Library Digitization Undergraduate Intern Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Listed on 2026-07-18
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Education / Teaching
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Creative Arts/Media
Summary
The William Morris Hunt Memorial Library is the central research library of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston with a wide-ranging collection of over 250,000 items. The Library’s primary mission is to fulfill museum staff research needs for acquisitions, provenance, exhibitions, object records, and more by strategically managing and providing access to the collection. While the Library’s primary audience is the museum staff, it also extends its service and access to the general public, scholarly community, and museum colleagues seeking art research resources.
The Library is seeking an advanced undergraduate intern to work on digitizing rare library materials as part of the Library’s larger goal to create more open, digital, and equitable access to the Library’s collection. This intern will report to the Library Associate, Resource Sharing and Information Discovery. As their primary project, the intern will work to identify, process, prepare, scan, and upload rare and unique ephemera related to BIPOC and underrepresented artists and art mediums.
As secondary projects, the intern will also explore enhancing access to the collection through digitizing institutional publications and creating signage for the physical collections.
The internship will provide experience in the full lifecycle of a digitization project. The intern will create a theme for their digitization project, identify materials that also fit the broader criteria of the project, and execute the project including metadata management and scanning. This naturally includes opportunities to interact with broader art and museum library practices. Furthermore, the intern will have the opportunity to engage with critical thinking about the place of digital and digitization projects in the wider conversations currently happening in the (art) library and digital communities.
The ideal candidates must be able to work onsite 15 hours per week with shifts of a minimum of 4 hours, between 8:30am-4pm Monday-Thursday September 11, through December 11, and attend the undergraduate Museum Pathways & Practices professional development course from 12:30-2:30pm on the following Fridays:
Sept 18, Sept 25, Oct 2, Oct 9, Oct 16, Oct 23, Oct 30, Nov 6, Nov 13, Nov 20, and Dec 4.
Compensation: $16.80/hour + $90/month transportation subsidy
Term: September 11–December 11, 2026
Schedule: 20 hours per week
Eligibility
Qualifications:
- Enrolled in an undergraduate program, concurrent with internship period, as a junior or senior.
- Demonstrated interest in pursuing museum, library, or digital humanities career.
- Strong curiosity in promoting underrepresented artists.
- Excellent organizational skills, attention to detail, and analytic thinking.
- Strong communication skills while working in a collaborative team and independently.
- Proven ability to follow standardized practices in the field; familiarity with basic library resource organization is preferred.
- Physical abilities to handle heavy loads of books such as lifting up to 20 lbs. and pushing/pulling full carts. This also includes the ability to reach, bend, and climb on ladders.
- Ability to work onsite 15 hours per week, with shifts of a minimum of 4 hours, between 8:30am-4pm Monday-Thursday September 11, through December 11, and attend the undergraduate Museum Pathways & Practices professional development course from 12:30-2:30pm on the following Fridays:
Sept 18, Sept 25, Oct 2, Oct 9, Oct 16, Oct 23, Oct 30, Nov 6, Nov 13, Nov 20, and Dec 4. - Ability to attend orientation on Fri, Jan 23, 2026, 10am to 3:30pm.
Founded in 1870, the Museum of Fine Arts houses and preserves preeminent collections and aspires to serve a wide variety of people through direct encounters with works of art.
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