Internship for Erasmus students: Manuscriptorium Digital Library

By Charles Bridge, lies the famous Klementinum building which is also host to the National Library of the Czech Republic. Within this library shows a wealth of different sections, amongst them being the highly impressive Manuscriptorium Digital Library Department. One of the key aspects which this part of the library deals with is the digitalisation of many texts including primary sources which date back centuries.

As this is such an important job which benefits many, the Manuscriptorium Digital Library Department has decided to offer internships to students on the Erasmus exchange at Charles University to gain experience in this field of work. This unpaid opportunity will require students to participate in the process of digitalising the primary sources whilst learning about different programs essential to this task such as XML Editor. Not only does this provide assistance to the community, but it is also highly beneficial to students who are interested in pursuing a career as a history researcher, journalist or anything which require accessing online sources.

With the technological world constantly becoming more advanced, there is often emphasis on the fact that History also needs to adapt to the changes. This internship will give an insight to the new ways which sources can be documented and broadcasted to a wider audience. To promote this internship, the Manuscriptorium Digital Library Department hosted a workshop which provided useful information on the position.

This workshop was led by Tomáš Klimek, a researcher for the Digital Library Department, who gave an understanding to what sort of role his job entails. He presented the benefits of online manuscripts and also the type of challenges the Manuscriptorium faces such as copyrights with the author. To give a taste of what the internship and the job it involves, he proceeded through a sample of how a manuscript would be set out and provided tips on the coding procedure of the different sources. Mr Klimek used this opportunity to explain that the internship is flexible with the interns allowed to pick their own source which interests them and have no desired deadline. With this being said, it is possible for interns to choose a short text to work on if they do not have a great amount of time to commit to the internship. Finally, possibly the most important aspect to this internship is the constant support provided therefore interns should not feel isolated or embarrassed if they struggle with anything during the placement.

If students did not already gather from it, the workshop reinstated how the internship is undeniably a great opportunity for students who are considering a future in digital history to gain experience in this field whilst also offering the Library invaluable assistance at the same time.