So the photo collection processing has hit a speed bump.
On Thursday, when it looked like the end was in sight as we reached the last three or four folders in the bottom file cabinet drawer, Ashley and I found some rather head-scratching worthy snags. Some of the folders and their contents had already been scanned, but we think just misnumbered. Going through the digital files to double check what was there we found images that weren’t in any of the physical folders in front of us, despite being numbered correctly. So where were those photos? And why were there two WWPL2626’s and some other duplicate folders?
As any confused interns would do we made stacks of what didn’t make sense and what kind of made sense along with notes detailing what was going on in the hopes it would somehow all work out. It didn’t. I’m so excited for tomorrow (no sarcasm intended, seriously, I’m curious to see what Mark has us do).
I’m not excited that things have been mis-foldered or mis-numbered or mis-something-ed, but instead that Ashley and I stumbled upon a real world problem that, up until now, I’ve only read about in textbooks or in other people’s discussion posts in class who already work in an archive. I’ve never really thought of jobs in the LIS field as smooth sailing or easy; there’s too many changing facets to assume there’d never be any mix-ups or technological changes, that the organization of information is just one solid unyielding brick you can toss around. It’s more like a Jenga tower with a few loose sticks; stable for the most part, but filled with all those wonderful “what if?” learning moments such as half a file cabinet drawer of…not organized stuff. So you learn how to fix it, make it better, organize it better, and shove that Jenga stick back into its hole better than it was before.
This internship has definitely been one of Realizations (capitalization fully intended). When I first read about the digitization of records my brain concocted this very convoluted idea of how that goes; it involved lasers and sealed labs and, for some reason, gas masks. Which, in some cases as I’ve found out, there are sometimes labs involved and lasers for scans such as 3D imaging, but no gas masks. Sometimes it’s just you, in a little back room, putting physical photographs into an Epson scanner and making them digital. Rinse, lather, repeat. After getting over my initial wariness of Mac computers and Realizing that I was doing actual record digitization I felt…kind of official. Like, I was actually a quasi-archivist. It was something I actually went to work and bragged about.
I’ve come across some really cool photos, some of which I’ve pulled up online to show coworkers. I think it’d be interesting to put together a mini collection of quirks and curiosities from the WWPL Photo Collection, but I don’t know who, exactly, would be the target audience. Easily distracted and fascinated people like me? One photo in particular reminds me of a textbook my brother had in business school for his critical thinking class; inside were…unusual pictures, like a nun mowing the lawn with a Hawaiian shirt on over her standard nun attire. The purpose was to think critically about the picture; why it was happening, how it was happening, what was going to happen after or what had happened before.
And, in a way, isn’t that what archives are meant to do? Preserve the past to see where we, as humans, have been and gone? To keep track of what all we’ve done and how we’ve done it and how we’ve hopefully learned and changed from it? To think critically not only about ourselves as individuals, but how we’ve fit into the world as communities and societies throughout history? I probably won’t lobby to make my mini collection idea a reality because of its many faults and more than likely lack of appeal, but it’s something I might unofficially try to keep track of as I come across more critical thinking textbook worthy pictures.
