McMullan Arts Leadership Internship — Research Center, Metadata (Summer 2025)

McMullan Arts Leadership Internship — Research Center, Metadata (Summer 2025)

 

The Art Institute of Chicago shares its singular collections with our city and the world. We collect, care for, and interpret works of art across time, cultures, geographies, and identities, centering the vision of artists and makers. We recognize that all art is made in a particular context, demanding continual, dynamic reconsideration in the present. We are a place of gathering; we foster the exchange of ideas and inspire an expansive, inclusive understanding of human creativity.

• Expected Range: $16.73 per hour
• Job Classification: Intern
• Grade Level: Not Applicable

This role is not eligible for benefits or PTO. 

 

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Art Institute of Chicago’s Research Center is excited to offer a McMullan Arts Leadership intern position to work with the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries team on metadata.

The Ryerson and Burnham Libraries  (RBL) are dedicated to improving access to our collections by expanding and enhancing metadata in response to researcher needs. As such, our standards around collection description are in a constant state of evolution. The RBL collection has been in development for over 120 years, and has over 700,000 items. Metadata enhancement to enact evolutionary improvements requires thoughtful and dedicated effort in such a large and historic collection.

The intern will research and contribute to metadata enhancement efforts, gaining experience with controlled vocabularies and bibliographic description in our LMS, Alma. They will follow local policies and contribute to documentation, further ensuring standardized entry across the cataloging team. The collection items being enhanced will include both regular stack and special collections, giving the intern a range of collection handling experience. The intern will be involved in collaborating with the Systems Librarian to ensure that the bibliographic metadata we are entering becomes practical on the discovery side of our LMS.

The intern will join a museum-wide intern cohort and have access to a range of programs to support their development in addition to their placement in the Research Center. Mentorship is provided throughout the experience and connections with an intern alumni network will be established.

 

Goals of the McMullan Arts Leadership Internship Program

The McMullan Arts Leadership internship program is part of a museum-wide effort to provide students the opportunity to gain experience, career awareness, networks, and skills that will position them to thrive as future art museum leaders.

The primary objective of this internship is to support students who will encounter economic challenges if considering a career in the arts. Aligned with this goal, we aim to shape a diverse group of leaders whose actions are informed by a wide range of perspectives, varying career paths, and values inspired by their own lived experiences.

 

INTERNSHIP OUTCOMES:

In this position, the intern will have the opportunity to:

• Gain familiarity with vocabularies and best practices related to the area of focus;
• Understanding of the format and purpose of local authorities;
• Learn library management and discovery systems (Alma/Primo);
• Gain collection handling experience across a variety of item types;
•  Create LibGuide(s) content for effective information sharing;
• Develop strong communication and organizational skills;
• Develop mentor relationships with field practitioners;
• Build peer-to-peer relationships with fellow interns.

 

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

With guidance from the position’s mentors, the intern will be responsible for:

• Researching and familiarizing themselves with metadata enhancement projects, vocabularies, and best practices related to the area of focus;
• Updating existing metadata using guidelines found in description policy and vocabularies;
• Creating staff-facing LibGuide to document the description policy and procedure to cross-train other catalogers;
• Creating public-facing documentation of the changes to aid researchers in using new terminology;
• Participating in