Internship Notes

Sorry about the confusing dates. I can't seem to get the timing down...

6/27/08

I put a lot of time this week studying oral history and writing out questions for Katie’s interview. Peter has worked with me on this and gave me some books on oral history to go through. I also spent a fair amount of time choosing and organizing photos for the exhibit, pulling quotes, and adding content. I’ve started using OneNote, which is a project management software. (Wish I had discovered it sooner—it’s easier to work with than Excel which is what I started with.) I hope to have all (or most) of the photos to Jess for printing by next week. There will be at least 100 in the cases and on the walls ranging in size from approximately 18” x 20” to 4” x 6”. Mixed in the cases will also be books, CDs, DVDs, and artifacts. I also introduced the idea of having an interactive map on the wall with before-dam and after-dam pictures. The idea has been well received but with cautions that “administration” is very persnickety about what can be put up.

6/23/08

I joined Sean, one of the reference librarians and a member of the Special Collections team, Susan, Library Specialist in Oral Histories, to conduct an oral history in Ash Fork, AZ. Sean is a Route 66 expert, especially where it crosses the Colorado Plateau. He was interviewing Edie DeSoto who owns a beauty/barber shop on 66 as part of a series of Route 66 interviews. Susan was operating the camera, and I was observing as preparation for my interview with Katie. Susan and I had practiced putting the camera together and taking it apart (at least a dozen connections and contraptions) in order to minimize glitches on interview day. There were, of course, some glitches but nothing major. A learning experience for both of us.

Have I mentioned that I really like the people I’m working with? Everyone here is so nice and so helpful.

6/20/08

This week I have continued to search out photographs from multiple collections for use in the display. I also feel that a map is needed to point to the different places where the photos have been taken. I found that this is easier said than done. Maps don’t always have good metadata or finding aids and once identified, there are half a dozen places that the map could reside. I felt much better when the librarian and the photo archivist had difficulty locating the maps that I did identify. It wasn’t just the rookie who was having a hard time!

Project management is a large part of this project. Photos have to be chosen and given to Jess, the digitization expert, with enough lead time so that it doesn’t interfere with his other work. Labels and text have to be given to Susan prior to her vacation in July or I will need to find another person to help me with those. Karen has told me that there is no expectation that the project be done by the end of my internship. In fact, if I complete it, I will be the first Reilly intern to do so. I told her that I fully intend to see it completed. (It’s my baby and I want to see it graduate.)

6/19/08

The department meeting today was attended by the Dean and the Associate Dean to discuss collection development policies and especially how to handle digitally-born donations. The primary issue is whether or not to accept donations that are in a format that we are not equipped to read. The basic consensus is that all donations should be reviewed by the SCA team prior to accepting the donation. The team will then need to decide not only whether the content fits the parameters of relating to the Colorado Plateau, but also if the content is valuable enough to justify the costs of staff, storage and format issues.

Also discussed was the issue of people wanting to donate items for digitization but not donating the item or not giving the copyright. All felt it best to avoid these situations unless there was good reason to accept the donation. Again, all donations should be reviewed by the team.

On a related note, it was brought up that digitization requests are up and we are almost to the point of not being able to keep up. Currently, the policy is to digitize resources upon request rather than digitizing everything that comes in. There will need to be further discussion as well as a review of work flows before a solution can be implemented.