Meet Morgan! One of our newest faces at ʻUluʻulu!

This semester we are excited to be hosting two UH Mānoa Library and Information Science student interns. As usual, we are sharing our welcome interviews with both of them. This is your introduction to Morgan Schmidt! Please, help us warmly welcome Morgan and learn more below and click here for our interview with intern Sophia.

What brought you here to ‘Ulu‘ulu? What are some of the things you’re hoping to learn during your internship with us?

I am hoping to learn everything that I can from ‘Ulu‘ulu! I realized that even archives that mainly deal with paper documents will still often receive audiovisual materials here and there. To be a more well-rounded archival professional, I would like to have a basic working knowledge of how to handle and understand moving image material.

In addition, I was excited to learn that ‘Ulu‘ulu had become the stewards of the Lei Pua ʻAla: Queer Histories of Hawaiʻi video collection. In our current political landscape, I have felt much more passionate about preserving the records of Hawaiʻi’s vulnerable groups, which includes our queer community. I am very thankful to have the opportunity to work directly with this collection, and other archival collections that show us scenes of old Hawaiʻi and its history.

Before you entered your current program of study how much did you know about moving image archives? How did you get interested in them?

I didn’t know anything about them, honestly. I took Janel Quirante’s class on Moving Image Archives in the UH Mānoa LIS program, and it was a great introduction to the unique aspects of archives that focus on audiovisual records.

What projects are you working on at ‘Ulu‘ulu?

Aside from the Lei Pua ʻAla collection, I will also be working on the KGMB collection. Some of my family members worked at channels that are now under the KGMB umbrella, so I’m excited to see if I can spot any of their names in the credits!

Is there anything about the items you are working with that is surprising or unexpected?

Sorry, I don’t really have an answer to this one! Not yet haha.

Have you come across any particularly interesting or charming items or footage as you’ve been working these past couple weeks?

The footage I’m watching is basically all from Lei Pua ʻAla, and I was surprised when I started one video and it was… a stage performance of Dickens’ The Christmas Carol performed entirely in pidgin! Most of the players were formerly incarcerated at the Waiawa Correctional Facility, which worked so well as the theme of the play was the potential of people to change for the better. It was unexpected, sweet, and very funny.

Now tell us a little more about yourself. What is your favorite pastime when you’re not at work or class?

I love playing tabletop games, reading whodunnits (I’m back into my Poirot phase), and trying to bake the perfect baguette.

You’re almost finished with your courses, where do you hope to see yourself in the next few years?

My heart is in Hawaiʻi, where I was born and raised, so I am aiming to find archival work that will let me remain on Oʻahu. I am most interested in digital archives, although there is something so wonderful about handling physical records as well.

Any closing thoughts?

I’m very grateful to the ‘Ulu‘ulu staff for being so welcoming and open to teaching me so many aspects of audiovisual archival work. I hope that the work that I do can leave an impact on the important historical collections that are housed here. There is so much I have left to learn, and not a long time at this internship, but I am planning to be a sponge and absorb as much as I can!