Yonah Bex Gerber, Fall 2013

Yonah Bex Gerber, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Fall 2013, IMLS

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee has operated humanitarian programs throughout the world for a century, and its archive is a testament to the breadth of their causes. What began as an archive of an organization's activities has become a historically critical collection, necessitating a shift to more accessible methods, large-scale digitization activities, and new considerations about how this material can be maintained over the long-term. My internship involved approximately twenty-five hundred tapes within the archive's audiovisual collections. Tasks included continuing the inventorying and cataloging of materials, creating new labeling guides, and writing recommendations for future use. Most importantly, it was an internship that allowed me to develop my skills in a large-scale archival and research setting, and a welcome opportunity to my growth as a student.