The Cost of Entry: Internships in Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums Education

Abstract

Internships are widespread in GLAM and have become the cost of entry to the field for many students and early career professionals. This paper reports on preliminary findings from a content analysis of internship related information on the websites’ of 178 graduate-level GLAM education programs in the U.S. and Canada. We contextualize the study in relation to the available literature on internships, and recent professional discussions. We discuss the implications our findings that: (A) there is a high prevalence of internships in the field; (B) there are significant differences in internship practices by GLAM discipline and by specialization, focus, certificate, or other master’s degree enhancement; (C) the wide variances in internship practices by geographic region, setting, and institution type; and (D) the diversity of internship requirements and structures within these professional education programs. We address the implications of internships for diversity and inclusion throughout our analysis.

Publication
Sustainable Digital Communities