The Life Of A Keeneland Library Intern

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This is the end... again!

So... I’M DONE AT LAST!!!

It’s been an experience and I have really enjoyed it. If you want to look at what I’ve done, please come see here!

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Omeka - Part 3

Now to the actually adding of an image. I have picked out about 250-275 images that I want to add to the exhibit so keep that in mind when I talk about all the steps it takes.

Firstly, I added images by collection. I had already picked out all the images I wanted to use from my hard drive and I searched all of those images for ‘Cook’. Cook images have a number after them (i.e.: Cook 319) so I wrote down all of the Cook numbers so I could go to the original images.

Once I had all the numbers, I went to the vault and proceeded to pull all of the original images, one-by-one, and take a picture of the metadata that was on the envelope with my phone to make sure I had all the available information before adding the image to the collection. 

As you can see, there are 4 parts to adding each image. I firstly added the Dublin Core information, the Item Type Metadata, and the file.

I typically added the image first.

Then I added the Item Type Metadata. When I pulled the originals, I also wrote down what type of material the item was. Most in the Cook collection are 5x7 glass plate negatives.

Then I went back to the beginning and added the Dublin Core metadata. Just like with the Collections, I don’t fill out every box. As you can see, for the title I used the collection number and the subject & description were the rest of the image title from the hard drive. The other data is the same for every image and I copied and pasted it from a notepad into the correct boxes. I then save the Item to ensure the site doesn’t freeze and I don’t loose the basic information before I write a more detailed description and tags (I learned from experience).

I then describe the image in detail and use that description to add the tags.

As you can see, each image takes a while to add. There were 60 Cook images and it look me 3-4 weeks just to add those images to the collection. Now I have to do the other 200+ images... :D

That’s all I have so far about using Omeka.net! Stay tuned for more.

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Omeka - Part 2

I wrote about adding an Exhibit and Pages last post. Let’s talk about one of the parts that come with adding Items. You could just add all the images to one collection but I took the time to add a Collection page for each of Keeneland Library’s actual image collections which took A LOT of time due to having to hand type up the collection descriptions that were previously typewritten. When you add a collection, you fill out a Dublin Core metadata element set.

I didn’t fill out all the information required because either I didn't have it or it didn’t relate, but it took a while, as I said, to find all the data needed and then type it up.

I added 10 of these collections to Omeka and then moved on to the actual adding of Items.

See my next post for more!

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Omeka - Part 1

So for the last 4+ weeks, I’ve been working on an Omeka exhibit to showcase the digital images I spent so long organizing.

“Omeka.net is web-publishing platform that allows anyone with an account to create or collaborate on a website to display collections and build digital exhibitions” (Source).

One of my predecessors made an Omeka exhibit for one of our collections, The Artistry of Peb. I used that, along with her video tutorials, to learn what I needed to do to create my own digital exhibit with the images I had just organized.

My exhibit is called ‘Photo Treasures from the Keeneland Library’ and it will showcase the digital images we have.

The process for creating an Omeka digital exhibit is interesting.

First, you have to create the Exhibit.

This is a pretty straight forward process. You just have to essentially fill in the blank but you can always edit the information really easily later.

Next, on that same page, you lay out the outline for your exhibit. Where it said ‘Add Page’ earlier you’ll add pages and drag and drop them until they are in the format you want them. You can even drag them to the right so you have subpages and layers in your exhibit.

When you add a Page you not only have to choose a title and tags but the layout. I tended to do a ‘Text’ block and then have a ‘Gallery’ underneath. I would write about what the images below are about and each gallery can hold 8 items. Sometimes you may have to add multiple galleries. If I’m doing a page of people, I do the ‘Text’ block for an explanation of the page, and then follow it up with multiple ‘File with Text’ blocks for each person and orientate them on opposites of the page for each entry for formatting. Keep in mind this might change once you start actually adding images to the pages.

Once you get everything in the exhibit set up, then you have to start adding ‘Items’ to the collection. In this case all the items were images but you can also add:

I’ll continue on in the next post about adding items to Omeka.

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Digital Image Collection

I originally had this idea to make podcasts for my final project for my practicum this semester. I had them all planned out but then I started organizing the Keeneland Library’s digital repository of images. To be blunt, it was a complete mess. I had to take the digitized images from multiple different CDs and flash drives and put them all on one 2 TB hard drive. The overall process to organize the Library’s digital images took over a month. I worked from December 22, 2015 to February 4th, 2016 complete the following steps for over 2,400 images:

I had to copy the images from the CD or flash drive onto, what we called, the Image Storage drive. Sometimes this took a few seconds but sometimes this took 30+ minutes due to the size of the images (and slowness of the technology). Another issue I ran across was corrupt files. Becky (my boss) gave me a bunch of flash drives but two were corrupted. I was able to fix one and recover a few images from the hidden trash folder but the other was unsalvageable unfortunately.

Then I had to go through the copied images, picture by picture and label them. The labeling process is what took forever and I simultaneously loved, hated, and adored the process.

First off, I had to look at the image itself or the name the image already had to see if it gave any hints to what the picture contained.

To make is easier for my coworkers to use in the future, we put all description data in the name of the image so it was searchable.

The image below shows what all the parts of the image title were.

The fun thing about labeling the picture is sometimes it would just have a small bit of information like the collection name and number. Then I had to go to the original and see what metadata was on the image and envelope to identify the image.

Even the metadata on the image was not enough. I also had to research on the internet, through books, and through my coworkers knowledge: what jobs people had, first names of jockeys, real names of women (they were labelled as Mrs. _____ a lot), which horse was in what place in a race so the viewer knew which horse was which in a race finish photo, where the race took place, who the jockey was, the date, and so much more.

Now keep in mind, I have images from the 1800s on. So finding additional information was really difficult sometimes.

It was really interesting to see the connections between all the images. This woman was that man’s sister. This man raised this famous persons daughter. This woman had three very famous wives. This man was killed by his wife on accident and a famous play was written about it. This horse was the first filly to win the Derby.

It all adds up to... I love my job!

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This is the end... :D

This is the reflective essay I had to write for the end of my practicum and I thought I’d share it here as well! I’m off to the next great adventure!

I had the honor of completing my practicum this semester at the Keeneland Library. The Library was established in 1939 and is a public research and reference special collections library that houses one of the world’s largest collection on the Thoroughbred (Source). The collection at the Library is magnificent. They are currently reassessing the size of the collection but at last count they had “nearly 30,000 books, approximately 400,000 photographic negatives and thousands of newspaper and magazine articles about all aspects of the equine industry” (Source). It is not only the library’s collection that is amazing but the staff there are wonderful as well. I was excited before I started my internship to master new skills but now that I am nearing the end, I am absolutely and profoundly grateful I had this opportunity to grow and learn. At Keeneland Library, I learned new new skills and I learned about myself. I hope that this paper reflects all that I experienced this semester.

When I started at Keeneland Library the first thing my new boss, Becky Ryder, had me do was tour and explore the Library. It was fascinating to see behind the scenes. A lot of people think a library is just for books and just the front room. I had never seen ‘behind the curtain’ before at a library here in the United States and it was amazing to see the preservation lab, the vault and the warehouse. Becky soon assigned me my first task, cleaning off a table in the lab. Now, you may think that seems like a weird task to do as an Intern but in fact, I was learning space management. A previous intern has foldered a collection of newspapers and they were all stacked on a table. They were just waiting to be put in boxes and safely stored away for future use. I had to put these folders in a box and then pad the boxes to keep them from shifting around. I then had to label the box. I really appreciated that Becky let me decide how to label the boxes. The boxes had all the information on them that was needed but I labelled them in a manner that made sense to me, and she approved. This really made me feel like I was doing a good job and that is really important to me. Such a simple thing but since this was my first assignment at the Keeneland Library, it really set the tone for the rest of my internship.

I finished this first task much more quickly than Becky expected and she then assigned me my second task. This would end up being what I spent the most of my time doing this semester. She asked me to help prepare the Morning Telegraph newspaper for digitization. This involved many different steps and really gave me a good idea of what preservation and archiving work was like. The steps were collation and mending, unbinding, pasting, separating the sections, trimming the sections, remove duplicates, foldering, and boxing the papers for future digitization. I completed all these steps for almost two years worth of newspapers. This was a very satisfying, if drawn out, process. Being able to see all of the steps that go into digitizing a collection was very helpful. It made me realize how much work goes into archive work. To be honest, I fell in love with archive work during this process and I realized that this type of work was something I wanted to do in my future career.

The next big project I worked on was processing a photograph and negative collection. This, like the Morning Telegraph, was a big project with a lot of different steps. However much I liked working with the Morning Telegraph and fell in love with working with archival materials, this project made me truly fall in love with my profession. I loved everything about this project from organizing the negatives and photographs to working with preserving the 85-year-old materials to interpreting a variety of different handwritings. This project made me realize that I really like working with physical collections and would really enjoy working with photograph collections in the future.

Other than the amazing skills I learned that will help me in my profession, I also learned about myself. The biggest thing I learned about myself was a sense of validation. I knew that I really liked library science and the things I was learning in my classes. Working at Keeneland Library was the first time I truly felt validated that I was on the right path. How much I enjoy working there and looked forward to coming into work has really made me feel amazing. I also really enjoy working there because of the people. Keeneland Library has an amazing staff that has made me feel welcomed and supported. This has made me know what to look for in a future job. I now know I would prefer a smaller library in order to get to know my coworkers better. Keeneland Library is hands down the best job I have ever had.

I hope this paper has made clear all I have learned while an intern at Keeneland Library. I learned so much about myself and so many new skills that I cannot imagine how much more I will learn next semester. My boss has asked me to come back next semester to complete another practicum and I am so grateful. I look forward to completing another practicum and graduating next semester.

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This is me explaining how I process a photo and negative collection.

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This is really cool! They are the same image but the top image is where someone ‘edited’ out the trees in the background. I looked really close and whoever did it had to have a super steady hand because it’s perfect. Look at this page for more information!

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This is one of my favourite things I’ve found at Keeneland. It’s a picture of the 1932 Democratic Convention. That was the year that Roosevelt completely annihilated Hoover and started his 12 year reign.

The 1932 Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago, Illinois June 27 – July 2, 1932. The 1932 convention pitted FDR, now governor of New York, against Al Smith and many others.

When it came time to accept the nomination, FDR broke with tradition and flew to Chicago to address the convention in person.  He acknowledged that fact in the beginning of his speech saying, “the appearance before a National Convention of its nominee for President, to be formally notified of his selection, is unprecedented and unusual, but these are unprecedented and unusual times.”

The convention resulted in the nomination of Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York for President and Speaker of the House John N. Garner from Texas for Vice President. Beulah Rebecca Hooks Hannah Tingley was a member of the Democratic National Committee and Chair of the Democratic Party of Florida. She seconded the nomination of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, becoming the first woman to address a Democratic National Convention (Source & Source).

The United States presidential election of 1932 took place as the effects of the 1929 Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression were being felt intensely across the country. President Herbert Hoover's popularity was falling as voters felt he was unable to reverse the economic collapse, or deal with prohibition. Franklin D. Roosevelt used what he called Hoover's failure to deal with these problems as a platform for his own election, promising reform in his policy called the New Deal. Roosevelt won by a landslide, and this "critical election" marked the collapse of the Fourth Party System or Progressive Era. The voters soon were realigned into the Fifth Party System, dominated by Roosevelt's New Deal Coalition (Source).

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This is the Estes Collection. I’ll post a video next week describing how exactly I am processing the collection. I love processing this collection. It is probably my favourite thing I’ve done so far at Keeneland.

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JA Estes

BIOGRAPHY - Born in Graves County, Kentucky, on March 2, 1902. Editor. Racing Authority, Civic Leader. University of Kentucky, A.B., 1927. Died, September 7, 1970.

He was editor of "Bloodhorse" magazine for several years, beginning his career with the Lexington-based publication in 1930, becoming associate editor, and in 1935, the editor. In 1963, he moved over to a senior advisory capacity for the magazine, serving as well "The Thoroughbred Record."

After graduation from the University, he went to New York as managing editor of "The Daily Running Horse" (1928-29), and then served as turf editor of "The Morning Telegraph," before returning to Lexington in September, 1930.

As a student he was, in succession, sports editor of "The Lexington Herald," sports editor of "The Lexington Leader," and for three years city editor of "The Herald" under Desha Breckenridge and Thomas Underwood. While in New York, he did a year of graduate work at Columbia University.

His wife, the former Betsy Beckner Worth of Lexington, whom he married in 1932, was a professor of psychology at the University. In November of 1963, the Jockey Club Stewards authorized setting up a statistical bureau according to plans submitted by him. He established the bureau in cooperation with Spindletop Research, which had the computer and the technical staff.

He was author of the annual "American Race Horses," 1952-61, and was a contributor to the "Encyclopedia Britannica," the "Dictionary of American Biography," and "Thoroughbred Racing and Breeding," among other publications.

He was a member and President of the Lexington Rotary Club, on the board of Keeneland Race Course (194146), President of the Thoroughbred Club of America, and a member and President of the Torch Club. In 1963, he was named Chairman of the Advisory Committee Toward Improving Education (ACTIVE), aimed at creating a modern technological school in Central Kentucky.

He was instrumental in beginning the Bookmobile Service throughout Kentucky. His memberships also included the Keeneland Club, Polo Club of Lexington, the Lexington Country Club, Pi Kappa Alpha, Alpha Delta Sigma, Lamp & Cross, the Mystic 13 and a number of others.

Joseph Alvie Estes was named to the Hall of Distinguished Alumni on November 6, 1970 (Source).

IMPACT - The AEI was developed by Joe Estes while he was editor of The Blood-Horse. He came up with the index to allow comparison of stallions from one generation to the next without resorting to a side-by-side look at earnings in dollars, which naturally don't maintain equal value over time.  It should be possible to compare sons of Seattle Slew with sons of Man o'War, who lived generations apart.  It should also be possible to compare offspring of two contemporary sons of Sadler's Wells regardless of the size of their foal crop -- Northern Spur (IRE) has 5 juveniles this year, for example, while El Prado (IRE) has 60; it would be misleading to compare their progeny earnings in pure dollars.

Basically, Estes figured out what was the average paycheck a runner earned in a year and called this figure the "expected" earnings for the average Thoroughbred racehorse, equivalent to 1.00 AEI. If the annual average earnings for Thoroughbreds was $10,000 and a given runner earned $12,500, his AEI would be 1.25 (or 1.25 times the yearly average earnings figure) (Source).

The late Joe Estes argued incessantly through out his writing career that a mare's race record was the single most important predictor of future success as a broodmare. In the 1999 compilation of his writings and speeches “The Estes Formula for Breeding Stakes Winners”, Estes writes “…regarding pedigree selection… it should usually be a minor accessory to individual selection, being permitted to sway the balance in making decisions which are fairly close on individual merit.” Estes was a staunch believer in acquiring successful racemares, with female families and pedigree being minor considerations (Source).

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Some actors and actresses from The Morning Telegraph.

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Some random but interesting horse ads from The Morning Telegraph.

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I don’t know what this is, if it’s a mess-up or on purpose.

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These are really really interesting pieces put together by Crown Crest. They talk about the different parts of the horse.

See more here.

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My Wife Knows Everything.flv

Monmouth Park race call.... 7th race on 8-22-10.... Track announcer's dream call! 'My Wife Knows Everything' more than 'The Wife Doesn't Know' !

A hysterical race announcement you must see.

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Some fascinating racehorse name from The Morning Telegraph.