Abby Sypniewski is one of a growing number of U-M student interns supported by the Mark and Theresa Lafer Preservation Fund, which offers students real-world experience in the preservation of library collections, physical and digital.
“Many students really have no idea what’s possible for them. This type of internship has the potential to translate into a career,” said Theresa Lafer.
Lafer said that her husband Mark Lafer, a U-M alum who died in 2022, wanted to give back to Michigan in a way that opened doors and possibilities for students.
“Mark wanted to give back. He loved Michigan and he wanted others to have great experiences at the university and love the school the same way he did, but mostly he just liked to see people succeed, and wanted to be a part of making that possible.”
Both Theresa and Mark Lafer spent time working in libraries and recognized the importance of conservation work, both traditional and digital. The internships they endowed offer students from any discipline an opportunity to gain the lifelong benefits of library work.
Lafer intern Sigi Krushelnick, a senior in the Residential College studying art history and chemistry, sees the work as tying together her disparate interests.
“Conservation requires a combination of technical knowledge, historical
understanding, patience, and the ability to do precise hands-on work,” she said. “Because there is no set of academic courses where one can gain this knowledge, it’s vital to have practical experience in a real conservation lab.”
Over the summer, Krushelnick worked on an item from the Edison Collection, which is the most comprehensive collection of sheet music published in America before 1920. By removing the broken binding — in itself a complex process — and then experimenting with ways to rebind it, she gained confidence in a variety of conservation techniques.
“I had to bind and rebind this book multiple times in order to reconstruct it in a way that functioned optimally while allowing the original covers to be reattached,” she said. This process led to familiarity with, and appreciation for, fragile books. “I now see them as both a physical structure for transmitting language, and a form of artistic expression,” she said.
Krushelnick hopes that her work as a Lafer intern will kickstart a career as a book conservator.