tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8719678535362334762024-03-13T02:32:37.359-07:00Archival PracticumColleen Beavershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03235348465467534196noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871967853536233476.post-22242600506777707832012-04-19T10:52:00.002-07:002012-04-19T10:52:38.897-07:00Week of April 16, last week<br />
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This was my last week working in my
practicum and I hate to leave. I’ve really enjoyed working in the de Grummond
collection and while I’m thrilled to be graduating and starting my own
position, it’s sad to be finished at the practicum. I only had a few hours left
to work, so I only worked two days. Wednesday morning I re-shelved several
boxes in the manuscripts, mostly cleaning up from last week with the book
festival. With another student I also worked on a research project. A patron
had asked about an author whose papers the collection has, looking for
information on a specific time period. While the finding aid said that we
didn’t have anything about the two specific books and the correspondence didn’t
start until later as well, I looked in the correspondence to see if there was
anything that referred back to the needed information. I didn’t expect to find
anything, and in fact did not, but it was nice to spend some time doing
reference work. I haven’t done a lot of that in my practicum, though it’s
basically historical research, and that I’ve done a lot of over the years. We
also collected several items for bags for a visit from some fourth and fifth
graders who came on Thursday. We put together bags with bookmarks, posters,
fliers, and other goodies for the students. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Thursday was
my last day in the practicum. We had a group of elementary students from Bay
St. Louis come to visit, so we took them on a tour of the exhibit room and The
Circus Mural in Cook Library created by Esphyr Slobodkina. They were really
excited to be here (many of them had never been on a college campus before) and
were overwhelmed with everything we did for them. I love getting to talk to
kids and share my love of something with someone who has never had a chance to
experience it. One girl said that she was really glad she got to come because she
would never have come on her own or learned the things she did. That makes
anything worth it. It’s especially nice knowing how grateful they and their
librarian were, when in reality it didn’t take much for us to make up the bags
and do the tour. Though we only spent maybe an hour and half, you never know
what kind of impact that will have on a child. Their librarian told me that a
lot of the kids have really big dreams, but not a lot of opportunity, but
giving them a spark could make a life-long difference. Some of them had already
asked her could they come to school here if they wanted to be a librarian (!)
or a biologist. That’s the amazing thing about kids: they are still incredibly
excited about the future and a little bit of encouragement can make a huge
impact. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Overall it’s been an incredible
learning experience; I’ve learned a lot that we didn’t talk about in class.
Most of things we focus on in class are by necessity the basics of the archival
profession, but there are a myriad of other activities and duties that come up
in the course of the job that there isn’t a way to learn about other than being
in an archive. I feel like I have gained a lot from the experience, but I also
feel like I helped them a lot as well. I know that one day when I have my own
practicum students it will be a different kind of learning experience—teaching others
how to do something teaches the teacher as well—and I’m looking forward to
being able to pass on my knowledge to the next student. <o:p></o:p></div>Colleen Beavershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03235348465467534196noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871967853536233476.post-57235849793005365642012-04-18T12:25:00.000-07:002012-04-18T12:25:21.073-07:00Week of April 9-13 Book Festival<br />
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<span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Last week was the Fay B. Kaigler
Children’s Book Festival. I’m still not sure I’m completely recovered from it
after all the tremendous amount of work we did; I spent most of the week
running around like crazy and I don’t think I even remember everything. Early
in the week we started getting everything ready. I prepared the shirts and
notecards which de Grummond sells and took them to the bookstore, where an
entire book festival section is created, with the de Grummond items and books
for all of the authors who come to the festival. They have signings every day
of the festival and patrons have the opportunity to purchase books prior to the
signings. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Wednesday we spent the whole morning
working on the exhibit area in Cook Library, getting it ready to open back up. We
finished the labeling process, which meant we had to figure out which label
went with which picture. For the most part this was easy though there was a
series of pictures from one book that were labeled by page numbers and we had
to determine which one was which. (They weren’t actually hung in strict
numerical order.) We also were worried about leaving the doors open to the
exhibit area without any security in place, so added the security strips the
library uses to the backs of all the paintings. The cases with the realia were
locked, but it is possible some of the paintings could be stolen because they
are small enough to fit in a bag. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Thursday was the biggest day for de
Grummond because this was the first year the Ezra Jack Keats Awards have been
at Southern Miss. This is a huge event for the collection and everyone involved
is really excited that we have it now. Thursday morning we went to the
Medallion session with Jane Yolen. It was really great until the very end when
she started talking about her cat dying. There was a great point to the
story—that books allow you to express emotion that you might not feel
comfortable expressing otherwise—but I hate that the thing that will stay with
me was the story about the cat dying. It demonstrated quite well how much of an
incredible storyteller she is though. I also helped them prepare for the Awards
luncheon. Though I didn’t attend it, I was busy the entire time they were in it
anyway. I also discovered that the bookstore was out of many of the sizes of
the new EJK shirts, so we went back to the office and got more shirts and put
together more boxes of cards. I also got to go to the EJK lecture with Anita
Silvey. It was a discussion of the history of the picture book in America and
it was really interesting. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Thursday night we had a reception for
the award winners downtown at the train depot. I was technically off those
hours, and it was really enjoyable. I felt especially great when the curator
thanked the student workers for everything that we’ve done for the reception.
Friday we decided since we had barely gotten to sit down the rest of the week
to relax. It was nice to get a breather since I was back to work that afternoon
doing things for the other office. I was so exhausted at the end of the week
that I didn’t want to get out of bed Saturday. My entire body was aching, but I
really enjoyed the festival and it was definitely worth the effort. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Link to the Fay B. Kaigler Children’s
Book Festival: <a href="http://www.usm.edu/childrens-book-festival"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.usm.edu/childrens-book-festival</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>Colleen Beavershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03235348465467534196noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871967853536233476.post-24058526766807464382012-04-08T18:35:00.000-07:002012-04-08T18:35:17.174-07:00Week of April 2<br />
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Last week I finished the project I had been working on—redoing
the de Grummond correspondence files. I feel extremely accomplished having
finished such a huge task. Hours of work went into changing out the folders,
making corrections to files, and sorting through the drawers upon drawers of
letters, cards, and inventories. While it was at times tedious, it was very
valuable to the collection. There were countless numbers of files that were
incorrectly labeled, referred to files that didn’t exist, or contained items
more properly filed elsewhere. I also got to see some fascinating files from
some of my favorite authors or others that are very famous. Working in the de
Grummond collection is a lot like working behind the scenes on a movie or at a television
show: you get to see personal correspondence with celebrities that most people
never get to see. It makes you feel special and privileged. The two best from
this past week were John Green, who has written several young adult novels (my
favorite is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An Abundance of Katherines</i>)
and J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien wrote Dr. de Grummond a letter but forgot to sign
it and then sent another with his signature apologizing for the first. I’ve
never actually seen a Tolkien signature in person before and it was really
exciting. </div>
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<o:p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/An-Abundance-Katherines-John-Green/dp/0142410705/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333935232&sr=8-1"><img alt="Product Details" class="productImage" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51aFU6dK2-L._SL160_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-dp,TopRight,12,-18_SH30_OU01_AA160_.jpg" /></a> The cover of <em>An Abundance of Katherines</em> (Amazon.com)</o:p></div>
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The office has been getting ready for a big event this
coming week—the Ezra Jack Keats Awards in conjunction with the Children’s Book
Festival. A few weeks ago I helped put together the invitations for a party
celebrating the award winners which will take place this coming Thursday
evening at the Hattiesburg train depot. Last week we printed up several fliers
for the event which will be put inside the bags for the festival attendees,
since all CBF participants are also invited to the party. I’m looking forward
to the party since it’s something we have been anticipating for weeks. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I also worked in the manuscripts of the Margret and H.A. Rey
collection (the authors of the Curious George books). Because the exhibit room
has been remodeled and parts of the collection are touring on exhibit through the
Jewish Museum of New York, several of the framed pieces are out of proper
location. It’s like a puzzle or being a detective trying to put everything back
where it belongs and figuring out which piece is which. I’ve noticed that the
descriptions for pieces are not always the best and thus it is sometimes
difficult to know to which piece the finding aid is referring. I found one
piece that wasn’t labeled at all; the catalog listed it as two separate pieces
with the same number, neither of which actually described it. We’re still not
sure where it belongs. Another piece I only determined proper location for with
the aid of the online finding aid. I know that it is really difficult to make
sure descriptions match the pieces accurately—for one thing what you may find
the salient features when describing it, may not match your thoughts about it
later or someone else’s—so I definitely know to be conscientious about this
when I go to do it in my work after school.<o:p></o:p></div>Colleen Beavershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03235348465467534196noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871967853536233476.post-4068025006829799162012-04-02T16:57:00.001-07:002012-04-02T16:57:25.048-07:00Week of March 25<br />
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Last week we fortunately found more
acid-free folders, so I got to continue on my project with the correspondence
files. Because the actual work itself is basically the same that I have been
doing, I thought I would focus this post on some of the thoughts I’ve had about
the practice of retaining correspondence by archives and special collections.
Many of the files that I’ve been working with only contain one letter or card,
and of these the vast majority are dated from the 1960s. I’ve been through
countless files that are responses from authors where I can infer that Dr. de
Grummond had requested manuscripts or other material from the authors or
illustrators and the letters in the files are negative responses. Authors tend
to promise their collections to their alma maters or another school that is
significant to them in some way, and they therefore don’t have the ability to
promise the material to de Grummond. Other files also contain information that
seems somewhat superfluous or unreasonable kept. For instance I found one file
that only had an empty envelope in it. I assume it was kept for the address,
but this doesn’t seem to be the most efficient use of space.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The thing that makes me curious
about this is wondering how you know what to keep. We didn’t really talk about
this kind of thing in class, so I’m wondering what the guidelines for this are.
I’m not sure how any particular archive or special collection decides what is
important for it to keep, and I assume that the decision is made on an
individual institution basis, but I don’t know you would go about making that
decision. I know there are things in the de Grummond files that I wouldn’t have
kept. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The other thought that I’ve had in
regards to the correspondence files is to feel sad that the current staff doesn’t
have the time to focus on correspondence like the staff did in the past. This
is mostly due to the increasing number of commitments which the staff has to focus
on, rather than seeking out new donors and correspondents. It seems like the
heavy time periods of correspondence were at the beginning of the collection
when Dr.de Grummond heavily sought after contributors and the 1990s when one of
the previous curators sent out a lot of correspondence. A lot of these are
Christmas cards or personal letters. (This is another example of something that
might should be kept in perhaps another format or perhaps a set of files
together denoted by the curator’s name.)<o:p></o:p></div>Colleen Beavershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03235348465467534196noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871967853536233476.post-12974493666294438222012-03-25T18:53:00.000-07:002012-03-25T18:53:11.691-07:00Week of March 18<br />
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This past week I finished enough
hours to be officially two-thirds of the way through my practicum. It doesn’t
seem like I’ve worked 100 hours this semester, but working small shifts really
adds up over time. I think I have three weeks left barring any unforeseen circumstances
because I’ve been working every day for at least a few hours. (I really hope I
haven’t just jinxed myself.) Since I’ve hit a milestone in my hours I thought I
would reflect on the overall experience so far. I’ve been really enjoying
working in the de Grummond Collection this semester. I think I’m learning a lot
about the more mundane tasks archivists do, while at the same time I have been
learning hands-on with the more interesting tasks like processing collections
and creating exhibits. Overall so far it has been a great experience and I’m
looking forward to finishing my hours; I’m sure there will be plenty of things
to do before the Children’s Book Festival and the Ezra Jack Keats Awards. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Last week I mostly worked on the correspondence
files. I had hoped to be able to finish the entire project, but I’m almost to
the end of my supply of acid-free folders. Apparently they only order supplies
annually, so while they know they need more, I probably won’t be there to
finish the project. They had had some of the student workers working on them as
time permitted, so they will have to finish the project. I’ve gotten them
pretty far though, and of the 22 drawers of files, there will probably only be
about 5 left when I complete my part. I think it’s unfortunate that I won’t be
able to finish transferring the files to the new folders. While the student
workers are helpful, because of my archival and library training, I’m more
likely to catch mistakes in the files. There have been several instances when I
noticed something was wrong with a file or that something was missing or
incorrectly placed/labeled and it is difficult to know whether the undergraduate
workers would have caught them. Like the previous posting described, the files
are very interesting. I’m learning a lot about the day to day operations of an
archive or special collection by reading the files. Most of the time we don’t
think about the practical side of archival practices such as maintaining
relationships with donors and contributors, but reading the files has reminded
me of the many tasks for which the archivist is responsible that we didn’t learn
about in class. Here is a picture of the correspondence files. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoDKD9KQoTA1YV_CkqqKhB0jm2B50mavgz5EFkajY9MxPX95s8gcuXdxxWB38K-frAJ6YMPJoAEUsNc48ZkYZ5eyMxSoSoC0KO7TzQRFu9pqnsGjXHh9yJblB3pVOymZ_q7WK5hYWMP1CA/s1600/WP_000083.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoDKD9KQoTA1YV_CkqqKhB0jm2B50mavgz5EFkajY9MxPX95s8gcuXdxxWB38K-frAJ6YMPJoAEUsNc48ZkYZ5eyMxSoSoC0KO7TzQRFu9pqnsGjXHh9yJblB3pVOymZ_q7WK5hYWMP1CA/s320/WP_000083.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Colleen Beavershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03235348465467534196noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871967853536233476.post-71494679688774786352012-03-20T18:56:00.000-07:002012-03-20T18:56:29.094-07:00Spring Break Week and Previous Weeks<br />
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I haven’t written on my blog for some time because I’ve had
two separate bad illnesses in a row, and I feel like I’ve hardly worked in de
Grummond at all. I spent the whole week before spring break on doctor-ordered
bed rest feeling terribly, and only worked a few hours the week before that.
Fortunately I have started feeling better and managed to work four days the
week of spring break. It feels nice to be able to be back in my practicum. The
following is a description of the activities I did in the few days I worked
before spring break and then the project I started last week over spring break.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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The de Grummond collection is spread out right now across
several floors of the McCain building and Cook Library pending some
construction and rearrangement of the collections in McCain. I believe the plan
is to move all the de Grummond collection to one floor, all of the archives and
manuscripts to one floor and so on. Right now the most used part of the
collection, the PZ7s, are inside the de Grummond offices so they are easy to
get to, but the rest of the collection is spread out. There is a system set up
right now of checking back in books that have been used in the Millennium
system—both item and copy use—and then moved to a series of shelves and sorted
by call number. Because the shelves are spread across two buildings, it is
really complicated to put back the books which go in Cook Library. They are
also not entirely in order anymore, therefore we haven’t been reshelving those
books. I’ve worked out a plan to shift the sorting shelves so that it is easier
to handle the overflow, but I got sick before I had a chance to work on it.
Hopefully I can work on that some later in the semester. <o:p></o:p></div>
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While I was working on a project with the books, we
discovered that the laptop wouldn’t let us log on. I volunteered to take it to
the help desk in Cook Library so ITECH could fix it. I actually ended up being
over there for over an hour. Apparently the computer had been kicked off the
network and they had to mess with it a lot to get it back on. The funny thing
though was that this seemed to be a more common problem than you would think
and it was happening to a lot of computers. I really think the computer needs
to be replaced, since it’s one of the old IBM Thinkpads. Fortunately it isn’t
used frequently so it isn’t as big of a deal as it could be. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The de Grummond collection co-sponsors the annual Children’s
Book Festival and this year is the first year that USM is going to be hosting
the Ezra Jack Keats Awards for best new author and best new illustrator. We’ve
been working on putting together a lot of activities related to the EJK Awards,
most notably a party at the Train Depot in downtown Hattiesburg to celebrate
the winners. The party will be held the Thursday evening of the Book Festival.
I’ve been working on the invitations for it, though the student workers
finished up the project while I moved onto something else. I think it will be a
pretty nice party, though we were concerned about it for a while because the
venue lost our reservation for the night of the party and then they were
concerned that we wouldn’t have enough room for all the people that are being
invited. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Last week I started work on a
special project: the correspondence files. The files contain all of the correspondence
the collection has had with donors and contributors, and vary between
preliminary inventories of contributions to Christmas cards. They are currently
in 22 drawers alphabetically, but they are in a mix of the old brown folders
and the newer acid-free folders. I am updating them and shifting them all into
the newer acid-free folders. I am also removing the paper clips and staples
from the old folders, like we learned in our classes. Having these files moved
into the acid-free folders is very important for preservation purposes. These
letters are archival materials and are therefore irreplaceable. Many of them
are dated from the early 1960s when Dr. Lena de Grummond started the children’s
collection; for instance there are nmany letters which are responses to Dr. de
Grummond’s requests for materials to include in the collection or invitations
to the early book festivals. The above is a picture of the two kinds of folders: the old brown and the new acid-free on the bottom. </div>
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The correspondence files are really
interesting to work with and I have enjoyed getting to go through them. I’ve
gotten to see the files for Charles Schulz, Maurice Sendak, and Richard Scarry.
The files also tell the story of the early part of the collection, through the
early requests for material, the changes in the staff of the collection, and
the name change of the collection itself. (At its inception, the collection was
called the Special Children’s Collection; only later did its name change in
honor of the founder.) I don’t think they’ve been gone through in a long time,
maybe ever. A big part of what I’ve been doing besides switching out the
folders is fixing mistakes. There have been several typos on the names which
would make it more difficult to find what you are looking for—one file was even
labeled with the last name Ran, and filed accordingly, but the last name listed
in the contents was Rankin. It would have been impossible to find it as it was
before I fixed it. The picture below is a letter from Charles Schulz to Lena de Grummond. </div>
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While many people would find
working with the correspondence files to be boring, I’m finding it fascinating.
I’m learning a lot about the workings of an archive. Most of the things we
learn in class focus on the practices of archival or library work, rather than
the day to day basics of work that is the inevitable part of working in any
archive or library, like correspondence with the people who support the library.
It’s important to remember that the library or archive does not occupy a vacuum
and one must cultivate relationships with patrons and contributors. I’ve also
found the letters and files themselves to be interesting. I love learning new
names and have found some interesting ones, like Harlow Rockwell, Owenita, and
Elbsworth (which was the poor woman’s first name). There was also a series of
letters from an author’s lawyer regarding a missing illustration. There seemed
to be a discrepancy regarding who lost the illustration, de Grummond or UPS,
and the lawyer was threatening to take action against the school to recoup the
author’s losses. <o:p></o:p></div>Colleen Beavershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03235348465467534196noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871967853536233476.post-40072887985710011702012-02-19T18:56:00.000-08:002012-02-19T18:56:22.737-08:00Weeks Two and Three<br />
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Last week I didn’t work as many
hours as I normally would because I had a doctor’s appointment. The time I did
spend in de Grummond was mainly spent finishing the letters they send every
year to thank the donors and provide inventory lists for tax purposes. I helped
print, copy, and mail the letters. The hardest part was getting all of the addresses;
they were in several different places, though they are in the process of
creating an updated database of all the donors. Thanking the donors is an
important part of cultivating a collection, and though we didn’t really talk
about it a lot in class, I think it is one of the most important aspects of
archival work, particularly for smaller archives or others not associated with
universities. Oftentimes these kinds of archives depend on donors just to
operate; properly thanking them gives donors an opportunity to really feel like
part of the organization. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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This past week I worked a lot of
hours in my practicum making up for missing hours the week before. On Monday I
went through the certification process to work in the stacks with the books. I
had to take an almost two hour computer training program with quizzes on the
Library of Congress Classification system. The program was cute (it starred a
wizard librarian), but ultimately frustrating. I had to get a 100 on all four
quizzes, which doesn’t sound that hard given my A in cataloging, but the
program was a little complicated to use. I would think I had moved a book in
arranging them in order and it wouldn’t have moved, and would thus get marked
wrong. I also had to take a paper quiz. While this may seem like a lot of work
just to be able to touch the books, it is very important that the people working
with them know what they’re doing. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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I’ve really enjoyed getting to work
in the stacks this week. Along with the student workers, I have been working on
a shelf read, which is going through the shelves and putting them in order. On the
first day I found one that was correct number wise, at least it would have been
if it had been a PZ 7 like the rest of the wall. It was actually a PZ 5, which
are located in Cook Library right now, so it wasn’t even in the right building.
I also found almost an entire shelf that was, while in order internally, several
shelves past where they should have been. We pulled them off the shelf and put
them on a book cart because putting them where they belong is going to be
pretty complicated and involve moving several shelves worth of books to find
room for them. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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While working in the stacks isn’t
traditional archival work, I’m enjoying the experience with them. It is more
typically library or special collections work, and I think the broader the experiences
I have in my practicum, the better off I will be when I have a real job. Even
typical archives have to work with books, and the varied tasks I have been
given so far have been very enjoyable. <o:p></o:p></div>Colleen Beavershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03235348465467534196noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871967853536233476.post-83462920970363089902012-02-08T19:24:00.000-08:002012-02-08T19:24:09.090-08:00Links and PicturesThe following is the address for the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection. <br />
<a href="http://www.lib.usm.edu/~degrum/">http://www.lib.usm.edu/~degrum/</a><br />
Last week I worked with the H.A. & Margret Rey Collection quite a bit, so I'm posting some pictures from the digital collection. The Rey collection is found online at <a href="http://digilib.usm.edu/cdm/search/collection/rey/">http://digilib.usm.edu/cdm/search/collection/rey/</a>. <br />
This is a panda gripper pet which H.A. Rey invented. It was one of the pieces which I had to replace in its folder.<br />
<img alt="Assembled panda rivet toy ("Gripper Pet"); undated" class="results_tn_img" item_id="365" itemcoll="/rey" src="http://digilib.usm.edu/utils/getthumbnail/collection/rey/id/365" /><br />
The next picture is a photograph Margret took on a beach in Brazil. When we were trying to put it back in its folder, we found that it was in the wrong place. Through some detective work involving the finding aids for the collection and a copy of a magazine, we managed to find the proper place for it and the others from that and the next folder.<br />
<img alt="Beach Umbrellas, matted black and white photograph; Undated" class="results_tn_img" item_id="466" itemcoll="/rey" src="http://digilib.usm.edu/utils/getthumbnail/collection/rey/id/466" />Colleen Beavershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03235348465467534196noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871967853536233476.post-11475573692668081582012-02-05T20:02:00.001-08:002012-02-05T20:02:40.129-08:00Week One<br />
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This was my first week in my archival practicum. I am
working in the de Grummond Collection at USM under the curator and assistant
curator.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My first day I was a little
nervous because I’ve never worked in an archive before, but so far my
experience has been very enjoyable. My first day I had an introduction to the
collection, a tour of the places where it’s kept, and introductions to many of
the people who work in the archives. I was given a crash course on the layout
of the manuscript section, the main area in which I am working, which was
fairly overwhelming. Like many archives, the manuscripts are kept on shelves in
whichever manner the boxes will fit, so the aisles and shelves are numbered and
a card system was created to assist the archivists in finding the material. As
the week went on I felt more comfortable using the system to find collections,
and it does in fact work quite well despite the fact that it seems both low
tech and confusing. My first day I had to find places to house a few of the
newly acquired collections, which definitely gave me a better overview of how
the shelving system works. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>My other
duties this week have mainly consisted of replacing materials in collections,
by using the finding aids on the collection’s website and also through the
system of paper slips which aid the curators in knowing where items came from.
I can definitely see the value of meticulousness. While we learn in class the
ideal, in reality these kinds of practices can become lost in the shuffle; they
are extremely important in the functioning of the archive though. My final day
this week consisted of helping prepare a few collections for appraisal. In
class we learn how important it is for an independent appraiser to be the one
to assess the value of collections. This was also stressed on Friday, though I
did get to witness that it often takes the archive longer to prepare the
collections than it does for the appraiser to work. <o:p></o:p></div>Colleen Beavershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03235348465467534196noreply@blogger.com0