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.