Derek Long, ’13, reports that a project he worked on while at the State Archives of Florida, RadioFloridaMemory.com, has won the Archival Innovator Award from the Society of American Archivists. Derek, a trained sound engineer and history undergrad before entering the program, honed his skills in audio archiving by doing a practicum and an independent study at the Southern Folklife Collection at UNC Chapel Hill.

His experience is a great example of how you can customize your Master’s degree at UNCG. If you have questions about doing a practicum, please contact Dr. Nora Bird, njbird@uncg.edu.

It also shows the power of our generalist degree. Derek has moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and now works in a community college library with some responsibility for the small archival collection there. Balancing unique skills with general knowledge that can be applied in a broad range of institutions. That is the power of the UNCG MLIS.