Alternative Spring Break 1999
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Alternative Spring Break 1999
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University of Michigan
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Faith Smith, President of NAES
College invited School of Information
graduate students to spend their Spring Break in Chicago working at NAES. For
Spring Break this year 11 SI graduate students, one LS&A undergraduate research
assistant, interns Lija Bentley and Kari Smith along with Professors Maurita
Holland and David Wallace spent the week of March 1 - 5th volunteering their
expertise and energy at the Native American Educational Services (NAES) College
in Chicago, IL. One group of students worked on processing and describing archival
collections; another group worked on evaluating telecommunications and technical
infrastructure at NAES. At the end of the week, the group presented a final
report that included five finding aids, archival, technical and telecommunications
recommendations as well as forms and policies for use in the library and archives.
The SI graduate students who participated are: Emily Betwee, Veronica Bielat,
Johnna Childs, Amy Cooper, Lisa Klopfer, Sheon Montgomery, Sarah Naasko, Kristine
Palmquist, Edwin Staples, Carly Wiggins. Ebony Deas, an LS&A undergraduate
student and UROP research assistant also participated.
Spring Break generally brings up images of sunny,
exotic places like Cancun, Mexico, the Bahamas, and even Florida. But for some
U of M students destinations far less glamorous are chosen. During Spring Break,
the university sponsors a program called Alternative Spring Break where students
volunteer for various sites across the U.S. The goal is to help others who are
less fortunate, and many students find it very rewarding. So this year, a group
of students from the School of Information decided to host their own Alternative
Spring Break. Their destination: Chicago at the campus of the Native American
Educational Services (NAES) College.
NAES
is a fully accredited college that offers a bachelors degree in community studies;
soon they hope that degree will be in public policy. NAES College is aimed at
providing Native American students with a college degree that will allow them
to give back to their own communities. Faith Smith, the president of the College,
said that this new degree is actually "recreating the institution".
The public policy degree will be in effect at all four NAES campuses.
Professor Maurita Holland summed up the expectations
for the work the SI students would accomplish during the week. "[We want]
to be able to provide wise advice and aid to NAES." She specified three
areas that SI students would focus on during the week at NAES. They would look
at the library, archives, and the application of technology at the college.
Professor Holland also felt that this would "provide SI students an interesting
learning experience that is real world based." Another SI professor, David
Wallace said that SI students would provide NAES with "a high level inventory
of the holdings of the archives." The faculty of NAES also had a direction
in mind for the SI students. David Beck, Dean of the Chicago campus, said that
SI students would "provide direction in technology" and said also
that "the archives will be better organized." Harvey Markowitz, who
also works at the D'Arcy McNickle Indian Center in the Newberry Library and
oversees the archives collection at NAES, said that the U of M students would,
"begin working on processing [archives] and technical needs [of NAES]."
The students and faculty at NAES each had their own ideas about the outcome
of this project. An SI student, Amy Cooper, said, "I hope we make these
collections usable to people who want to use them." Fellow student, Carly
Wiggins agreed. 
She said, "We want to get this collection
in order and get it usable to researchers." Harvey Markowitz said that
the students' work would, "lead to a new stage in development in archives
and in the library." Professor Holland stated that SI students would help
to, "ultimately provide broad access to information resources for Native
Americans and others interested in the study of Native Americans." Professor
Holland also stressed the possibility of a "long term relationship"
between the School of Information and NAES college. David Wallace said that
SI students would provide "[an] infrastructure for them [NAES] to build
into the collections." Eli Suzukovich, NAES's library and archives assistant,
said that U of M's SI students would provide, "some type of order and a
more efficient way of keeping [archives]." Lija Bentley, intern/training
coordinator at U of M's School of Information, headed the technology team of
students from SI. They worked on 
the development of hardware and software for
NAES and also on beginning plans for modifying the school's web site. A few
of the goals of the technology team were, "library and technology issues',
and "getting video conferencing [between the four campuses] back on track."
Bentley hoped that she and the SI students would, "leave behind working
computers" and ideas for new technology and protecting the schools' data."
Veronica Bielat, SI student and a member of the technology team, said that the
school could take a number of measures in order to protect the archives and
information in its building. She said they could place a fire door around the
archives, [implement] a [fire] system to alert [staff] when no one is around,
and also add a system against theft."
So, while many U of M students were taking a much deserved break, the students from the School of Information were hard at work. Their goal: to increase the technology and organization in the library and in the archives for the students at NAES. Though the project only lasted a week, the effects of the work done in that time will last for many years to come. In the process, Professor Holland, summed up the hopes of all, "We hope that [the work done] will lead to a long term relationship between NAES and U of M."