Now that I have completed the National Baptist Sanitarium and Bathhouse project section, a total of 41 boxes have been completely processed for the McKissack collection. Five boxes of my next section have been partially processed. This leaves 21 boxes of documents and realia, five boxes of blueprints, and numerous rolled blueprints. It has been challenging to keep up the pace with such a large collection while maintaining consistency and accuracy.
I am now working on projects that took place in Memphis, Tennessee. It appears that multiple projects sometimes show up on one document, so I may add a Memphis projects subseries under the Projects series if they cannot all be separated. With this idea in mind, I am now going through the records and separating them into at least four subseries: Memphis projects (when there is more than one on a document or when the project is not identified), Metropolitan Baptist Church, Universal Life Insurance Company, and Lauderdale Church of Christ. If I find other Memphis projects in this group of papers, I will add another subseries. Since I have an outline for the previous projects, this should go rather smoothly. I hope that by sorting through multiple smaller projects at once that I will be able to make up some time I lost earlier in the month.
Challenges
The most challenging current aspect is the blueprints series because they were not originally estimated in the size of this collection thus were not included in the schedule for completion. I would estimate that the blueprints increase the size of the collection by about one-third. I do not yet have a solid count of how many blueprints there are, but that will be documented once we find a space to flatten them all. It has been determined that they should be flattened and cleaned and this will take time. The best option is to flatten these documents and store them in flat boxes, but that then poses a storage challenge. Hopefully, the blueprints will flatten well enough that they will not take up much space aside from the unique size of the box. I have spoken to the conservationist here and will be speaking to my supervisor, Ms. Mattie, later in the week to determine when the flattening should begin.
Outreach: Black History Month powerpoint
As mentioned last week, I was able to update my powerpoint presentation playing downstairs to include an expanded version of the Tennessee State Library and Archives online exhibit, “This Honorable Body: African American Legislators in 19th Century Tennessee.” I also used Audacity to cut a few speech excerpts from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech and President Obama’s latest Inaugural Address. Combined with some music and once the kinks were worked out, I looped and repeated the music and speech excerpts in a fourteen minute loop to match the fourteen minute presentation. Using the Windows playlist to randomize the selections adds another level of depth to the presentation because an attendee can then watch it more than once and have a different experience each time because different songs or clips appear at different times in the revolution of the slides.
Challenges
I had a few challenges with the sound clips. First, Windows Media Player did not like that Audacity added “tags” or metadata to the *.mp3 file, so after it would play that clip, the playlist would stop and it would show an error. Once I discovered the issue and removed the extra metadata, I still had a problem with one clip. I finally determined that the clip was simply too short. It was only one second. So I went back and made a larger cut at which point the playlist began working well.
Public Programming: Sustainable Community Workshop, Lynchburg, VA
I discussed some outreach and public programming options last week and have been considering other ideas. The unexpected loss last August of Ms. Beth Howse, the Archivist at Franklin Library, has been difficult for the Fisk University community. Not only did Franklin Library lose a beloved and long-time member of the Fisk family, but the library staff has been stretched beyond its already limited personnel. Special Collection hours have had to be further limited yet the requests for research and access to the amazing collections have not decreased. In order to prevent further staffing strain and delays in responses to reference requests, active outreach and public programming efforts have been necessarily limited.
I have been trying to think “outside of the box” for other ways to achieve professional development in a way that does not put strain on the hardworking staff here at Franklin Library. Fortunately, a friend of mine was discussing her plans for a Sustainable Community Workshop in her town of Lynchburg, Virginia. She asked if I would mind helping her develop resources for the attendees and possibly give a presentation on the importance of community archiving and documenting current sustainability efforts. She hopes to further expand this workshop to other small communities including areas in Tennessee. I thought this would be a great way to actively participate in a public program that will not cause undue strain on Franklin Library. I am looking forward to participating in her workshop scheduled tentatively for the weekend of April 12-14. While this workshop is not focused on students, I think education is an imperative in all walks of life and so being able to bring resources and instruction to the general public, especially in smaller communities, can further encourage education of those communities at a grassroots level. I am excited to see where this opportunity may lead.
Until next time…
Amanda J.
Carter
Franklin
Library, Fisk University
IMLS
HistoryMakers Fellow 2012-2013
No comments:
Post a Comment