Post by Artem Mykhailov

Over the course of the past weeks I had an opportunity to be a part of the exterhsip at di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, where our work focused on organizing and improving access to their library and archival materials. On-site, we cataloged books by recording key information like ISBN, author, and subject classifications, and organized them into existing categories such as Northern California artists and broader art topics. It was very hands-on and detail-oriented work that gave me a better understanding of how collections are structured and maintained. As a team, we also developed a proposal for building a digital database for the library. We compared platforms like Notion, Libib, and TinyCat, focusing on usability and long-term sustainability for a small institution. Based on that analysis, we selected TinyCat and began the process of manually inputting around 1,400+ items to make the collection more searchable and accessible. This experience gave me practical exposure to collection management, database development, and the kind of behind-the-scenes work that supports research and public engagement in the arts. Grateful for the opportunity to contribute to a project like this.