SCA students assistants wrote end-of-year “What Are You working On?” blog posts to share over the Summer months. Enjoy a write-up from Parker Beverly.

Hi, I’m Parker Beverly, a sophomore here at Wake Forest with a major in Interdisciplinary Studies (American Studies) and a minor in Film and Media Studies. When I first set out on my college journey, I had no idea that I would be working as a student assistant in the Special Collections & Archives at ZSR, but since joining the team in the fall of my freshman year, I have loved every moment. Combining a love of history, writing, and researching all under one umbrella, working in the Special Collections has been such a great experience, but one that has changed a bit from last year.

Before all the chaos that has been this past year, I spent the majority of my shifts manning the front desk area of the Special Collections reading room, helping patrons identify materials for research, and ensuring communications reached the appropriate personnel. I loved sorting through various collections, organizing them, writing information for finding aids, and helping to preserve some of the more fragile items in the collections. This year, while all of us have had to adjust to operations under COVID-19 restrictions, I transitioned to a virtual role. In this new capacity, I have helped manage SCA social media operations. Each day during my shift, I look to see what holiday is being celebrated. This may be as obscure as National Dogs in Politics Day or more familiar like Earth Day. I try to keep content current, choosing to post something relating to University activities like studying for final exams, celebrating a winning sports team, or a well-known alum’s birthday whenever it is applicable. While different from my responsibilities last year, I have so enjoyed combing through our digital collections to uncover interesting, engaging, and relevant material to share with our followers across various social media platforms. In my search, I uncovered a collection I often come back to — The Max and Gertrude Hoffman Photograph Collection. There are so many interesting pieces in this collection, and I often come back to it when searching for content. If you aren’t already, be sure to follow us on social media to catch some of my posts!

I’m so thankful for the opportunity to work in the Special Collections & Archives as it has helped fuel my passion for interdisciplinary learning and storytelling. I look forward to continuing to work with all of the wonderful staff in this department and producing more content to spread the word about the plentiful collections available for research. Hope to see you all in ZSR soon!