The Whitney Museum of American Art's Frances Mulhall Achilles Library offers our student interns a rare opportunity to select and present artists' books to an audience of museum professionals as a part of their participation in our program. Their selections and research are used as the basis for special collections and artists' books education for the following year. The project invites students into the meaningful work of artists' books research and curation, and provides a useful model for engaging emerging professionals in work with artists' books that goes well beyond paging and shelving. This presentation discusses the ways in which removing barriers to pre-professional work with artists' books has proven fruitful for our interns, our staff, and our understanding of our collections.
Ivy Blackman (Tue,) studied this question.