Carter Hulinsky joined the Archives staff as an intern in October. He received his BA from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln where he majored in Sociology and minored in History and Czech Language. He is currently working towards a Masters of Library and Information Science with a Concentration in Archives and Records Management at UNC-Chapel Hill and expects to be finished in 2023. After graduation, he hopes to continue working in Archives where he revels in the little known stories and details found in archival materials because there are always opportunities to learn and reasons to explore.
Carter developed an interest in archives in high school during a building renovation project. On the day the construction crew cleared out and threw away the materials from a basement storage room full of school ephemera, Carter, by chance, discovered a box of old yearbooks left by the crew next to the dumpster. This lead Carter to begin digging through the dumpster, where he found more archival treasures (e.g., bound volumes of the school newspaper, photographs, and committee scrapbooks of the student council) from his high school among the disposed construction materials. He loaded what he could salvage into his car and returned them to the school. Afterwards, he received a disciplinary reprimand from the principal for his “reckless but heroic” rescue mission. He was given lunch detention with school librarian with the express purpose of creating a space in the library for the rescued materials to avoid another instance of accidental disposal, and an organization project to help make them accessible.
Since starting at the Medical Center Archives, Carter immediately got to work on processing a collection of laboratory notebooks from a research laboratory on campus where he is learning about rehousing, basic preservation tasks, and creating a finding aid to provide future users access to these materials. Carter sees this internship as serving as a laboratory for hands on learning while in graduate school. He is eager to learn how to process digital materials. Working at the Medical Center Archives will give him the opportunity to gain experience with a variety of formats, both digital and physical, not available in the classroom.
When Carter is not at work or busy with school, he enjoys hiking on nearby trails, exploring public gardens, touring historic homes, and seeking out antique stores. He collects many things including Kewpies, glassware, and pottery.
This blog post was contributed by Technical Services Head Lucy Waldrop