Archive Alive

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Posting date: October 29, 2018

I also started going through a couple of boxes of raw files from Brother Louis. He was very good at saving and organizing documents. His files are proving longer to go through as they are denser. You can see my workspace and how I have it set up as I go through the boxes. I will be finishing these up this week, my final internship week. Here are a couple of thoughts I have for anyone doing this type of work, whether in archiving or records management. First of all, make sure your tetanus shot is up to date. This may sound overboard, but you will be handling some rusty, stabby staples. It can help you keep some peace of mind as your forge through raw files that may be decades old. And on that note, invest in some hand sanitizer. You may be handling some pretty loved-on folders and documents. Another tip is to use your whole space. I adapted my space around me to make my work more efficient and easier on my back. As a short person, reaching up from my chair to get files out of the box on my desk wasn’t working. I placed them a little lower on the folding chair. Find a system that works for you.

Posting date: October 29, 2018

It has been a while! I had about two weeks away from this internship while my kids had fall break and while I took my comprehensive exams. I am happily on the other side now. Anyway, last week, I spent a good deal of time processing some bankers boxes of raw files from the President’s office. You can see here my completed work. These 6 boxes have been organized into new file folders, put into these archival boxes, assigned index codes, and indexed into aXs. All of these documents are now findable and locatable. They are now ready to be sent to the archive.

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Posting date: October 07, 2018

Another fun thing that happened this week was Plough Library’s Fall Fest! I was able to help out, and I had a lot of fun meeting some of the students. You can see some of the booths that were set up. I especially liked the Dewey decimal game, and the table full of free comic books was a huge hit! The students created some sidewalk art and enjoyed some refreshments as well. The event took place right outside of the library, under the “arches” and in the quad. The library was able to promote itself to students and staff alike during this fun event. I am glad I was able to participate!

Posting date: October 07, 2018

You can see the completed boxes in the top picture. Much better looking than those bankers boxes, and now all the documents are preserved in acid-free containers. I then printed the content sheets, scanned them into aXs, and indexed them from there. Now the contents are not only preserved and organized, but they are findable now as well.

Posting date: October 07, 2018:

This week, I processed three bankers boxes from the CFO. Two of the boxes are on the wooden cart that you can see in the top photo, and the third is on my desk, as you can see in the second photo. The fourth and fifth photos show my progress removing staples and paperclips from the documents as I organized them. The last picture shows how nice and neat these documents look after getting the straightening-up treatment. I transferred them from their current folders into acid-free folders, and wrote a little note labeling what was in them along the front (see photo 3). Once all the files were organized, transferred into new folders, and put in the grey archival boxes, I began making content sheets for each folder. In total, the three boxes yielded 8 boxes and 28 content sheets.

Post date: October 03, 2018

Remember all those file folders from the President’s Office? I spent most of my time last week entering the content sheets into aXs, so the files are now all indexed and findable. In the first picture, you can see my stack of content sheets that I was working through. In the second picture, you can see how the content sheets look when scanned into aXs. Technically, I didn’t need to refer to the physical sheets once they were scanned in. However, I did place them in an “indexed” pile once completed in aXs. I did this in order to confirm that all sheets had been scanned and found. I wanted to make sure nothing had gotten lost in the ether. Luckily, every sheet made it in. In the third picture you can see me organizing the physical content sheets as I went along.

Posting date: October 03, 2018

I also got to process an allotment of awards from the late Coach Nadicksbernd’s office, which I processed and indexed. They came to us wrapped in newspaper inside the boxes in picture 3. After creating content sheets for each object, they were wrapped in acid-free paper and placed in archival boxes (picture two). Here is more about Coach Nadicksbernd for those interested.

Posting date: October 03, 2018

I started out last week (September 24-28) by finishing the ephemera folders. I made sure all the date I had entered into the software was correct before moving on to the next project. You can see the folders in the second picture.

Then I started processing another batch of material objects, which you can see in the first picture. For each object, I created a content sheet in a word document, wrapped it in acid-free paper, and placed it in a drawer, just like last time. These were all newer items from 2018. The beginning of this week (October 1-5), I printed the material object sheets, scanned them into aXs, then indexed each sheet.

Post Date: September 22, 2018

To finish out this week’s post, here are some shots of a dance card from 1950. Those songs would make a pretty awesome throwback playlist.

Post Date: September 22, 2018

Here are some more example of early 1950′s graphics. The top photo displays an ad for a local Memphis company. The bottom photo shows a ditto sheet where someone was able to put an image of a pirate-looking character in the corner. Someone was having a bit of fun with the newsletter!

Post Date: September 22, 2018

Speaking of graphics, these football programs from 1951 are fantastic examples of mid-century graphic design. In the first picture, notice the picture of players on the field that is superimposed on the football. I imagine that took a lot of legwork back in the day. The graphics in the second picture are also fun to examine: the aerial view of the football field, the bottom of a cleat, etc. It shows a lot of creativity and artistry went into something as mundane as a football program.

Post Date: September 22, 2018

These pictures show you how the documents look in real life and on the screen. You can’t beat a classic Coke ad.

Post Date: September 22, 2018

Hi there! I was only able to work 5 hours this week instead of my usual 15 due to an illness. But I still have plenty of fun things to share! Last week, I scanned some ephemera documents into aXs. This week, I added them into the index. This is the same process I used for content sheets before, but this time, the objects were scanned in rather than the content sheet. These pictures give you a good general idea of what this looked like. When I go back on Monday, I will go over all my work and make any edits as needed. I will also double check that all the pages that I scanned were actually uploaded into aXs. If any were missed, I will rescan them.

Post Date: September 16, 2018

Once the items were scanned, I placed them in these protective sheets and put them back in the folder, which I then marked as scanned. I especially enjoyed seeing the “dance cards” from past CBC dances. Everything from the graphics to the quality of paper was really neat to see. (Not to mention the social convention of dance cards!) Although the few that I scanned were blank, I imagine there are some full ones out there that are dearly treasured by their owners.

Post Date: September 16, 2018

Here are a couple of shots of some of the items I scanned. I would have assigned a sequential number to any items that weren’t already labeled, but I did not need to do that this time.

Post Date: September 16, 2018

I ended my week with this handsome gentleman. I scanned a few folders of ephemera items into aXs. They were scanned directly on the screen rather than through the feeder as these items were fragile or oddly sized.

Post Date: September 16, 2018

I started this past week off by finishing up my work with the files from the president’s office. In the first picture, you get an idea of how many boxes of files I completed. I was able to clear both shelves (see picture 2 when I was half done) and the wooden shelves of file boxes as well. The little red cart got filled up pretty quickly! In total, I processed 45 boxes, which generated 318 content sheets for documents and 2 contents sheets for objects.

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