries included how each institution promoted their collections and services. Many mentioned different social media platforms and others shared that marketing was centralized within the institution. I realized that while I had previous career experience with social media and marketing, I did not have direct library experience. This internship helped round out my skill set.

During the virtual marketing internship, I had the pleasure of working with Biodiversity Heritage Library Collections Coordinator Bianca Crowley. While many past interns have touted the awesomeness of the badge, which, no doubt having one is, as a virtual intern I did not have the privilege of a Smithsonian badge. However, there were many other benefits. One of the main benefits of this internship was not only the experience, but the opportunity to learn from other experienced Smithsonian Institution librarians. Even though there were setbacks with the government shutdown, Bianca did an amazing job of setting up virtual introductions and an awesome virtual tour of the scanning room. I even got the chance to video chat with President of Smithsonian Libraries Mrs. Nancy Gwinn. I also was able to meet the staff and tour the Cooper-Hewitt Library in person in New York City.

My undergraduate degree is in writing, so this internship helped me return to my roots. I learned and wrote about New York state fossil Eurypterus remipes, hummingbirds and butterflies, molluscs, parasites, cephalopods, reptiles and amphibians, and Austrian zoologist Leopold Joseph Fitzinger and his picture atlas of birds.

In conclusion, for library school students or recent graduates looking for an opportunity to supplement their curriculum, consider Smithsonian’s BHL virtual marketing internship. While you will not get the glitz and glamour of going into the museum every day, you will work with incredible colleagues, learn more about Smithsonian libraries, virtually meet and get advice from future mentors, and create great work that highlights an incredible collection.

Didn’t get a chance to read my posts? Check them out here:

“Book of the Week: Malacozoaires, ou, Animaux mollusques.” December 19, 2013.
https://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2013/12/book-of-week-malacozoaires-ou-animaux.html

“Book of the Week: Bilder-atlas zur Wissenschaftlich-populären Naturgeschichte der Vögel in ihren.” December 5, 2013.
https://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2013/12/book-of-week-bilder-atlas-zur.html

“Book of the Week: Parasites and parasitosis of the domestic animals: the zoölogy and control of the animal parasites and the pathogenesis and treatment of parasitic diseases.” November 19, 2013.
https://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2013/11/book-of-week-parasites-and-parasitosis.html

“Book of the Week: Biologia Centrali-Americana: Reptilia and Batrachia.” October 24, 2013.
https://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2013/10/book-of-week-biologia-centrali.html

“National Fossil Day: Eurypterus remipes.” October 16, 2013.
https://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2013/10/national-fossil-day-eurypterus-remipes.html

“Book of the Week:  Die Cephalopoden.” October 8, 2013.
https://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2013/10/book-of-week-die-cephalopoden.html

“Happy Butterfly and Hummingbird Day!” October 3, 2013.
https://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2013/10/happy-butterfly-and-hummingbird-day.html

Happy New Year!

A blinking cursor on a blank screen. 137 million objects, 8.2 million digitized items, illustrations and photographs, artifacts and first editions, spanning 19 institutions, 9 research centers, and hundreds of years. Where to begin?

It’s me, your local virtual marketing intern

It didn’t begin earlier this summer when I started working as the marketing intern at the BHL, and it didn’t begin earlier this year when I originally applied for the position. It probably didn’t even begin when I enrolled in the University of Washington’s master of library and information science iSchool. For the sake of argument, I’d say the beginning for me was when I was 6 years old and took my first trip to Washington, D.C. –it was my first visit to the White House and my first visit to a lot of the impressive and stunning historical sites and memorials.

But it wouldn’t have been a D.C. tour without marveling at the expansive and breathtaking collections of at least a few of the Smithsonian museums. The National Museum of American History, National Museum of Natural History, National Air and Space Museum, and, of course for a 6 year old, the National Zoo. I wasn’t aware that much information even existed, let alone could be housed in a complex of galleries, institutions, and cultural centers all free and open for anyone and everyone who had the inclination to explore.

This was a revelation. I wanted to be there, I wanted to be a part of any organization who’s mission centered on preserving history for the purpose of sharing it to contribute to our understanding of the world around us. That was the beginning, and it’s what set me on the path to pursue a profession in library sciences–though the love of cardigans, glasses, and metadata didn’t hurt either.

I didn’t get the same experience as a lot of BHL interns–mine was a virtual one. Instead of walking the halls of the prestigious institution, I received impromptu tours via Skype and experienced the library through my MacBook. Despite some of the drawbacks of not being physically present–or even in the same time zone–it also felt utterly appropriate to be connected to the BHL via a cable modem. This consortium of natural history and botanical libraries have created a highly-accessible, global, digitized collection with a mission of open access and adding to the biodiversity knowledge commons. Through BHL efforts, millions of pages of taxonomic literature have been digitized, and as part of my internship I was able to sort through tens of thousands of titles to share with the blog-reading public. Where to begin?

Under the expert guidance of Bianca Crowley, I used the BHL collection to explore and bring to light old stories and fascinating records. I traveled to the depths of the North Sea and learned of the adventurous men who trawled the harsh waters. Within the volumes also lay the life story of the prison-educated pioneer botanist, John Torrey, whose birthday necessitated a celebration of his contributions to the scientific community. I sought out among the acquisitions more information to soothe my coffee addiction and reviewed the history of the innocuous, but oh-so-delicious coffee berry. Ophidiophobia didn’t stop me from diving into the creepy, crawly world of venomous snakes. And the intriguing case of Elizabeth Blackwell and her wonderfully detailed, colorful illustrations of medicinal plants, just another highlight in the expansive literature.

I was only charged with finding five works to highlight from the BHL, but I didn’t want to stop, there was so much to discover. The blinking cursor gave way to a flow of words and I took full advantage of the 9 weeks of my summer term and the access to hundreds of thousands of titles. I was also asked to create a tutorial for the blog-publishing service that you’re using right now to read this post. From this, I discovered that I love instruction. These tutorials will ensure that my learning experiences will make it easier for the next BHL intern.

Bianca introduced me to the wonderfully supportive staff who encouraged me to pursue all my interests in this profession, including social media marketing, copyright issues, and information literacy. I will always be so grateful for this opportunity and those who were so giving of their time and experience to assist me on my path.

Now the question isn’t where to begin, the question has become where does it end?

Please check out my post highlighting Alfred Russel Wallace during BHL’s week of Wallace in November.

Connect with me on LinkedIn or Follow me @Kirsten_Clair

My interest in the Smithsonian Institution, as an entity, began a long time ago when I was a young girl.  I came to DC with my middle school to visit the National Museum of Natural History and since that trip, I was completely in love with museums and wanted to know how they operated–how all of those magical exhibits came to be, who was responsible for making that happen, and all of the different people who got to work together to make this large organization thrive.  Simultaneously, being a studious girl who enjoyed reading books and doing homework in my free time, I had developed a deep love of libraries–those dark, quiet places filled with shelves and shelves of books just waiting to be explored and enjoyed.  There’s nothing quite like the feel of a book, the smell of its pages, the weight of it in your hands.  And when I discovered, a few years later, the rare books sections of different libraries, I was even more intrigued and anxious to discover not only the content of these old books and manuscripts, but also the process involved with making them, and the way that librarians and curators store, classify and preserve them.  If only there were a way to combine my two loves: museums and libraries…

So a few years intervened and I went to graduate school at Princeton University for medieval English, getting to explore my love of old texts and rare books, and to further enjoy the quiet, cavernous delights of the Princeton Library (where 500-year-old books lay casually on the shelves along with modern books, all of them ripe for consumption).  Serendipitously, I moved from my home in PA to DC, home of the Smithsonian, after I got married and was still a graduate student.  I found great joy in going to the Library of Congress for the first time to pursue my graduate work.  I was in awe of the magnitude of holdings at that Library, and the idea that it was free for anyone to read books there–and what a gorgeous place to read books!  I started to develop a serious curiosity in Library Science since I thought that being able to turn my love of books and libraries into a career would be the culmination of a lifelong dream.  And when I heard that the Smithsonian had its own system of libraries, my two loves collided, and I went to the first open house that I could at the Smithsonian Libraries inside the natural history museum (a library inside of my favorite museum–heaven!!!).  At the open house I met quite a few Smithsonian librarians and staff, including Bonnie White, Bianca Crowley and Grace Costantino.  I explained that I had recently completed a marketing internship with the Smithsonian Associates (another amazing adventure that would need its own post to tell the whole story), and Bianca and Grace suggested I try to apply for their new marketing internship with the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL).  I left that open house feeling lucky to have met so many kind people in the field I hoped to explore, and having gotten so much great advice from all of them about pursuing a Library Science degree and career.

I applied for the internship at the BHL and was accepted.  There is something wonderful about going to get your Smithsonian Intern badge from the security office because I felt like I was finally a member of a community of people just like me–book lovers, library lovers, museum lovers, people who enjoy internet marketing and all of the new possibilities that the Internet could bring to help libraries and museums expand their audiences and make their collections more readily available to the general public.  The idea of using the Internet to make more books more freely available to all people is something I’ve always believed in ever since I learned of the concept in grad school, and the BHL’s project of doing just that is one that I wholeheartedly wanted to contribute to and support, in any way possible.

I began my 4-week internship under the guidance of Bianca Crowley, and I learned that I would be responsible for finding 5 books from the BHL collections which I would read and write about for the “Book of the Week” blog posts for the BHL blog.  At my fingertips I had one of the most amazing collections of digitized, full-text biology- and biodiversity-related books through the BHL website, and it was fun to explore the collections to find books that could be the topics of my blog posts.  I found books about human deformity caused by corsets (a physiology book), about taxidermy, cicadas, cats and rabbits–and I could have found even more, the possibilities were endless.  These books had beautiful illustrations or photographs, amusing anecdotes or gruesome and strange facts, and were intriguing subjects on which to write.  Bianca worked collaboratively with me to make sure I had picked good books to highlight and was always available if I needed any guidance at all.  Another highlight was being able to talk with Grace Costantino about how the BHL carries out its social media and marketing work, which gives me a better sense of how large libraries operate and hope to expand their audiences.

The absolute best thing about this internship–aside from being able to show my badge and enter the National Museum of Natural History early, when all is quiet and the exhibits are completely empty of people–was being able to work with the kind and generous staff of the Biodiversity Heritage Library and learn how this operation functions.  Bianca knew I was interested in pursuing my Library Science degree, so each week she made sure that I got to meet a different member of the staff, who explained to me their job and gave me advice about applying to Library Schools.  I will always be grateful for this amazing opportunity, the wonderful people I have met, and the advice that is sure to help me on my path to Librarianship!

Written By: Laurel Byrnes, Marketing Intern at the Biodiversity Heritage Library

Connect with me: http://www.linkedin.com/in/laurelbyrnes