Week 2 - 06/30/12
I was very busy at the library today. Initially, I had set to work on my Arctic Warfare bibliography, but I noticed a series of documents another volunteer had left at the circulation desk regarding Operation Torch in North Africa. This encouraged me to begin my second bibliography on North African Campaigns in World War II simultaneous to my work on the Arctic.
This new bibliography will focus predominately on Allied involvement in North Africa, and will likely center around the activities of Operation Torch, the Allied forces' invasion of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. The decision to base the bibliography around Operation Torch is both practical and opportunistic. First, I believe that library patrons are more likely to be seeking information on American involvement in North Africa than the involvement of the Free French, British, or German Wehrmacht forces. This is fortunate, because in beginning this bibliography I realized that I had located the exact shelf in the library where ninety-five percent of the Pritzker Library's materials on Operation Torch reside. If nothing else, that knowledge can provide a great resource for me when directing library patrons to materials. I am slowly mentally mapping out the contents of the library, which I hope will make me an increasingly more knowledgeable student intern.
My decision is opportunistic because I have recently returned from a study abroad trip in Tunisia, in which several significant battles took place during the Second World War, most notably the disastrous Battle of Kasserine, the Allied capture of Tunis, and the taking of Hill 609. I intend to use what I learned of American involvement in the Maghreb region of North Africa to enrich the knowledge of library patrons with the documents I discover within the library, hopefully augmented by some notes from my own travel experience. Most notably, I began to skim some maps of battle sites that I had unknowingly stood upon during my travels in Tunisia. In particular, I traveled to the town of
Sidi Bouzid, where unbeknownst to me, the initial raids that launched the battle of Kasserine occurred!
Throughout the rest of my day at the library, I assisted in running the main circulation desk. I also gave a tour of the library's new NATO photo gallery to a family. In order to give the presentation, I used the tour script that I composed last week on the gallery. It was extremely rewarding to be on both ends of the tour giving process. I was able to see my guide notes prove useful in highlighting the gallery.
Next week I plan to continue my Arctic Warfare and North Africa bibliographies. In particular, I will be looking for sources on the Allied troop's movements through Algeria and Tunisia from 1941-43, and the importance of German Weather stations in Greenland and neighboring Arctic outposts in World War II. If possible, I may begin to look for sources on the conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland prior to and during the Second World War.
No comments:
Post a Comment