All-staff meeting excitement

As today's title indicated, I went to the Guggenheim all-staff meeting this morning.  The meeting was in the Peter B. Lewis Theater in the basement of the museum and had comfy seats and dim lighting - two things that are not particularly conducive to keeping one's eyes open in the morning.  I mean, not that I would have first-hand experience of such a condition, it just seems like a potential situation for the average person.  Anyway, after the meeting, I took the opportunity to stroll around the museum to see the permanent collection as these works were roped off during Friday's exhibition opening.  I think I have finally seen the entire museum now.  That being said, I wouldn't put money on me not saying that exact same thing again at some point in the near future.

Afterward, my boss Becky and I walked across Central Park to take the subway to the downtown offices.  Becky needed to return a couple of books to the public library, so we stopped at the Hudson Park branch on our way back.  It is a small but sufficient branch and reminded me of my mom's library.  We chuckled about how, as librarians, it is not a rare occasion to visit two or three libraries in one day (one's own library plus another location where we might act as a patron and indeed a third study location).

As I'm sure you know, this a holiday weekend coming up and I currently have no plans for said holiday.  If anyone knows of anything particularly awesome going on this weekend, I am open to suggestions.  That being said, please do not say something like, "Go see fireworks!"  I mean, I love you guys, but yeah, duh - I'm shootin' for specific events here.  Thank you!

Today's mileage: 3.97 mi

It's not every day that I get to rip a book up

Yeah, that's right, I ripped a book apart today.  Is your jaw on the floor?  It was totally sanctioned and my boss even gave me the instrument of destruction: a letter opener.  Ok, ok, I was tearing it up because the pages didn't get cut apart when it was printed so they were all folded up on each other.  So really I was helping the book out.  I'm not gonna lie, it was kind of fun but I was glad that the book was only about 80-some-odd pages as it got kinda old after the first 70.  I found a couple of other neat books today, too.  One was just postcards.  It wasn't really bound, but rather in a sort of portfolio kind of thing with 7 postcards in it.  The other book find of the day was a book that had 2 original lithographs in the back of it.  Needless to say, that got added to the rare books collection. 

Today's mileage: 3.01 mi

MARC training = done

At last!  I have conquered the TMQ MARC21 in Your Library Part 1: MARC & Bibliographic Info Fundamentals training course!  It did finally get helpful in the last module when it went into describing the differences among tags, fields, delimiters, indicators, etc.  I do think that growing up with computers makes it easier to grasp the concepts behind MARC as it is simply another form of coding akin to HTML or CSS.  The use of the term "tag" alone has become common place today due to folksonomies and Facebook photo identification.  One module of the training focused on why MARC is used in libraries.  It seems obvious to me, but then again, I'm the daughter of a librarian so a lot of library stuff seems rather intuitive to me but not to the general public, as I've found.  One reason that the training gave for using MARC records is because libraries have been using MARC for decades so, basically, it would not make sense to change it now.  While I understand this point and acknowledge it as a decently valid argument, I couldn't help but think that someone should be saying, "If all of your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump off a bridge as well?"  It seemed to be implying that we are just sticking with it because it would be too much work to change it rather than highlighting the fact that it simply still serves its purpose quite effectively.  In any case, my boss directed me to the OCLC Bibliographic Formats and Standards handbook which she finds quite useful - I bookmarked it.

So remember how I was saying the other day that Dan Savage and his husband were the grand marshals of Sunday's NYC Gay Pride Parade?  Well, it turns out that just days before, he was the opening session speaker at the annual ALA conference.  Yes, if I was up on my library world happenings, I would have known this, but I'm not gonna lie, I was kind of trying to ignore all of the conference buzz since I couldn't be there.  Clearly it only worked to a point anyway.

Today's mileage: 3.13 mi

Monday, Monday

More good ol' cataloging today.  I did, however, also start a free training course through OCLC today.  I heard that they were offering free self-paced trainings to members so I looked into it.  The Guggenheim is not a member of OCLC for at least a couple of reasons: it's expensive for one, and also there is some debate about whether or not it would be beneficial to have the collection available through WorldCat.  Why not, you ask?  Well, the Guggenheim library and archives are not open to the public for the most part and the concern is that making the catalog available in that manner would incur an influx of requests from researchers.  But I digress...  I looked into what it meant to be a "member" of OCLC in order to take the free courses and apparently, all you have to do is sign up for a free account on their website.  So sign up I did.  And I registered for the course MARC21 in Your Library Part 1: MARC & Bibliographic Info Fundamentals as I am doing quite a bit of cataloging in my internship.  The first few modules are really, really basic and I couldn't help but think, "Yeah...I just spent thousands of dollars learning all of this...."  But I stuck it out and I think I am getting into more informative sections now.  My computer decided to be quite unhappy with the course console so I gave it a rest for the day.  Tomorrow it better be ready to get back on the horse. 

Today's mileage: 3.08 mi

Gay Pride Parade - what else, of course?

Today was the annual NYC Gay Pride Parade so, needless to say, that's where I was this afternoon.  The new marriage equality legislation played a big part in today's events with many marchers holding signs saying "Thank you Governor Cuomo!"  And speaking of, he was just one of the many well-known personalities that marched today.  Also of note was Dan Savage who, with his husband Terry Miller, served as grand marshals for the parade (see photo, Dan Savage is on the passenger side).  Dan Savage started the It Gets Better Project, aimed at preventing LGBT youth suicides and providing them with hope in general.  Other big names included a few more politicians and burlesque dancer Tigger! who I never would have recognized had it not been for my previous trip to the Museum of Sex which featured a portrait and video of him in its exhibition The Nudie Artist: Burlesque Revived.  If you don't mind the frequently scantily-clad marcher and even some nudity (not my own of course), you can see all of my photos from the parade here - you've been warned.

Today's mileage: 1.86 mi (though I did stand for a solid hour or two as well)

Mini London reunion

I saw a guy this morning wearing a UF shirt and did a double take.  I thought nothing of it at first, as that is practically the uniform in my hometown of Gainesville, Florida.  Then I remembered, "No, Toto, we're not in Gainesville anymore; this is a rare sighting."  I'll admit, I stared at this random middle-aged stranger for a few moments before continuing on my journey.

Anyway, the real excitement of the day was meeting up with two, count 'em, not one, but two of my London people!  Elana, Lynn, and I went to the Hester Street Fair this afternoon and then wandered about the city.  The fair was rather small so we walked back up through Chinatown and Little Italy before heading back up Broadway and stumbling upon another fair, which I believe was the same one I came across last weekend, the Clearview Festival.  Having been on our feet for quite some time, we sought refuge on the benches of Washington Square Park where a small cluster of people were gathered to gaze upon something atop one of the surrounding buildings.  We finally discovered that everyone was staring up at Pip, the baby red-tailed hawk whose nest is at the top of one of the NYU buildings.  I think there is some relation between Pip and Pale Male but I haven't been able to find an immediate connection and to be honest, I don't have the interest enough to really try.  In any case, below is a photo of the top of the building, with an arrow pointing to what I think is Pip (I couldn't actually see him from the park).

After that excitement, we wandered around the park and found a guy doing some really cool sand art.  It was amazing.  We then dined and had a jolly good time before parting at the subway station.  'Twas a good day.

And by the way, in case you have been living under a rock, the state of New York did indeed legalize same-sex marriage.  Epic.

Today's mileage: 5.51 mi

Library training, Madison Square Park, Guggenheim opening party, the list goes on and on...

Such a long day!  I shall start at the beginning.  This morning, we interns had library and archives training at the Guggenheim.  You're probably chuckling to yourself, "Ha, but Katy, you are the library and archives intern, certainly you don't need that training" and while you may be right that I didn't need the training, it was nonetheless rather informative, particularly in respect to archives.  My background is mainly in libraries so archives are kind of new territory for me. 

Following our training, we had a break before meeting back up at Madison Square Park to learn about their public art program.  Along with a number of historical statues scattered throughout the park, they are currently featuring Jaume Plensa's Echo sculpture on their main greenspace (see right). 

We then dispersed again only to be reunited later in the evening for the Members' Opening Party and Private Viewing: Lee Ufan back at the museum.  Yep, that's right, I got to go to an exhibition opening, I am awesome.  And I got to bring a guest - my former London study abroad classmate, Lynn!  Back in London, Lynn and I were museum buddies, always up for a trip to some exhibition in our off time.  And she is in the city for the weekend so I invited her along.  We both found the Lee Ufan exhibition to be...interesting but we were just as excited to simply be at such an event and to people watch and play fashion critic.  Yes, our night boiled down to, "I bet that suit was ridiculously expensive...That dress is just a tad too tight for her...Check out the guy in the flannel...."  And that, dear reader, was my day.  A rather long one, as inferred from the sheer number of photos included in this post and today's mileage (see below).  So I leave you tonight with a neat-o vertical panorama of the Guggenheim that I created before promptly passing out:

Today's mileage: 5.84 mi

More archiving

Just as the blog title indicates, I was doing more archiving today!  Apparently I was so awesome yesterday that my services were requested again today.  They were especially glad that I was catching a lot of mistakes - whether it was missing folders, extra folders, out of order folders, you name it, I was all over that mess.  I also acted as a bit of a sounding board to one of the archivists concerning one of the findings in the archive.  As part of the archival project, the Guggenheim has been keeping a blog of findings that the archivists, well, find.  These are various interesting discoveries that the archivists have come across and make digitally available to the public along with a bit of background information.  I'm not sure if the finding that we discussed today actually made the cut for the blog or not, but it was interesting nonetheless to be a teeny bit involved in the process.

So tomorrow, I am going to the Members' Opening Party and Private Viewing: Lee Ufan at the museum.  This is the opening of the new exhibition that the Guggenheim is hosting and as staff, I get to attend and bring one guest.  Stay tuned to find out who my +1 is!

Today's mileage: 2.77 mi

New skill: archiving!

I got to learn a bit more about archiving today.  The Guggenheim is currently working to complete the archival of a collection of materials from the Hilla von Rebay Foundation, made possible by a grant from the Foundation.  Hilla von Rebay was the first director of the Guggenheim making her a rather important figure in the history of the museum.  In addition to the archive, the Guggenheim library houses Rebay's personal library.  If you are interested in learning more about the collection, the list of folders is available here along with links to a large portion of digitized items.

But what was I actually doing today?  Ah yes, I had the oh so glamorous task of numbering folders.  Now, you may be thinking that that must be some technical term for a complex task which would require a great deal of training; nope.  It's exactly was it sounds like - I was literally writing numbers on folders pretty much all day long.  The fact of the matter is that the reason why materials get archived or cataloged is so that they will be accessible at a later date.  Thus, finding aids, like the one linked to above, are created which point to the exact box and folder in which an item should be.  And in order to create said finding aid, someone must verify the folders in the boxes, number them, and condense that information into a single document.  And that's exactly what I was doing today.

I've got some pretty cool stuff coming up, you guys.  Just letting you know - you may want to break out the popcorn soon.

Today's mileage: 3.24 mi

Researching jobs

So as I mentioned in an earlier post, I've been scoping out the library job market again and it's pretty overwhelming.  Especially since soon I will actually be qualified for those that require an MLIS.  Job hunting is not fun.  I am working on mentally preparing myself for potential applications and interviews.  I'm also trying to think about where I might like to work.  This is about the longest I have ever been away from Gainesville and I must say, I miss it (by the way, creating that link was probably a terrible idea; I paged through the Wikipedia article and got a massive pang of homesickness).  Though I'm not sure if this is like a hump that I have to get over and then I will be totally fine being away from home, or if I am actually meant to stay there, or someplace near at least.  Or maybe just not New York City.  I mean, New York is great and all, but let's face it, it's not meant for everyone.  Maybe it'll grow on me.  We'll see.

Today's mileage: 2.92 mi

I got a poster! I got a poster!

Check out this awesome poster that I got today.  For free.  Yep, I'm awesome.  Naw, but seriously, as a way of showing all of us interns how to fill out this materials request form, they told us to pick a poster from the Guggenheim store as the material to request and we would get it if we sent the form in properly.  I succeeded at following directions!

In other news, Out of Print is now following me on Twitter!  I have not been tweeting like I should lately; I will try harder to keep on top of it.

Today's mileage: 3.14 mi

There is always something going on here

Again today, I left the dorm with not much in mind aside from getting something to eat.  But living in the middle of Manhattan, it's apparently pretty easy to just stumble upon random events.  After having a delicious Pret sandwich, I meandered about Union Square where I happened upon a gay rights mini-rally.  The event seemed to be held by Marriage Equality New York, rallying support for the the passing of a bill that would allow for anyone, regardless of sexuality or gender alignment to marry.  I'm not big on politics or legal issues, but this is the one major issue that I care about and apparently New York is very close to passing such a bill.  Interestingly enough, this is happening almost in the thick of the 2011 Gay Pride celebrations.  It would be pretty amazing for New York to legally acknowledge marriage equality while I'm here - it would certainly be a very memorable event.

Today's mileage: 1.60 mi

All work and no play makes Katy a dull girl

First of all, let me apologize for my belated posting.  I have a good excuse, really.  I went to an impromptu concert last night and didn't get home til late.  What?  I'm allowed to have fun from time to time!  Better late than never, right?

Let me start at the beginning of yesterday...  I didn't really have any plans...or food...so I decided to meander down Broadway to shop a bit and find some lunch.  A few blocks down, I stumbled upon a festival with vendors set up all down Waverly Place.  This was apparently the Clearview Festival.  Whatever, it gave me something to do and they had funnel cake.  Now, I have learned that when you get a chance to get funnel cake, you get funnel cake because you never know when the next opportunity will pop up for you to enjoy funnel cake.  Just a little bit of wisdom for you to take away from this blog post.

Strolling along, I got a phone call from my dear friend Gina asking if I would like to go to a Dispatch concert that night.  Who?  A band, I had never heard of them before but the ticket was free, it was cheaper than a regular subway ride to get out to New Jersey where the show was, they seemed alright when I YouTube'd some of their music, and hey, what else was I going to do that night?  So I went along and had quite a good time.  I even felt like I got a bit of a shout out when the band talked about their partnership with BetterWorldBooks to get fans to bring books to the concert to donate and help restock libraries.  Also, there was a really great encore - each member of the band ziplined onto the stage.  Luckily enough for you, dear reader, I got it all on video.  Anyway, I enjoyed the show and had fun.

 

Today's mileage: 4.18 mi

So. Much. Walking.

Oh my goodness.  So today, our museum culture seminar took us to AW Asia and the Rubin Museum.  Sounds good right?  Yeah, well first I had to get there.  AW Asia is 2 miles (ok, so technically it's only 1.8 miles, but I'm going for drama here, alright?) northwest of my dorm.  Most of the subways run north-south.  So I ended up walking there.  I mean, it's not a big deal, but I wasn't psyched about it.  Ok, let's face it, I miss my car, Henry.  Anyway, enough of my complaining, I will get to the good stuff...

First we visited AW Asia which, as the director explained to us, is not a gallery...though there is art on the walls and such.  They promote the acceptance and advancement of contemporary Chinese art.  There are a lot of political issues surrounding Chinese contemporary art and currently at the forefront of these controversies is artist Ai Weiwei (pronounced Eye Way-way).  As it so happens, Ai Weiwei currently has a public art exhibition in New York City: Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads.  The director of AW Asia was very insistent about us going to see the art before it is taken down next month.  I will probably go sometime soon.

We then headed over to the Rubin.  Now this place was more my style.  The Rubin Museum is dedicated to displaying the art of the Himalayas (which, as our tour guide informed us, is actually pronounced Him-awl-yaas).  Thus, it was primarily Buddhist and Hindu art, and you know how I love it when you mix art and religion.  What is interesting about this art, especially Buddhist art, is that it is often meant to be seen by only those who had come so far in their practice of Buddhism.  This made me think of an article I included in a paper I wrote last semester about religious information seeking.  The article, "Some Remarks on Information and Religion", discusses the way religious information has changed and that information that was once privy only to those serious about and had reached a certain point in their religious training is now available to the masses - something that is even more true now with the access to knowledge that the internet lends (the article was written in 1989).  At one point, our Rubin tour guide took us into an exhibit of the museum and told us that we shouldn't really be seeing this, that these murals were not meant for our eyes but for those of high rank in the Buddhist community.  He said that a few years ago, a man went in and secretly photographed all of the murals and the Rubin made the high-quality facsimiles upon which we were gazing.  I found this to be terribly disrespectful (don't worry, it gets better).  Not only that this man had gone in and taken photographs of sacred art which he was not supposed to do, but also that the Rubin, a seemingly upstanding museum which otherwise appears to have a great respect and reverence for this art, would display it (and specifically prohibit the photography of, which seemed quite hypocritical).  Thus, my friend and I took it up with one of the other museum employees that we met and she assured us that that one guy did actually have permission to photograph the art and that it is very different for people like us (read: not Buddhists) to see the art than it is for it to be revealed to a practicing Buddhist.  We were greatly relieved to hear this.  Apparently, our tour guide was trying to make the exhibit a bit more interesting but I was actually a bit upset about the seemingly insensitive nature of it.  In any case, I hope to go back to the Rubin soon to see all of it at my own pace...and when I haven't already walked 3 miles.

Today's mileage: 5.80 mi

Same old, same old

More good ol' cataloging today at the Guggenheim library.  Nothing terribly exciting, though after having worked in the public library for 7 years, a lack of excitement can be a good thing.  Trust me.  And speaking of working in various libraries, I've decided that I should probably begin looking for a real job for when I'm done with my internship and have my MLIS at the end of the summer.  Hopefully, I will be able to go back to my UF job in August but, you know, at some point, I should really go for something that requires a Master's, what with the fact that I will have spent 2 years and around $20,000 on it.  In the past few days, I've begun scoping out Florida Library Jobs, ALA JobLIST, LibGig, and LISJobs.  If anyone hears of anything awesome and perfect for me, let me know.  If it works out, I will bake you the delicious baked good of your choice.  And you know I will, too.

Today's mileage: 3.11 mi

An evening at Sotheby's

Tonight, I went to this program/reception put on by Sotheby's Institute of Art.  The institute is indeed linked to Sotheby's auction house, in case you were curious - the auction house created the institute as a way to fill in the educational gaps of their employees as well as other interested in the art business.  Anyway, the speaker was Eric Shiner, the curator and director of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.  He began by telling us about his varied background in the art world and then went on to talk more about Andy Warhol and his museum and foundation.  I hadn't paid much attention to Andy Warhol prior to tonight, but this program has sparked my interest a bit in both his work and the man himself.  I don't mean that I now love every piece of work he's done, but simply that I will probably read the Wikipedia article on him in the coming days and pay attention if I see an article that references him or something.  And I would like to visit the museum but Pittsburgh is kinda far, so maybe not.  Anyway, it made for an interesting night.

Today's mileage: 1.98 mi

Journal Entry #2

Today was an odd mix of really normal and quite stressful.  Began the day with a bit of a banking crisis (do not fret, dear reader, my banking woes appear to have ended...for now at least), did a little bit of cataloging, and went out for a tad bit of shopping in Soho (Today's lesson, by the way, is that Old Navy is always the answer.).  Oh and you remember how last week, there was a heat advisory here?  Today was like a mild winter day in Florida.  The rain didn't help either and indeed made me miss my car, Henry.  But I must clarify: I am NOT complaining.  I will take this weather all summer long over the miserable heat and humidity. 

But this is not why you have come here today, for this blog was originally intended to follow my internship experiences.  Tomorrow my second journal entry is due for my internship class (through FSU) and I will share that with you now (if you have been following my blog, you have probably already read most of it):

I have finally begun my internship and through I have not even been working two weeks, I have already learned a lot.  At the orientation for Guggenheim interns, we were introduced to the various policies and procedures as they related to us.  We were also briefed on the upcoming events and programs that were both scheduled specifically for interns as well as those of the museum in general.  Orientation was slightly overwhelming, as most are, in part because my internship is far more related to library work than museum happenings.  I did learn, however, that in addition to the museum culture seminars for interns, we can also use our Guggenheim ID to gain access to any museum in the city - and many nationwide, as well - for free.  We can also attend many of the Guggenheim events and exhibits for free.  This is very exciting, especially in New York City where there are so many great museums to see.  I have already seen the stillspotting (brooklyn) nyc and The Hugo Boss Prize 2010:Hans-Peter Feldmann, both Guggenheim exhibitions, as part of the museum culture seminars.  In addition, many of my co-interns and I went to see the Alexander McQueen exhibition at TheMetropolitan Museum of Art together.

Once I got to the Guggenheim library, I felt much more at home.  The library is very small but it seems to serve its purpose quite well: provide library materials and services for the Guggenheim staff and (sometimes) outside researchers.  My primary duty here looks like it will be cataloging the backlog of materials in the basement as well as maintaining the daily goings-on of the library (circulation, shelving, etc.).  I have never done any cataloging myself before so that has been a new experience.  I am learning more about MARC as well as the software programs that the library uses (BookWhere, MARC notepad, and Koha).  Another project that I may be taking on soon is the de-duplication of the library.  The shelves are very tight and will only get tighter as we catalog more of the backlog of items, thus a weeding project is needed and the most obvious first step is to weed the duplicate copies of items (for complete withdraw or move to an off-site location).  Interestingly enough, de-duplication was my exact job for the four and a half months that I was working at University of Florida before I came here.  I am quite familiar with de-duplication procedures as well as US copyright laws and digital library databases, should the Guggenheim library like to link to an online copy of their materials in order to make more space.  Indeed, I mentioned this and the fact that if the items in the small rare books collection were digitized, this could cut down on circulation and improve preservation.  My supervisor had not even considered that as an option and seemed to like the idea very much. 

I am in a unique position in my internship as many of the interns - and staff - go through me to access and check out library materials.  It makes me feel important.  In fact, there is an upcoming museum culture seminar dedicated to introducing the interns to the library.  It also gives me a chance to meet more of the interns and staff than I would otherwise be able to, especially those who frequent the library for research. 

In addition to my directly internship-related experience, I am also getting adjusted to life in New York City.  I have been keeping a log of how many miles I walk everyday (usually at least two miles).  Indeed, just to go to work, I walk a mile there and another mile home.  I am continuing to blog about both my internship and my experience in New York and plan to do so throughout the summer.

Today's mileage: 3.12 mi

Monday, that's all

I finally got a chance to see Gina today!  We went and had some tasty falafel for dinner.  And I got a package from home!  Today was just full of wonderful surprises.

Today's mileage: 3.31

Lazy Sunday

Yup, I mostly did a whole lotta nothin' today.  Did laundry, went out for a bit of shopping, and went to the gym.  I still racked up almost two miles - not bad.

Today's mileage: 1.96 mi

Museum field trips, continued.

After sleeping in rather late and trip to one of our new favorite eateries, Eva's Restaurant, my roommates and I stumbled upon Festival of India in Washington Square Park.  It turned out to be primarily Hare Krishnas but I was just fine with that - as you may or may not know, I actually did a whole project on them my senior year of undergrad.  We then journeyed through the blustery mist that was today's weather (don't get me wrong, I am not complaining) to the Museum of Sex.  Unfortunately, we found upon arrival that my Guggenheim ID would not allow us free admission, though we did get a discount.  The museum was quite interesting to say the least.  One of the exhibitions was The Sex Lives of Animals with feature familiar to any librarian with an interest in banned books:

Click on image to see larger and read the text

And Tango Makes Three!  I was so excited to see this was included in the exhibit.

I finished the day off with a trip to another new favorite dining locale of mine, Space Market (Oh my goodness, and they deliver?!  I did not realize this until creating this link!) which sounds a little out there but is really just an awesome grocery store/deli.

Today's mileage: 4.26 mi

Museum field trip Friday!

Today was action packed!  This morning a lot of us Guggenheim interns met up at The Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit, Savage Beauty.  It was a really great show and I recommend it to anyone halfway interested in it.  The exhibit was full of great and interesting fashion and the atmosphere went along perfectly with pieces: a mix of creepy and novel.  The fashion aspect reminded me of the Grace Kelly fashion exhibit I went to see last summer at the Victoria & Albert Museum with Lynn.  

After the Alexander McQueen experience, I set off with Genevieve to find one of my favorite paintings, Madame X by John Singer Sargent, which happens to be held at The Met.  So we trek off in the direction of the American Wing of the museum only to be informed that the object of my journey is, in fact, under renovations and closed until July 22nd.  Fortunately, I will still be here then but that means I will have to wait all summer to see it!  It's a tough life, you guys.  So we settled for a trip up to the rooftop for a lovely panoramic view of the skyline:

Genevieve and I ended up leaving the museum a bit early since we were in such an Alexander McQueen state of mind and couldn't really appreciate the rest of the art.  So, we got some lunch and sat in Central Park to enjoy the weather and people watching.

Eventually, it came time for me to mosey on over to the Guggenheim for our first proper Museum Culture Seminar.  We met a few of the gallery guides who are part security, part educators for the museum.  The informed us about the gallery guide program, the Frank Lloyd Wright building, and some of the exhibits.  In particular, we saw and learned about the Guggenheim's current feature exhibition The Hugo Boss Prize 2010: Hans-Peter Feldmann which is basically a room with 100,000 one-dollar bills nailed to the walls in a uniform, full-coverage fashion.  This is a one-time exhibit, it will never be seen again after it is taken down later this year so if you want to see it, let me know.  Also, the money is all real and will go back into circulation after it is taken down in November so should you happen to come across a dollar bill after that with a small nail-hole in it at one end, take note: you are in possession of fine art.  (Ok, whatever, but I plan on taking a photo of it if I get one.)

Today's mileage:  2.77 mi

Heat advisory: Day 2

Yeah, today was hotter, but certainly bearable.  And then it rained and cooled off a bit.  I'm a little worried that I am going to jinx myself being all, "Oh, this is what you call hot, you guys?  This is nothing!"  Fingers crossed that that doesn't happen.

The image to the right is a bit of graffiti (maybe?) that I see everyday on my way to work and thought I would share.  I thought it apropos as it is in the style of Andy Warhol's famed piece and I'm interning at a modern art museum and all.  And I <3 Colbert. 

Nothing too terribly exciting today, just more cataloging and re-creating wishlists for the library that were lost in some Amazon transition.  Tomorrow should be exciting, though.  A bunch of us interns are meeting up at the Met in the morning to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit before our Guggenheim engagement at 3pm.  More on that tomorrow - stay tuned!

Today's mileage: 2.42 mi

Heat advisory: Day 1

Yesterday we received a heat advisory for today and tomorrow.  Ok, I don't want to jinx it or anything, but it wasn't that bad.  I think it was mostly the lack of intense humidity.  Tomorrow is supposed to be hotter which will not be fun, to be sure, but fortunately, there is a/c at work so I will be out of the heat for the hottest part of the day.  Right?  Fingers crossed.

Total mileage: 2.20 mi

Cataloging up a storm

Here's a look at the Guggenheim Library!  It is quite tiny.  This photo shows pretty much the whole thing.  My desk is on the left-hand side, just out of the frame (you can kinda see the top of my chair at the bottom of the picture).  As you can see, there is movable shelving to maximize shelving space, though the shelves are pretty tight as is - hence the potential de-duplication project in the works.  Yup, that's the library.

When I came in to work this morning, I found out that it was Becky's birthday and I got invited out to lunch with the rest of the library and archives department (all 5 of us, me included).  We went to Spunto Pizza, where I had what I presume to be real New York pizza or something close to it.  It was quite tasty.

Later in the afternoon, we got heat advisory emails at work for the next couple of days.  Yeah, I'm not looking forward to that.  Air conditioned 17th floor penthouse study room, here I come!

Total mileage: 2.72 mi

First day!

Sooo, today was my first day working in the Guggenheim library!  When we had our orientation on Thursday, a lot of it was geared toward museum stuff (understandable) but I was a bit out of my element since libraries are really my thing (not that museums are not my thing, I am just far more on top of the library scene).  But today I got to be in the library, where I am comfortable.  I learned the circulation functions and shelved some items.  The shelves are very tight and it is quite a small library so my supervisor, Becky, was explaining that she was thinking the collection needed to be weeded a bit, primarily through de-duplication.  I know what you're thinking, "De-duplication...that sounds familiar...Katy, weren't you just doing that at UF?"  Why how very astute of you to remember, dear reader.  I have indeed been de-duplicating UF's Auxiliary Library Facility for the past four and a half months, an experience that I believe will be put to good use in the coming weeks at the Guggenheim.  I was able to show off all my relatively new copyright knowledge and awareness of the wonders that are the digital collections of Internet Archive and HathiTrust (said knowledge made possible by the lovely staff of ALF, especially Team De-dup!).  But that is not all I will be doing.  There is also a large backlog of items that need to be cataloged that I was just learning to do this afternoon.  There will be much learning to be had this summer, it will be quite an adventure!

Today's mileage: 3.01 mi

Adventures in Brooklyn

Genevieve and I decided to go to the Williamsburg Flea Market in Brooklyn today so we ventured out to hop onto the L train to our destination.  But as it so happens, the L train was our of service this weekend so we had to scramble to find another way to the flea market.  We did indeed find another train though it was more out of the way than our original plan.  In any case, we arrived at the location of the flea market only to be met with about two tables set up with stuff and half a dozen people milling about.  Not exactly what we were expecting.  So we carried on our merry way to find a place for lunch.  We stumbled upon a lovely cafe, New York Muffins where I had the chicken and brie (!!) sandwich and a very tasty iced caramel latte.  Following lunch, Genevieve wanted to find this one thrift store, Beacon's Closet on 11th Street, so toward 11th Street we headed.  We passed a great little yarn shop, The Yarn Tree which had Malabrigo yarn and made me think of Meaghan as I know this is her favorite.  As we got further south, more and more of the population seemed to be Orthodox Jews which we later discovered to be Borough Park, "home to one of the largest Orthodox Jewish communities outside of Israel."  But whatever, we had reached south 11th Street so I asked Genevieve for the address of the thrift store again.  "88 North 11th Street."  "North 11th Street?  We're on South 11th Street!"  So we turned around to head in the right direction and burn off some more of our lunch (see today's rather high mileage to get an idea of how much we walked).  This took us out of the Jewish part of town and into hipster-land.  Alas, we finally made it to the thrift store and shopped for a bit before heading home.  It was quite a journey we had today and I will hopefully sleep quite well tonight as tomorrow is my first day interning in the Guggenheim Library & Archives!

Today's mileage: 5.22 mi

The calm before the storm

I had a rather lazy day today, relaxing a bit before beginning my internship on Monday.  This morning Grace and I went to Dunkin' Donuts for brunch (classy, huh?).  Apparently Dunkin' Donuts is the only place open on the weekend where we can use our meal plan.  And apparently everyone on campus knows this as it was packed earlier today.  And the employees were yelling at us.  Yes, I now understand what people are talking about when they say New Yorkers are rude.  It seems that all of the employees here are completely uninterested in the customer.  This does not inspire much confidence when it comes to exploring new places around the city.

But I digress...  Grace and I took our mediocre, so-not-worth-the-amount-of-money-we-paid brunch and to Union Square to chat and people watch.  We were there long enough that it came time for lunch so we headed up to Pret A Manger for a tasty sandwich.  So, I kinda love Pret.  They are all over London and when I found out that I got this internship, one of my first thoughts was that I would be able to go to Pret again - they are only in big cities.  It's just a sandwich shop, but I love it.  Maybe it's that I can just go up, grab a tasty sandwich, and get out without feeling judged or pressured to get something fancy.  Who knows?  All I know is that it is delicious.  After that, we strolled through the Union Square Greenmarket and then sat to ponder the facade of a building just south of Union Square:

 

Upon further investigation, I found that it is an art piece called Metronome.  Now you know.

For dinner, Genevieve and I opted to wander around St. Mark's for a tasty looking place.  While stopping to check out the menu for this one Thai restaurant, a guy on the street came up from behind to inform us that their Thai food was terrible.  We said that we kinda wanted Indian, did he know of a good place?  "Well, all the Indian restaurants are on 6th, as you know, being from around here" and proceeded to give me a look which turned into a bit of a mini staring contest of wills.  Yes, sir, clearly I am not a New Yorker with my boot-cut (read: not skinny) jeans, t-shirt, cardigan, and sneakers, you do not need to be a jerk about pointing out this fact.  Again, a reinforcement of the rude New Yorker stereotype.  But, as much as I hate to admit it, he did in fact recommend a good Indian restaurant, Spice Cove.  My dish was tasty but too spicy for my liking - however, I was very proud of myself that I was able to eat almost the whole thing.

Today's mileage: 2.27 mi

stillspotting (brooklyn) nyc

So I may not be getting paid for this internship but that doesn't mean it is without its benefits.  For example, we get to go to exhibitions and such put on by the museum for free.  Today we went to the stillspotting nyc exhibition in Brooklyn.  Honestly, I didn't really know what to expect nor did I really understand the whole thing.  It is certainly not an art exhibition in the classic sense of the term.  It was more interactive - any by "more" I mean completely.  Basically, we all went through and did a couple of activities and kind of meditated at the end.  Yeah, I'm still coming around to this new-fangled idea of the modern art exhibition.  And I'm not a big activity person.  But, as I said, it was free and worth seeing/doing.

Celebrity sighting: Sam Waterston sat at the table next to us at B Bar and Grill.

Today's mileage: 2.47 mi

Guggenheim orientation

I went to the Guggenheim today!  Well, sort of.  We had orientation but I didn't really see the museum.  I met a lot of the interns and everyone seems really nice.  We all got copies of Guggenheim Museum Collection A to Z (we actually got the 2009 paperback edition) which is pretty awesome.  And we were informed that our Guggenheim IDs will get us free admission to any museum in the city as well as others nationwide.  And I can get people into the Guggenheim for free as well.  So should anyone be visiting the city this summer and like to go to the Guggenheim, just let me know - I've got the hook-up.  Also, they are having us do this mock materials request form to familiarize us with it and as incentive, we get a free poster from the gift shop - I'm thinking of choosing this one.

I will be starting my internship in the Library & Archives department on Monday.

Today's mileage: 3.74 mi

Day 2

I had lunch with Elana today!  As you may or may not know, I met Elana last summer when I studied abroad in London.  She taught me to use the underground which has made me far less terrified of the NYC subway.  Anyway, we met at Madison Square Park and had lunch at Pax Wholesome Foods.  We also stopped in at Strand Bookstore, apparently a rather famous shop.  Also, I may have passed Chris Baio, the bassist for my favorite band of the moment, Vampire Weekend when I was walking through Union Square.

Oh and check this out: I was hanging out in my dorm and heard the familiar chanting of Hare Krishnas from the street below.  It reminded me of home :)

I've decided to begin logging my daily walking distance - today's distance: 3.83 miles. (Thanks to MapMyRUN)