By Tuesday, I had finished arranging and describing the smaller projects, so I began arranging and describing the documents for another series, “Community Involvement.” Subseries so far include “Community Services Commission,” “American Red Cross Negro Division,” and “National Technical Association.” There will probably be one or two more subseries for correspondence and other community involvement, but these three are the largest. I am already on the last box so this section should be completed by the middle of next week. Then I will work on the remaining five boxes of photographs, newspaper clippings, and other miscellaneous materials. I should be able to work through that in another two weeks, at most, before finalizing the arrangement of the entire collection. I cannot wait to see it all fit together!
Interesting Finds
The Community
Services Commission information is particularly interesting because it
seems that Calvin McKissack was in this group that was formed to
study the provision of services in Nashville and Davidson County. Not only does it include correspondence and
meeting minutes, but there are two copies of the final report. I am going to try to photograph one of them
for HistoryPin. This collection is
turning out to be a valuable piece of mid-twentieth century Nashville
history.
Professional Development Conference Call: Gretchen Gueguen
Discussing digitization with Gretchen Gueguen was very
informative, especially since there is now an expectation by researchers that
libraries and archives have some form of access to digital records. She pointed out that there is a current need
for experience in the digital world since it is being integrated into libraries
and archives in a variety of ways.
Ms. Gueguen emphasized project management skills and understanding
everyone’s abilities so that they can all be used most effectively to
accomplish digitization goals. She also
stressed the importance of working together across departments and suggested
that the key to success is aligning departmental goals.
As with most of our professional development calls, Ms. Gueguen
discussed the importance of networking and being active in societies. She advised us to gain experience in all
aspects of archives and to attend webinars and lectures that are available even
if the topic may not pertain to our current line of work because we may never
know when we may need that information.
Ms. Gueguen also discussed the importance of understanding technology,
whether that be social networking or Encoded Archival Description. I really enjoyed hearing from her and
appreciate Ms. Gueguen taking the time to speak with us about her experiences in
archives.
Until next time,
Amanda J. Carter
Franklin Library, Fisk University
IMLS HistoryMakers Fellow 2012-2013
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