{"id":2977,"date":"2018-04-20T18:26:19","date_gmt":"2018-04-20T18:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/?p=2977"},"modified":"2023-07-10T15:09:45","modified_gmt":"2023-07-10T22:09:45","slug":"hands-engagement-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/2018\/04\/20\/hands-engagement-past\/","title":{"rendered":"Hands-on Engagement with the Past"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his role as a student archivist in the Special Collections & Archives Research Center at Oregon State, senior Ethan Heusser digs through the millions of items in the extensive collection to find materials for patrons doing research.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>He has explored diverse artifacts, such as the papers of former Oregon State faculty member and poet, Roger Weaver, and Linus Pauling, a scientist and winner of two Nobel prizes, who studied at Oregon State as an undergraduate (when it was Oregon Agricultural College). For one project, Heusser studied the collection of Paul Persiani, a nuclear scientist who worked on the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union. The papers consisted of letters Persiani sent home to his wife.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe offers a behind-the-curtain look: \u2018I talked to the Russian ambassador today,\u2019 or, \u2018The Russian subdelegates don\u2019t know if they\u2019ll be able to find food at home.\u2019 It shows the human interest side, humanizes people across the table, which today, more than ever, is important,\u201d Heusser says.<\/p>\n

He summarized and wrote about the papers for the SCARC online database. \u201cWhen people come to find this resource, they\u2019ll find it through the lens I created.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heusser has written about the Pauling papers and other materials on the SCARC blog and social media, assists with faculty-assigned projects and helps patrons looking for resources. \u201cThis experience has been really valuable because there aren\u2019t many positions within the humanities,\u201d Heusser \u2013 an English major \u2013 says. \u201cI\u2019m interested in how traditional humanities scholarship has changed now that we have computers, how we can use algorithmic analyses of texts and how we store massive amounts of information so it\u2019s serviceable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Heusser initially connected with the position, which is cofunded by SCARC and the Honors College, through his honors coursework. He met Anne Bahde, a librarian in SCARC, when she taught an honors course on the history of the book during his first year, and then again when she spoke to one of his other classes on the subject of digital humanities. Ultimately, he worked with Bahde as a digital humanities intern in SCARC. \u201cThe Honors College allowed me to build that relationship,\u201d Heusser says.<\/p>\n

The student archivist position is one particularly designated for honors students, and it offers students a valuable immersion in the actual workings of a library that is customizable to each student\u2019s interests. \u201cI have a literature and arts focus, but someone who comes into the position next year, if they\u2019re a history of science nerd, could do a project with 1800s journals.\u201d<\/p>\n

HC Director of Student Success and Engagement LeeAnn Baker , says Heusser\u2019s position is a good example of how the Honors College strives to support students in gaining career experience. \u201cWe try to find students something in the realm they\u2019re passionate about and support them in gaining transferrable skills.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Heusser, doing work he is excited about is the best part of his position as student archivist. \u201cLearning is part of the job. I truly do discover more every day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his role as a student archivist in the Special Collections & Archives Research Center at Oregon State, senior Ethan Heusser digs through the millions of items in the extensive collection to find materials for patrons doing research. He has explored diverse artifacts, such as the papers of former Oregon State faculty member and poet, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8345,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1205,82,1306,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories","category-features","category-student","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8345"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2977"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8893,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2977\/revisions\/8893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}