Week 4
Four weeks into this project, I have added the contents of
one and a half of the ten boxes into my official document archive. Considering the
contents of these first two boxes are the easiest to identify and document, and
they consist of 64 Circulation Records, Day Books, and Accession Books (not an
insignificant amount of information), I’m becoming a little wary of the sheer scope
of this project. That being said, Sophia and I reviewed the project timeline
and agreed its completion is still feasible.
This week actually ran pretty smoothly, as I had already
established a rhythm to analyzing and documenting these files. It is still a
time consuming process, but I now know what to look for and where to find it. I
did experience some problems simply reading some of the earlier books, as not
only the writing, but also the pages themselves had faded almost past the point
of recognition. I actually ended up grabbing a magnifying glass to read a
collections record from 1906. That doesn’t even take into account that
penmanship in 1906 was a bit more…elaborate…then it is today, and it took
awhile for my eyes to adjust to the new style. All in all, I documented 50 of
the 64 files, and plan to finish the rest next week.
I also began to think about how I am going to create my
future online archive. I actually work at a computer company that provides a
service that could support an online archive, with the added bonus that I’m
already familiar with it. I introduced the idea to Sophia, who was cautiously
optimistic about pursuing this idea. One month in, it looks like the project is
steadily moving forward.
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