Quick Summary
Abigail Raper was an intern with DIME this summer, working on creating Primary Source Sets for the Minnesota Digital Library.
Hey everyone, I’m Abigail Raper. I have been working as an intern in the DIME unit for the past seven weeks, composing primary source sets. I’m a recent graduate of North Hennepin Community College looking to study Humanities, and potentially Library Science.
Besides researching flour milling, the Basilica of St. Mary, and Duluth’s Lift Bridge, I’ve gained an inside scoop into Minitex—including how interesting and expansive the library field is! Previously, I had three visuals of an office job: a dull place, the Office sitcom, or a cavern piled high with papers. At Minitex, everyone is very friendly and open to helping me grow. I had the opportunity to meet with a number of staff in different departments to learn more about what they do. Hearing employees’ thoughts through these meetings, I’ve noted overlapping themes, including…
- The importance of building quality relationships
- Transferring information you’ve learned into written and verbal format to communicate effectively
- Willingness to explore and find newness in the old
- Thinking with both detail and creativity in mind
During my time as an intern, my responsibility was to conduct research to turn that into digestible, accessible, and informational writing paired with primary source materials. It cemented for me how there are many ways to tell a story, from organizing the paragraphs to what pictures are selected (my favorite part). I found myself getting into a flow of learning while building as I went. I didn’t realize the national records Minnesota held until now! Such as…
- Minneapolis was the global flour mill capital for a time; earning the title, “Mill City.”
- The Basilica of Saint Mary was the first basilica in America.
- Duluth’s Aerial Lift Bridge is the second of its kind, replacing a transporter bridge that was the first one built in America!
In addition to spending time in my cubicle and wracking my brain over the puzzle in the back, I toured the caverns in MLAC. It was cool in both regards. Viewing millions of books stacked into the tallest shelves I’ve ever seen and learning where everything goes was amazing. Seeing behind-the-scenes and talking to staff made me appreciate how much work this all takes. It taught me a lot. I’m motivated to further explore this area of study so I can continue contributing to this vast field. Who knows, this may not be the last work you see of mine!
