The Loy McCandless Marks Botanical Library – National Tropical Botanical Garden

Internship Description

The intern provides a support role for curatorial duties including preservation, collection management, programming, reference, and curation. This including sorting of physical materials in shelving and storage, digitization of NTBG archival documents, applying integrated preservation techniques, assisting with public-facing events, and fulfilling reference requests. Students with cataloging experience and/or LIS 605 pre/co-requisite will work directly in NTBG’s LibraryWorld database, and may assist with a forthcoming bibliographic system migration (dependent upon experience level).

Library/Collection Description

The National Tropical Botanical Garden’s library and rare book room hold over 20,000 items, including books, journals, botanical prints, archival materials, and thousands of original artworks, plates, and photographs. As a special, non-lending library, emphasis is on systematic botany, ethnobotany, horticulture, conservation, and ethnographic works related to Pacific islands from the 16th century onward. Rare volumes include herbals, botanical histories, voyage accounts, floras, and monographs. NTBG also regularly publishes scientific papers and books. Adjacent to the library, the herbarium houses nearly 100,000 dried plant specimens. Together, the collections provide a foundation for NTBG’s critical scientific and biocultural conservation work, supporting plant identification, research, and historical reference.

Required Pre-requisite Courses

• LIS 601: Introduction to Reference and Information Services.
• Optional pre- or co-requisite to be eligible for cataloging duties: LIS 605: Metadata Creation for Information Organizations OR similar work experience.

Desired Qualifications

Current MLIS degree seeking student at UH Mānoa; The ideal candidate will have a general knowledge of and/or demonstrated interest in learning about Hawaiian flora and plant conservation.

Weekly Schedule

• Single-semester option: Two days per week (five hours / day) to be coordinated with supervisor.
• Two-semester option: One day per week (five hours / day) OR two days per week (2.5 hours / day) to be coordinated with supervisor.
• In addition, a single programming event during the term may require a time outside of the normally scheduled hours.

Goals and Outcomes

• Sorting and spine labelling of physical materials in shelving and storage; Digitization of NTBG archival documents; Fufillment of a handful of reference requests; Collections management including assisting with a handful of acqusitions and some duplicate identification/removal; Preservation including spot treatment and pest prevention/monitoring; Assisting with the planning and execution of a (1) public facing programming event.
• Qualified students only: creating / curating catalog records in NTBG’s LibraryWorld database; assisting Library, Herbarium, Plant Records and IT staff with bibliographic system migration.

Evaluation Methods

A midway and final progress summary will be required prior to each supervisory review. The reviews will evaluate proficiency demonstrated in each of the following five (six) categories midway through, and again at the completion of the internship: preservation, collection management, programming, reference, curation, and cataloging (if applicable).

Evaluation Schedule

Single-semester option: Midway evaluation: October 1st; Final evaluation: November 15th
Two-semester option: Midway evaluation: November 15th; Final evaluation: April 15th

Contact Information