Week fifteen

This was my last week working at the library. I completed my forty-five hours this week. I spent the time working on my presentation. I'll give it to a small crowd on Wednesday.

Here are a few slides from it.

I've learned a lot by working with everyone in the Special Collections department. I think I would really enjoy working there.

Week thirteen

This week I worked on my presentation on Monday night. I am still filling in all the details. Next week will be my last week at the library. I will give a presentation about my project in two weeks.

The Castel di Sangro Society collection now has a home in archival stacks!

It's official! Photo by Judy James

Glamor shot! Photo by Judy James

Week twelve

This week I worked on my presentation on Wednesday night. On Thursday night I finished processing the Castel di Sangro Society collection. I finished finding aid, created the database record, and created the labels for the boxes. Once the finding aid is cataloged, it will appear here.

Artifacts from the Castel di Sangro Society collection

A proper label!

I only have a few hours left to work on my internship, but because of the holiday week this coming week, it will be spread out over a few more weeks.

Week eleven

This week I worked on my presentation on Tuesday night. On Thursday night I worked on the Castel di Sangro Society collection.

This week I finished processing the last documents in the collection and worked on the finding aid.

This is the finding aid

Some of the objects I processed were oversized and will be housed separately from the collection. They are the original charter document and a list of the founding members. The charter document is from 1926.

Charter document and list of founding members

Week ten

This week I worked Tuesday and Thursday nights. I am continuing to work on my presentation and the Castel di Sangro Society collection.
I finished working on the photographs in the collection and started working on the documents in the collection.

Exercises in Memory of a Departed Brother

A lot of the documents are for society rites, whether for officer initiation, member initiation, or member funerals. There are also bylaws for the women's auxiliary and an older member list.

The collection is starting to come together

 Next week I'll be processing the objects in the collection and finishing the finding aid.

The presentation is starting to come together

I have the outline of my presentation all together. I just need to start filling in all the details. ASCPL Special Collections staff will use my framework to lead the classing on preserving family stories.

Week nine

This week I worked Wednesday and Thursday nights. In addition to starting my PowerPoint presentation, I started processing a new collection. The collection is from the Castel di Sangro Society. The fraternal society was one of the many ethnic societies in the North Hill section of Akron. It was active from the late 1920s until a few years ago. It was made up of Italian immigrants from Castel di Sangro, Italy.

Everything on this cart is my responsibility

First, I read the department guidelines for processing a collection. I looked everything over to get a general idea of what the collection contains. I also made some notes for the finding guide that I am creating. There are photographs, medallions, orders of service, membership lists, and the founding charter, among other things.
After getting a feel for the collection, I decided to start with the photographs. There was no original order for this collection, so I can group things by type.

One of the founding members

I followed the guidelines for labeling the envelopes and put each photograph in their own envelope. Once everything is sorted and labeled I will enter each item in the collection database.

Week eight

This week I finished processing and cataloging the rest of the Akron area postcards I have been working on.

Processing and cataloging postcards

First I needed to search the catalog to see if the postcards were exact duplicates of any already in the collection. I found one that was a duplicate and it was put with the matching (and already catalogued) postcard.

I realized that one of the postcards was from Ashtabula, which is outside of Summit County, and thus outside of the scope of the collection. I set that one aside for one of the librarians.

Collections database

After assigning an accession number, I check the postmark for a date. If has a date, I enter that (example: ca. 1908). I enter the collection name, which is photographs. I give the item a title, which is a basic description and then write a more detailed note. I mark the material type and write a short physical description, describe where the item is located, and assign subjects. After that is done, I label the envelope, insert the postcard, and file it in the postcard box.

Week seven

This week I met with Judy, my supervisor. We went over the outline I have for the program: raising awareness of why this issue is important, types of family stories, and different ways to preserve those family stories. We decided that instead of developing a separate, more intensive class focused specifically on writing, I could develop a short fifteen minute module that could be added to the first class. I'm now ready to start crafting my PowerPoint presentation.

 I also took a field trip this week. One of the librarians, Mary, works with the local branch of the Alzheimer's Association. She makes presentations at their Memory Cafe a few times a year. I tagged along for her presentation to see if I might learn something from this group that I could incorporate into my class. It was a very interesting experience, and as a result, I am going to see if I can incorporate some kind of video session into my program.

Week six

This week I worked on the reference desk for two hours with Judy. There weren't any reference requests for me to respond to, so Judy trained me further on some of the databases they use. I learned about ancestry.com and also how to search the records for Ellis Island. It isn't as simple as finding a passenger manifest and reading it.

Saturday I attended the class on Getting Started in Family History. It was two hours long and I learned a lot. It covered how to get started on your family history, how to get organized, the resources the department offers, community resources, and a demonstration of some the databases.

 I got a folder will all sorts of resources to take home as well.

I am glad I attended the class. In addition to all that I learned, I came away with some ideas for the program I am putting together.

Week four

In the four hours I was at the library this week, I answered more correspondence, using the digital newspaper collection and the microfilm to look up obituaries. I looked for obituaries from 1946 to 2013. I also learned where the microfilm was stored and how to shelve it.

Searching for obituaries in the database

Searching for obituaries on microfilm using the new reader

Then I got to start processing a new collection of postcards. I assigned accession numbers, entered them into the database, put them into archival envelopes, labeled them, and filed them according to accession number.

 

 

Cataloging a postcard

I also did some more research for my family history project. I've started to develop an outline of sorts.

Week three

This week Cheri trained me how to answer correspondence. The department gets many reference requests. A lot of the requests are for older obituaries, so she showed me how to use the obituary index and the new microfilm reader. The microfilm reader is much better quality than the older microfiche reader.

Cheri also showed me some of the other tools they use for reference. We looked up census records, marriage records, and she showed me how to use the subject indexes for the local paper. She also showed me tips on searching census records, as people aren't always easy to find. I was able to find a family member that I hadn't been able to find so far.

Week two

This week I worked with Mary, who does presentations a few times a year for the Memory Café, which is a monthly group that meets at one of the local branches for people in the early stages of dementia and Alzheimer’s.

We talked about how this presentation might work with that group and did more brainstorming. We made tentative plans for me to go with her when she does her next presentation to the group in October.

I now have a dedicated work area in the department.

I spent the rest of the time writing up my notes from last time and reading the book on top of the stack, which is very helpful so far.

Week one

I met with Judy, my project supervisor. I knew I wanted to create a program about preserving family stories, targeted towards the senior audience, but that is an awfully large subject area for a thirty to forty minute presentation. I needed to narrow it down.

We brainstormed for a while and narrowed it down to two things: raising awareness and educating people on what things they could do. We decided that I would try to start two programs. The first one would be a program to raise awareness, along with some simple things that people could do. The second one could be a more intensive workshop focusing on written history.

I won't be focusing primarily on written family stories, though. I will touch on other things that tell family stories, like photographs, recipes, letters, and diaries.

We spent the rest of the time brainstorming, as well as talking about some of the things the librarians do when answering reference requests. I will handle some of those at some point in this project.

I left with a bunch of ideas for the program and a bunch of books to read. Judy pulled a number of related books that will be helpful.

Because I am working on developing a program, we thought it would be good idea for me to attend some of their programming. So on Saturday I attended the workshop on using Heritage Quest.

I learned a lot about how to use the resources Heritage Quest offers. Using Heritage Quest, I found out more about a branch of my family tree that was very sparsely populated.

About me and the project

I'm a student working on my Museum and Archives Certificate in the Institute for Human Science and Culture (IHSC) at the Cummings Center for the History of Psychology at The University of Akron. For my capstone project, I'm creating a program for the Akron-Summit County Public Library Special Collections Department geared towards seniors. It is about preserving your family stories.