Schedule
Duration:
January 6th, 2017 - April 5th, 2017
Approximate Internship Schedule:
January 6th - March 1st: Mondays 10AM - 6PM
Fridays 9AM - 4PM
March 2nd - April 5th: Monday - Thursday 10AM - 5 PM, Friday 10AM - 4PM
Total On-Site Internship Hours ~ 234.
January 6th, 2017 - April 5th, 2017
Approximate Internship Schedule:
January 6th - March 1st: Mondays 10AM - 6PM
Fridays 9AM - 4PM
March 2nd - April 5th: Monday - Thursday 10AM - 5 PM, Friday 10AM - 4PM
Total On-Site Internship Hours ~ 234.
Daily Log
January 6th, 2017 (Friday), 9AM – 4PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 7.00
Linda Whitaker introduced me to the scope of the collection I would be working on. Due to past attempts to arrange the collection which had not succeeded- I was warned that there was no original order. The boxes, however, were loosely grouped by category- primarily “personal”, “administrative,” and “media” initially. I began with the smallest and most complex series within the collection, the “personal” series. Ms. Whitaker said this would be a good test of how I would deal with the complexity of the collection and would be one of the longest ones to process.
With respect to the time limitations of my internship (and time limitations because I found I was moving to Huntsville, Alabama, in April after already coordinating the internship) Ms. Whitaker stressed that the processing of this collection would not be based on item-level descriptions, just folder level. She emphasized that the ultimate goal for this collection was to make it findable and usable due to the fact that it had been backlogged for several years and that there was current interest in the collection from researchers.
I was shown my workspace to be used for sorting through the collection, a small workroom with several clustered tables which I would split in half with another intern.
January 13th, 2017 (Friday), 9AM – 4PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 14.00
The collection initially consisted of about 20 or more banker’s boxes worth of material. As I began on the personal box of affects, Linda began some preemptive sorting of the administrative boxes in preparation for me completing the work independently when she was occasionally unavailable.
The initial series I began work on was the “personal” materials. These consisted of about three boxes worth of loose handwritten and typed letters, loose photographs, award plaques, and other documents.
I began work by attempting to extract and arrange all personal correspondence alphabetically according to the senders last name, which would then be arranged chronologically within.
January 20th, 2017 (Friday), 9AM – 4PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 21.00
Continued extraction of loose personal correspondence and began arranging them alphabetically.
January 23rd, 2017 (Monday), 10AM - 6PM
Hours Completed: 8.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 29.00
Continued arrangement of personal correspondence and arranging them alphabetically, completed about letters A – O.
January 25th, 2017 (Wednesday), 10AM – 2PM
Hours Completed: 4.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 33.00
Completed initial arrangement of personal correspondence, arranging them alphabetically. Then labeled file folders according to the standards described by Ms. Whitaker and set them aside.
January 27th, 2017 (Friday), 8AM – 1PM
Hours Completed: 5.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 38.00
At the suggestion of Ms. Whitaker I attended the Arizona Archives Summit, held in Tempe, Arizona. I was too late to officially register, but since they still had seats I was able to walk-in. I was able to attend all the sessions in the morning before lunch before having to head out to my other job at the public library.
This was a great experience and I am very glad I went. All of the speakers dealt with very different subjects that were all interesting in their own right. I found the presentation on auditing by the staff of the Cline Library at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff to be particularly interesting. They went into depth about their own self-auditing process and the importance of being self-aware and critical of your own operations as an archive, which they clearly demonstrated from their own experience.
I also found the presentation on Documenting the History of Asian Communities in Arizona to be enlightening and inspiring as it shed light on the ways archives have contributed to the maintenance of the history of early settlers- and also the way that archives and historical records have failed these communities in terms of representation and even preservation of materials. This presentation was particularly relevant in terms of addressing the issues of minority groups being underrepresented due to long-term socio-historical trends including systemic racism, and the long-term negative impacts this can have on our accurate understanding of history. I appreciated that the presentation also had a professor of history featured which offered another view on the archival process and the perspective from the “user” side of an archive, allowing her to have unique critiques. Overall I enjoyed being able to attend this summit and would love to attend similar events in the future.
January 30th, 2017 (Monday), 10AM- 6PM
Hours Completed: 8.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 46.00
Began sorting the administrative series of boxes, one of the largest sets of materials (approx. 10 boxes). It is, again, unsorted (unsorted meaning, it appears someone simply unceremoniously emptied several desk drawers worth of stuff into boxes and left them).
It quickly appears that this will be a difficult series to sort, as there is a lot of loose correspondence. I have several questions on interfiling personal and business correspondence, because it is very difficult to distinguish the difference without reading through each individual document rather closely. This process, of course, would be impossible given my time constraints. Materials that are identifiable as personal are set aside to be added to the previous series. I start to focus more on business letter heads to determine type of document.
February 3rd, 2017 (Friday), 10AM – 2PM
Hours Completed: 4.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 50.00
Continuation of sorting administrative materials. Pulling out items which are discordant, such as awards, personal loose photos, and un-embedded publications. These will belong in other series.
February 6th, 2017 (Monday), 10AM – 6PM
Hours Completed: 8.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 58.00
Continuation of sorting administrative materials, arranging administrative correspondence chronologically. They span several decades, approximately the 1960’s through the 2000’s.
February 10th, 2017 (Friday), 10AM – 4PM
Hours Completed: 6.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 64.00
Completed arrangement of administrative series.
February 13th, 2017 (Monday), 10AM – 6PM
Hours Completed: 8.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 72.00
Began in-depth sorting of administrative outliers, including materials relating to Priscilla Scheid, and “Lists.” It is unclear whether these will end up being their own series or just files within the administrative series.
February 17th, 2017 (Monday), 9AM - 4PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 79.00
Continued sorting of Scheid materials and separation of lists.
February 24th, 2017 (Friday), 9AM – 4PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 86.00
Began addressing the boxes marked “publications,” which consist of primarily loose publications from various sources relating to foodbanking. Including magazines, pamphlets, newsletters, as well as correspondence relating to the exchange of these materials.
February 27th, 2017 (Monday), 10AM – 6PM
Hours Completed: 8.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 94.00
Continued sorting of publications, upon initial sorting is appears that it will be beneficial to sort these materials according to region. I confirm with Ms. Whitaker that this would be an appropriate way to sort the materials.
March 2nd, 2017 (Thursday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 101.00
Continued sorting of publications, initially separated into two large piles simply divided into “Domestic” and “International.”
March 3rd, 2017 (Friday), 9AM – 4PM
Hours Completed: 6.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 107.00
Continued sorting of publications, dividing the domestic series further according to state. Each state is arranged alphabetically and then chronologically within.
March 6th, 2017 (Monday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 114.00
Continued sorting of publications, dividing the international series further according to country. Each country is arranged alphabetically and then chronologically within. If there was correspondence embedded with the publications, it remained with the publication.
March 7th, 2017 (Tuesday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 121.00
As each series is completed they are set aside and put out of the way because work space is limited, now I am onto the series “programs” which was initially going to be sorted under the title of “administration.” It was big enough, however, on its own to justify its own series. There are a number of independent and separate agencies and charities which spawned out of the concept of foodbanking, and several of them are represented quite significantly here.
March 8th, 2017 (Wednesday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 128.00
I begin to attempt to sort the “program” materials according to the title of each program – such as “Second Harvest” or “Foodbanking, Inc.” It is very difficult though because the letter headings which indicate the organization are inconsistent, and they are also addressed inconsistently. Additionally a fair amount of the materials apply to or mention multiple organizations at once- so it can be difficult to decide which the stronger represented subject is. Overall, St. Mary’s always takes precedent (and is sorted back under the “administrative” series), however there are many others to consider.
March 9th, 2017 (Thursday), 10AM - 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 135.00
Continued sorting of the “programs” series, and attempt to begin finer sorting of these materials into sub-headings under each organization (such as Second Harvest: Meeting Minutes.)
March 10th, 2017 (Friday), 10AM – 4PM
Hours Completed: 6.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 141.00
Continued sorting of the “programs” series. All of the materials are out at this point, but each different sub-heading and category must be arranged chronologically. This is a very slow process, as it was with personal and administrative correspondence, and takes up a lot of space on the tables I have to work on. (All of it, actually).
March 13th, 2017 (Monday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 148.00
Continued arranging and foldering the “programs” series.
March 14th, 2017 (Tuesday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 155.00
Completed arranging and foldering the “programs” series.
Began assessment of the box of photographs. They are unfortunately largely loose, or very large bundles of photographs, which are unlabeled. I am only able to lay them out on the table for initial assessment, unfortunately though the bundles of photos do not necessarily seem to be related- so everything will have to be looked at closely to pull related photos together.
March 15th, 2017 (Wednesday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 162.00
Began sorting photos by broad categories. Once again, having these all laid out takes up the entire work space and is slow going.
Completed (at home the night before) the first draft of the front matter for the final finding aid, including Historical and Biographical note, Scope & Content Note, and Series Descriptions along with the technical specifications such as copyright. Linda sends me drafts back with minor editing- the major task will be to reduce the length of the front matter. Due to the collection needing both a Historical and Biographical note- it is already longer than usual and has to be as concise as possible.
March 16th, 2017 (Thursday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 169.00
The broad categories of photographs have been established such as Family & Friends, Events, and Facilities, but there are very large stacks of loose photos which contain unidentified subjects, times, and events.
March 21st, 2017 (Tuesday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 176.00
I attempt to group as many photos together as possible based on the location or what clothes the people in the photo are wearing, or by what type of photo paper it was printed on. This is very time consuming and not an 100% accurate process- but the majority of the photos which had been loose are now at least part of a contained set (such as a particular event) which can be grouped together.
March 22nd, 2017 (Wednesday), 10AM – 5 PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 183.00
I begin to put the sorted photos into paper sleeves for protection and to be labeled. There are some duplicate photos which are weeded. Although the photos are protected in sleeves, extra preservation efforts are not taken on these photographs. This is due to the sheer bulk of photographs, which are primarily amateur snap-shots rather than high-quality artist prints, fragile, or historic prints- and due to the time constraints on this internship and the need to complete the entire collection and create an accessible finding aid. Sorting and labeling the photos takes a very long time, there are at least several hundred of them.
March 23rd, 2017 (Thursday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 190.00
Completed putting photos in sleeves and labeling them. I was directed to at least provide a decade date range on unidentified photos, however it is quite difficult in some instances to tell the differences between the 1980’s and 1990’s, for example. Although it is possible to get close enough to provide some added context for the photos which are otherwise largely unidentified.
March 24th, 2017 (Friday), 10AM – 4PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 197.00
Began trying to tie up “loose ends” or materials which were outliers while the rest of the collection was being arranged. Many items could not be identified or tied together until seeing the entire collection and being able to identify the patterns throughout the materials. This is quite time consuming because each individual document has to be relocated to a separate area and it is sometimes difficult to recall exactly when similar documents had been seen previously, or what to do with materials that were entirely unique.
Turned in second draft of front matter to Linda for editing. Most of the editing needed is to make finding aid as concise as possible because it is already a complex collection, and to make sure the wording is as neutral as possible and not leading. I have to fact-check a few more details within the materials as well to ensure the front-matter is accurate. I will continue to edit at home.
March 29th, 2017 (Wednesday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 204.00
Continued moving all of the individual outlier documents into their appropriate folders. After this was completed and all of my folders were labeled I was finally able to begin labeling all of the boxes in sequential order to prepare for creating the box list for the finding aid. This needed to be done ahead of time so that I could have everything in order before beginning work on the final box- newspaper clippings. Due to my time constraints and the need to complete the arrangement of this collection on a strict schedule, I cannot leave the data entry (required for the finding aid) until the last minute.
March 30th, 2017 (Thursday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 211.00
I emptied the box of newspaper clippings which contained a few folders generally labeled by decade, although most were miscellaneous. I began by sorting the clippings into piles according to decade (1960’s- 2000’s) and then weeding out any duplicate newspaper clippings. Many newspaper clippings had already been copied previously, which saved me some time as I was directed to keep these. The newspaper clippings which were already copied onto regular paper just had to be arranged chronologically. I arranged these chronologically as I went so that I could interfile the rest of the clippings later without much delay.
Submitted a 3rd draft of the front matter for review by Linda. Some unnecessary detail has been removed and the overall length reduced as well. Any missing gaps are filled now and the remaining edits should hopefully be minimal.
March 31st, 2017 (Friday), 10AM – 4PM
Hours Completed: 6.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 217.00
Began copying of newspaper clippings onto new acid-free paper for storing. The original newspaper clippings will not be kept because of the level of deterioration and the difficulty involved in preventing their acidity affecting other materials. It was emphasized that access to the materials was the most important factor, rather than maintaining the originals at the expense of time and cost. I was able to complete all of the newspaper clippings for the 1960’s and 1970’s, which was the most deteriorated set.
April 3rd, 2017 (Monday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 224.00
Continued copying the newspaper clippings and arranging them chronologically for foldering. Was able to complete the 1980’s and 1990’s.
April 4th, 2017 (Tuesday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 231.00
Completed copying and arranging all of the newspaper clippings which were ultimately reduced to just a few folders. I finalized the front-matter for the finding aid with Linda and began the process of entering in the information on the boxes and folders for the final product. I have to wheel the boxes into a room with a computer so that I can look at them as I go and number the folders as I go (since I now know the total number of folders).
April 5th, 2017 (Wednesday), 10AM – 1PM
Hours Completed: 3.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 234.00
I completed typing in the data for the finding aid and reviewing the document for errors. Completed a final review of all the boxes, put lids on, and applied finalized stickers to all of the boxes. Took some photos and completed the exit interview with my supervisor, Linda.
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 7.00
Linda Whitaker introduced me to the scope of the collection I would be working on. Due to past attempts to arrange the collection which had not succeeded- I was warned that there was no original order. The boxes, however, were loosely grouped by category- primarily “personal”, “administrative,” and “media” initially. I began with the smallest and most complex series within the collection, the “personal” series. Ms. Whitaker said this would be a good test of how I would deal with the complexity of the collection and would be one of the longest ones to process.
With respect to the time limitations of my internship (and time limitations because I found I was moving to Huntsville, Alabama, in April after already coordinating the internship) Ms. Whitaker stressed that the processing of this collection would not be based on item-level descriptions, just folder level. She emphasized that the ultimate goal for this collection was to make it findable and usable due to the fact that it had been backlogged for several years and that there was current interest in the collection from researchers.
I was shown my workspace to be used for sorting through the collection, a small workroom with several clustered tables which I would split in half with another intern.
January 13th, 2017 (Friday), 9AM – 4PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 14.00
The collection initially consisted of about 20 or more banker’s boxes worth of material. As I began on the personal box of affects, Linda began some preemptive sorting of the administrative boxes in preparation for me completing the work independently when she was occasionally unavailable.
The initial series I began work on was the “personal” materials. These consisted of about three boxes worth of loose handwritten and typed letters, loose photographs, award plaques, and other documents.
I began work by attempting to extract and arrange all personal correspondence alphabetically according to the senders last name, which would then be arranged chronologically within.
January 20th, 2017 (Friday), 9AM – 4PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 21.00
Continued extraction of loose personal correspondence and began arranging them alphabetically.
January 23rd, 2017 (Monday), 10AM - 6PM
Hours Completed: 8.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 29.00
Continued arrangement of personal correspondence and arranging them alphabetically, completed about letters A – O.
January 25th, 2017 (Wednesday), 10AM – 2PM
Hours Completed: 4.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 33.00
Completed initial arrangement of personal correspondence, arranging them alphabetically. Then labeled file folders according to the standards described by Ms. Whitaker and set them aside.
January 27th, 2017 (Friday), 8AM – 1PM
Hours Completed: 5.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 38.00
At the suggestion of Ms. Whitaker I attended the Arizona Archives Summit, held in Tempe, Arizona. I was too late to officially register, but since they still had seats I was able to walk-in. I was able to attend all the sessions in the morning before lunch before having to head out to my other job at the public library.
This was a great experience and I am very glad I went. All of the speakers dealt with very different subjects that were all interesting in their own right. I found the presentation on auditing by the staff of the Cline Library at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff to be particularly interesting. They went into depth about their own self-auditing process and the importance of being self-aware and critical of your own operations as an archive, which they clearly demonstrated from their own experience.
I also found the presentation on Documenting the History of Asian Communities in Arizona to be enlightening and inspiring as it shed light on the ways archives have contributed to the maintenance of the history of early settlers- and also the way that archives and historical records have failed these communities in terms of representation and even preservation of materials. This presentation was particularly relevant in terms of addressing the issues of minority groups being underrepresented due to long-term socio-historical trends including systemic racism, and the long-term negative impacts this can have on our accurate understanding of history. I appreciated that the presentation also had a professor of history featured which offered another view on the archival process and the perspective from the “user” side of an archive, allowing her to have unique critiques. Overall I enjoyed being able to attend this summit and would love to attend similar events in the future.
January 30th, 2017 (Monday), 10AM- 6PM
Hours Completed: 8.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 46.00
Began sorting the administrative series of boxes, one of the largest sets of materials (approx. 10 boxes). It is, again, unsorted (unsorted meaning, it appears someone simply unceremoniously emptied several desk drawers worth of stuff into boxes and left them).
It quickly appears that this will be a difficult series to sort, as there is a lot of loose correspondence. I have several questions on interfiling personal and business correspondence, because it is very difficult to distinguish the difference without reading through each individual document rather closely. This process, of course, would be impossible given my time constraints. Materials that are identifiable as personal are set aside to be added to the previous series. I start to focus more on business letter heads to determine type of document.
February 3rd, 2017 (Friday), 10AM – 2PM
Hours Completed: 4.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 50.00
Continuation of sorting administrative materials. Pulling out items which are discordant, such as awards, personal loose photos, and un-embedded publications. These will belong in other series.
February 6th, 2017 (Monday), 10AM – 6PM
Hours Completed: 8.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 58.00
Continuation of sorting administrative materials, arranging administrative correspondence chronologically. They span several decades, approximately the 1960’s through the 2000’s.
February 10th, 2017 (Friday), 10AM – 4PM
Hours Completed: 6.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 64.00
Completed arrangement of administrative series.
February 13th, 2017 (Monday), 10AM – 6PM
Hours Completed: 8.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 72.00
Began in-depth sorting of administrative outliers, including materials relating to Priscilla Scheid, and “Lists.” It is unclear whether these will end up being their own series or just files within the administrative series.
February 17th, 2017 (Monday), 9AM - 4PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 79.00
Continued sorting of Scheid materials and separation of lists.
February 24th, 2017 (Friday), 9AM – 4PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 86.00
Began addressing the boxes marked “publications,” which consist of primarily loose publications from various sources relating to foodbanking. Including magazines, pamphlets, newsletters, as well as correspondence relating to the exchange of these materials.
February 27th, 2017 (Monday), 10AM – 6PM
Hours Completed: 8.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 94.00
Continued sorting of publications, upon initial sorting is appears that it will be beneficial to sort these materials according to region. I confirm with Ms. Whitaker that this would be an appropriate way to sort the materials.
March 2nd, 2017 (Thursday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 101.00
Continued sorting of publications, initially separated into two large piles simply divided into “Domestic” and “International.”
March 3rd, 2017 (Friday), 9AM – 4PM
Hours Completed: 6.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 107.00
Continued sorting of publications, dividing the domestic series further according to state. Each state is arranged alphabetically and then chronologically within.
March 6th, 2017 (Monday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 114.00
Continued sorting of publications, dividing the international series further according to country. Each country is arranged alphabetically and then chronologically within. If there was correspondence embedded with the publications, it remained with the publication.
March 7th, 2017 (Tuesday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 121.00
As each series is completed they are set aside and put out of the way because work space is limited, now I am onto the series “programs” which was initially going to be sorted under the title of “administration.” It was big enough, however, on its own to justify its own series. There are a number of independent and separate agencies and charities which spawned out of the concept of foodbanking, and several of them are represented quite significantly here.
March 8th, 2017 (Wednesday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 128.00
I begin to attempt to sort the “program” materials according to the title of each program – such as “Second Harvest” or “Foodbanking, Inc.” It is very difficult though because the letter headings which indicate the organization are inconsistent, and they are also addressed inconsistently. Additionally a fair amount of the materials apply to or mention multiple organizations at once- so it can be difficult to decide which the stronger represented subject is. Overall, St. Mary’s always takes precedent (and is sorted back under the “administrative” series), however there are many others to consider.
March 9th, 2017 (Thursday), 10AM - 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 135.00
Continued sorting of the “programs” series, and attempt to begin finer sorting of these materials into sub-headings under each organization (such as Second Harvest: Meeting Minutes.)
March 10th, 2017 (Friday), 10AM – 4PM
Hours Completed: 6.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 141.00
Continued sorting of the “programs” series. All of the materials are out at this point, but each different sub-heading and category must be arranged chronologically. This is a very slow process, as it was with personal and administrative correspondence, and takes up a lot of space on the tables I have to work on. (All of it, actually).
March 13th, 2017 (Monday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 148.00
Continued arranging and foldering the “programs” series.
March 14th, 2017 (Tuesday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 155.00
Completed arranging and foldering the “programs” series.
Began assessment of the box of photographs. They are unfortunately largely loose, or very large bundles of photographs, which are unlabeled. I am only able to lay them out on the table for initial assessment, unfortunately though the bundles of photos do not necessarily seem to be related- so everything will have to be looked at closely to pull related photos together.
March 15th, 2017 (Wednesday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 162.00
Began sorting photos by broad categories. Once again, having these all laid out takes up the entire work space and is slow going.
Completed (at home the night before) the first draft of the front matter for the final finding aid, including Historical and Biographical note, Scope & Content Note, and Series Descriptions along with the technical specifications such as copyright. Linda sends me drafts back with minor editing- the major task will be to reduce the length of the front matter. Due to the collection needing both a Historical and Biographical note- it is already longer than usual and has to be as concise as possible.
March 16th, 2017 (Thursday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 169.00
The broad categories of photographs have been established such as Family & Friends, Events, and Facilities, but there are very large stacks of loose photos which contain unidentified subjects, times, and events.
March 21st, 2017 (Tuesday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 176.00
I attempt to group as many photos together as possible based on the location or what clothes the people in the photo are wearing, or by what type of photo paper it was printed on. This is very time consuming and not an 100% accurate process- but the majority of the photos which had been loose are now at least part of a contained set (such as a particular event) which can be grouped together.
March 22nd, 2017 (Wednesday), 10AM – 5 PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 183.00
I begin to put the sorted photos into paper sleeves for protection and to be labeled. There are some duplicate photos which are weeded. Although the photos are protected in sleeves, extra preservation efforts are not taken on these photographs. This is due to the sheer bulk of photographs, which are primarily amateur snap-shots rather than high-quality artist prints, fragile, or historic prints- and due to the time constraints on this internship and the need to complete the entire collection and create an accessible finding aid. Sorting and labeling the photos takes a very long time, there are at least several hundred of them.
March 23rd, 2017 (Thursday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 190.00
Completed putting photos in sleeves and labeling them. I was directed to at least provide a decade date range on unidentified photos, however it is quite difficult in some instances to tell the differences between the 1980’s and 1990’s, for example. Although it is possible to get close enough to provide some added context for the photos which are otherwise largely unidentified.
March 24th, 2017 (Friday), 10AM – 4PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 197.00
Began trying to tie up “loose ends” or materials which were outliers while the rest of the collection was being arranged. Many items could not be identified or tied together until seeing the entire collection and being able to identify the patterns throughout the materials. This is quite time consuming because each individual document has to be relocated to a separate area and it is sometimes difficult to recall exactly when similar documents had been seen previously, or what to do with materials that were entirely unique.
Turned in second draft of front matter to Linda for editing. Most of the editing needed is to make finding aid as concise as possible because it is already a complex collection, and to make sure the wording is as neutral as possible and not leading. I have to fact-check a few more details within the materials as well to ensure the front-matter is accurate. I will continue to edit at home.
March 29th, 2017 (Wednesday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 204.00
Continued moving all of the individual outlier documents into their appropriate folders. After this was completed and all of my folders were labeled I was finally able to begin labeling all of the boxes in sequential order to prepare for creating the box list for the finding aid. This needed to be done ahead of time so that I could have everything in order before beginning work on the final box- newspaper clippings. Due to my time constraints and the need to complete the arrangement of this collection on a strict schedule, I cannot leave the data entry (required for the finding aid) until the last minute.
March 30th, 2017 (Thursday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 211.00
I emptied the box of newspaper clippings which contained a few folders generally labeled by decade, although most were miscellaneous. I began by sorting the clippings into piles according to decade (1960’s- 2000’s) and then weeding out any duplicate newspaper clippings. Many newspaper clippings had already been copied previously, which saved me some time as I was directed to keep these. The newspaper clippings which were already copied onto regular paper just had to be arranged chronologically. I arranged these chronologically as I went so that I could interfile the rest of the clippings later without much delay.
Submitted a 3rd draft of the front matter for review by Linda. Some unnecessary detail has been removed and the overall length reduced as well. Any missing gaps are filled now and the remaining edits should hopefully be minimal.
March 31st, 2017 (Friday), 10AM – 4PM
Hours Completed: 6.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 217.00
Began copying of newspaper clippings onto new acid-free paper for storing. The original newspaper clippings will not be kept because of the level of deterioration and the difficulty involved in preventing their acidity affecting other materials. It was emphasized that access to the materials was the most important factor, rather than maintaining the originals at the expense of time and cost. I was able to complete all of the newspaper clippings for the 1960’s and 1970’s, which was the most deteriorated set.
April 3rd, 2017 (Monday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 224.00
Continued copying the newspaper clippings and arranging them chronologically for foldering. Was able to complete the 1980’s and 1990’s.
April 4th, 2017 (Tuesday), 10AM – 5PM
Hours Completed: 7.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 231.00
Completed copying and arranging all of the newspaper clippings which were ultimately reduced to just a few folders. I finalized the front-matter for the finding aid with Linda and began the process of entering in the information on the boxes and folders for the final product. I have to wheel the boxes into a room with a computer so that I can look at them as I go and number the folders as I go (since I now know the total number of folders).
April 5th, 2017 (Wednesday), 10AM – 1PM
Hours Completed: 3.00
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 234.00
I completed typing in the data for the finding aid and reviewing the document for errors. Completed a final review of all the boxes, put lids on, and applied finalized stickers to all of the boxes. Took some photos and completed the exit interview with my supervisor, Linda.
