Cynthia Lovett: Week 5 @ TheHistoryMakers

From last Friday and throughout most of this week I got the chance to work on the back end of things.  I finally created EAD and EAC-CPF files for several of my finding aids.  The last few weeks I was concentrating on the evaluations and waiting for the approval on my text. Even though I have a technology background, a good part of the process seemed like a mystery until this week.    Although I had been writing the evaluations and entering data into our FileMaker database, this was the first time I got a chance to export the EAD.  

An interview may have several tapes, and for each tape, we assign several Library of Congress Subject Headings and edit 2-3 web clips. Ultimately, two clips are selected to appear on the website. We also create PBCore records for each web clip we make. As for the subject headings, many of them are not already in the system, so if we are using new ones we need to email Dan Johnson, our Digital Archivist, so that he can add them.  All of this very detailed work will make each story fragment accessible to researchers, so they do not have to search the entire tape.

In our archives seminar we discussed digital archives as it relates to digital preservation, digital stewardship, digital curation, and digital asset management. In our african american seminar we discussed the Reconstruction period.

I met with Dan and Julieanna about the kinds of projects I may work on this year.  We discussed the possibility of editing a video for an upcoming public program, learning some of the database programming, as well as developing a social media plan.  Later in the week, Julieanna met with Skyla Hearn and I to begin planning the public program for February 2013 that will provide the opportunity for people to learn more about what archivists do. 

Each of the fellows will be doing presentations in the coming weeks on work they will do at their host repository. My presentation will be on the HistoryMakers, of course.  I will be working on a draft this week in either PowerPoint or Prezi.  The presentation will discuss our participation plan as well as introduce another African American archive to the group.  Each fellow will choose a different archive or collection.  It will be interesting to learn about other African American archival resources across the country.