WWPL Volunteer Diaries

This week I finished filing all the documents from the Ochs scrapbook and began adding metadata for each item in a .csv spreadsheet. The parameters are the same ones I worked with for the Ambuehl collection, so the process has been fairly straightforward so far. Continue reading “Week 4 – Ochs Collection”

This week I started yet another project. Mark decided he would like for me to work on organizing the excel data sheet for the Race and Segregation Collection. The items in this collection have already been posted online and for the most part have all the metadata, subjects and tags attached to them. My job will be to go through the file and make sure that the data in the excel sheet matches what is online, and to update it if not. Continue reading “Week three: 01/31-02/02”

I completed a few more transcriptions for the Ambuehl Collection, and then Mark instructed me on how to upload the collection and metadata to Omeka using a .csv file. All of this is new to me, as I haven’t worked with .csv files before. Unfortunately, not all of the files transferred. Continue reading “Week 3 – Ochs Collection”

In addition to completing the collection description on Omeka, I spent this week compiling a spreadsheet of metadata for the digitized items in the Ambuehl collection. Continue reading “Week 2: Ambuehl Collection”

This week I started the project of transcribing documents from the digital collections. After being walked through the procedure and how to format my transcriptions, I delved into the many letters, memos, and other documents waiting to be deciphered. I actually really enjoy this project. I like the challenge of trying to sift through the scrawling text, which can be difficult at times when the writing is small or sloppy. There’s one letter from someone at the Department of the Navy to Wilson that I’m trying to transcribe that is proving very difficult. The cursive text is tightly bound, and many of the letters are not exactly perfect cursive. There are a few revisions that were added in as well that add more symbols to be deciphered. Continue reading “Week two: 01/24-01/26”

My first week at the library began with light snows and very cold winds. The grounds surrounding the library and museum look lovely blanketed in white, and the stillness of the air is calming. The view from the reading room window is peaceful. Continue reading “Week one: 01/17-01/19”

This week I began my internship with a project I’d already begun some time ago while volunteering at WWPL: the John P. Ambuehl Collection. Easily one of my favorite collections I’ve worked on so far, the collection documents the military service and death of John P. Ambuehl, a private from Borup, Minnesota, who served as a machine gunner in France during WWI and was killed in action in October 1918. Continue reading “Week 1: Ambuehl Collection”

I’m still describing documents, printing them out, and integrating the digital and paper collections. When I first started describing documents, I asked my supervisor if I could name a document something like “racist slander.” He laughed and said that didn’t meet professional standards of objectivity, but that I could “dance around that” as best as I could. I want to be objective, but I’m realizing there is an inevitable level of subjectivity in whatever I do.  Continue reading “Week Six”

After a month of pulling the Wilson and Segregation collection to pieces, I’m finally integrating the digital-only collection and paper-only collections by scanning the paper only collection and printing the digital-only collection. The goal is to have all the papers on Wilson and Segregation in a single collection in both digital and paper format. Continue reading “Week 5”

How many people typewrite a letter to the president and forget to sign their name? Three so far. And the crazy thing is that 100 years later, someone actually cares enough to track down who they are. Continue reading “Don’t sign your name…”