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.