To round out American Archives Month, we’d like to focus on the future archivists and other student interns working here at the Clements Library. We’re excited to welcome both new and familiar faces back to the library this year! Our students hail from multiple colleges at UM, are studying a variety of majors, and all bring unique talents to the Clements. Read on to learn more about them and the work they do at the Clements.
NAOMI YU (she/her)
Naomi works as a Graduate Assistant Cataloger at the Clements. Her duties include cataloging newly acquired books in the library and creating call slips for processed books. As a School of Information LAKES (Libraries, Archives, and Knowledge Environments in Society) student, Naomi knew she wanted to work in an archival or library setting, and working at the Clements has given her that environment, as well as the opportunity to work with old, rare books. One of Naomi’s favorite aspects of working at the Clements is the Tea Times with researchers, where Clements employees and visiting researchers gather to discuss the researchers’ work. She enjoys getting to hear about work being done in the field.
Naomi originally attended Washington University in St. Louis, where she received her BFA in art with a minor in art history and worked in the Kranzberg Art & Architecture Library. That work helped her discover she loved being around books and that she wanted to work on the academic side of art and work with knowledge institutions. Now, here at the Clements, she’s learning how a rare books library functions and about the life cycle of a book in a knowledge institution such as the Clements.
- Fun fact: Naomi likes to knit and paint. She recently finished knitting her first sweater!
Ellie Franklin (she/her)
Ellie is a Conservation Student Assistant at the Clements Library. She works in conjunction with Julie Fremuth, our conservationist, to ensure the library’s materials are preserved for future use. Ellie previously worked in conservation while pursuing a degree in Social Relations and Policy at Michigan State University, and she applies the skills she learned there to construct book boxes to protect materials at the Clements. Ellie is currently a LAKES student at the School of Information. She is currently exploring different types of librarianship to see what she’d like to do after graduation. For her, working at the Clements has taught her a completely different aspect of librarianship from her previous jobs, specifically archivism and working with rare materials.
- Fun fact: Ellie loves cozy British murder mystery anything, including books and movies.
Theresa Azemar (she/they)
Theresa works in the reference division as a supervisor in our Avenir Reading Room. She welcomes researchers to the Clements, checks out requested collection items, ensures proper handling, and answers questions. She also works in the manuscripts department organizing records from Singer Manufacturing Company in the mid-19th century.
She is currently an MSI student on the LAKES track. Theresa was drawn to the archives because of her love of history; in fact, she studied English and American studies at Notre Dame in her undergraduate education. At Michigan, she wanted a job that paired well with her interest in American history, and she found that at the Clements. Since working at Clements, she’s realized how vast knowledge environment careers can be and wants to continue to support researchers.
- Fun fact: Theresa can say the alphabet forward and backward in 6 seconds!
Diana Baxter (she/her)
Hailing from Hoboken, New Jersey and now living in Northport, Michigan, Diana is a Library Assistant in the Manuscripts Division of the Clements. Her work so far has included organizing and arranging a collection of correspondence to and from an early 20th-century woman named Pansy E. Wady. This includes unfolding letters, sorting them chronologically, and filing them.
After studying history at Colgate University in New York and working as an archival intern at the Leelanau Historical Society, Diana’s love of history inspired her to want to work with primary source materials in the form of archivism. In her own words, she caught the “archive bug” in her senior year of college and wanted to be part of the process of facilitating research. As a result of these experiences, Diana is now a master’s student at the School of Information on the LAKES track. She hopes to work in a museum after graduation, doing both archival work & research and development of exhibits.
- Fun fact: While working at the Leelanau Historical Society, she worked on a historical timeline to guide a film that the society was producing. The documentary went on to win the State History Award awarded by the Historical Society of Michigan in the media category.
Cameron Robertson (she/her)
Cameron is a Master’s student at the School of Information on the Managing and Sustaining Collections track and a recipient of the Joyce Bonk Assistantship, which provides an assistantship to students with interests in archivism, digital preservation of materials, or special collections. Here at the Clements, she digitizes the Thomas Gage papers and focuses specifically on the warrants found within the collection. She’s also worked on the Picturing Michigan’s Past Post Card project. Cameron’s work before coming to the Clements included working as a Curatorial Assistant at the Huntington Museum in her hometown of Los Angeles. She frequently heard discussions of digitization of the collection materials and was interested in exploring that further. She attended the University of Chicago and studied History with a minor in Russian and Eastern European Studies. After graduation, she plans to move back to LA and work in a museum or an entertainment industry archive.
- Fun fact: Cameron was a fencer from 8th to 11th grade.
Annika Dekker (She/Her)
Annika works in the graphics department as a Historic Visual Culture Graduate Assistant, processing collections and creating finding aids to make them available to researchers. Occasionally, she also assists Maggie Vanderford, our librarian for instruction and engagement, with teaching undergraduate students how to use primary source materials. Annika studied history and theater and Hope College and is now on the Managing and Sustaining Collections track at UMSI. When coming to the University of Michigan, she was seeking a library job on campus and initially came to the Clements through grants from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation and the Frederick S. Upton Foundation. She is now conducting similar work as the Pohrt-Walters Visual Culture Intern.
Annika would like to continue working in academic archives going forward. She appreciates the feeling of being surrounded by students coming in for classes, visiting researchers, and the other student interns here at the Clements. She was unsure if graphics was the right department for her initially, but has enjoyed developing the skills involved in arranging and describing these types of materials. She appreciates the Clements for setting her up for future success through various opportunities such as speaking at the upcoming Ephemera Society conference and publishing blog posts and finding aids.
- Fun fact: Annika is getting married this June and got her engagement photos taken in our reading room!
Bela Kellogg (she/her)
Bela works as a Library Assistant in the Graphics Division of the Clements. In this role, she researches photo albums stored at the Clements and writes finding aids for them so that collections can be more easily accessed online. She also sorts and organizes materials into sleeves that help to preserve materials.
Bela came to the Clements in an unusual matter. As a senior double-majoring in English and History of Art, she’s writing her thesis on late 19th and early 20th-century women’s periodicals. She reached out to Sierra Laddusaw, our Curator of Maps and Graphics, with an offer to volunteer here because she wanted to see the collections, and now she’s an intern! In the future, Bela wants to work in a cultural institution, and she plans to attend graduate school further down the line.
Fun fact: Bela is a coxswain for the men’s rowing team here at the University of Michigan!
Milo Boatwright (He/They)
Milo works as a Librarian Assistant at the Clements Library. They are responsible for assisting Angela, our Director of Development, with various projects, including processing donor forms, entering and transferring data, and maintaining contact lists. He chose to work at the Clements because he loves libraries and the environment they provide, and also because he’s passionate about history.
Originally from Meridan, Idaho, Milo is a freshman intending to major in astrophysics and mathematics and work as an astrophysicist at a space company. Their work here has introduced them to working in a professional environment and helped them develop critical skills for their future career, such as organizational skills, excel use, and data management.
- Fun fact: Milo is a member of the Michigan Marching Band as an MFlags member. He’s present at every game during the football season!
Anastasiya Ilkiv (she/her)
Anastasiya works as our social media intern. In collaboration with Isaac, our marketing coordinator, she posts on social media, maintains the Clements’ online presence, and sees to it that our events appear in newspaper publications. Anastasiya came to work here after visiting the library for a class and deciding she wanted to work to further the library’s mission.
Anastasiya is a political science and economics major and has an interest in history. Working here has deepened her historical knowledge, especially in the area of historical law. She plans to go to law school after graduating.
- Fun Fact: On a family vacation to Mexico, Anastasiya went swimming with whale sharks.
Madison Lay (she/her)
Maddy works in the Development department as an Outreach Assistant. Her main responsibility is leading our exhibit tours, but she also assists in various administrative tasks and facilitates Clements events. As a business student at Ross with plans to work in the legal or government sector, working at the library has taught her how history affects the present day and has given her both soft and hard skills that will serve her in the future, including public speaking, organizational skills, and data entry. She plans to attend law school after graduating.
- Fun fact: Maddy is a true crime junkie. She especially enjoys listening to the Crime Junkie podcast.
Samantha Huck (she/her)
Sam is a sophomore at LSA studying Sociology and Statistics with a minor in Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences. At the Clements, she works as an Outreach Assistant, writing blog posts (like this one!), assisting with events at the library (such as the Haunted Histories event on October 29), and escorting patrons through the Avenir Reading Room.
Sam came to work at the Clements after interning at the Ypsilanti District Library in high school. There, she worked in the communications department and discovered she loved working to promote libraries and the resources they provide to their communities. Given the rare collections housed here, she’s excited to extoll the unique experiences the Clements offers patrons.
- Fun fact: Sam once spent 14 hours helping her best friend bake a forest-themed birthday cake. The cake took 30 hours total to complete.
James Watke-Stacy (he/him)
Jimmy is an Intern for Instruction and Fellowships at Clements. He works with Maggie, our Librarian for Instruction and Engagement, to set up instruction spaces for classes using materials from the Clements. He also helps manage the fellowships program. James has wanted to work at the Clements since he was a freshman attending a history class held at the Clements. He’s passionate about history and wants to help facilitate the same learning environment he enjoyed as a freshman.
Jimmy is currently a Junior at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy studying public policy. He wants to work in policy making in the future. His role at the Clements is helping him develop research skills and gain soft skills that will be useful in his future endeavors.
- Fun fact: Jimmy collects coins.