Conclusions

After being gone for about a week due to Easter break and a particularly unpleasant sinus/ear infection, I have returned to the Reference Department! I'm definitely glad to be back amongst the piles of books that need sorting and the pesky printer that seems to always need more paper.

I have really enjoyed working at Musselman Library. Just yesterday I arrived for my afternoon desk shift panicking about my mountains of homework and the financial burden of purchasing enough caffeine to get me through it all. However, upon my arrival in the Reference Office I discovered the latest McNaughton Books rental catalog for the Browsing Room. While at the desk I gave a couple students a few helpful answers, but I spent most of my time reading through the McNaughton catalog, selecting books for the Browsing Room, and imagining which ones I would like to read if I ever was able to find free time to read for fun. At 3:00 I left the Reference desk much more calm and focused than I was when I arrived. I think that picking out books for the Browsing Room was one of my favorite parts of my Internship. It was something that was helpful, would have visible results, and somehow just imagining that one day I might have free time in which I could read for fun always seems to make me feel a little better.

However, while picking out books for the Browsing Room, it occured to me that these books will not show up until July and I will definitely not be here then. This served as another reminder of how quickly my remaining hours at Gettysburg College and Musselman Library are disappearing. As far as my Library Intern Experience goes, after today I have a short desk shift on Thursday, another on Monday, and then I need to find time for an exit interview with my supervisor, and that's it. And then in a little more than a couple short weeks, Gettysburg College will release me into the real world so I can find some real-life, and hopefully at least somewhat lucrative applications for my liberal arts degree. One such possible application is indeed graduate school for Library Science. While graduate school is not on my plate for next year, it is something that I would like to pursue in the near future. Even if I end up pursuing graduate studies in a field other than Library Science, I know that my Internship experience, especially the research skills and critical skills I have gained, will continue to inform whatever work I choose to pursue.

I can't say enough wonderful things about libraries, and especially about Musselman Library. Even before being given the Fortenbaugh Internship, the library was really like my second home on campus. (When I knew I was to be studying here very late, I frequently went as far as to bring a pair of PJ pants with me. If that doesn't make something a second home, I don't know what does.) Now, it is a place that I can hardly imagine not spending time in every day. Although I am very close to being academically prepared to leave Gettysburg College, I am definitely not ready to go. While it is true that someday I will (hopefully) finish paying off my student loans, I will always be indebted to Gettysburg College and Musselman Library for the the experiences they have given me.

The Next Level of Understanding CONTENTdm

Hello everyone and Happy Wednesday once again! As promised from my last blog entry, I come to you with new knowledge about CONTENTdm! If you remember from my previous post, I had learned how to input the metadata in the correct fields and organize the folders to be harvested by CONTENTdm. I could upload these digitized Tipton photos and their accompanying metadata for approval (this is the "digitized pergatory" I mentioned last time). But one final step that I did not know how to do was "take down" or delete the old digitized Tipton photos and "put up" the new digitized Tipton photos with the fronts and backs. This changed this past week when Catherine took the time to demonstrate for me how to complete this process.

Catherine began by showing me where the newly digitized photos and their metadata appeared on the CONTENTdm administration website. During the uploading process CONTENTdm checks for any new important changes that deviate from the other digitized photos already in the GettDigital college photograph collection. One deviation my modified metadata files had concerned the name I placed in the Creator field. This means that in the column where I am supposed to put the photographer's name as printed on the photo, I put a new name that no other photos in the GettDigital college photograph collection had. This was a great sign because my primary responsibility in this project is to go through these photographs taken by William Tipton and modify the creator name according to the way it appears on the photograph itself.

As you can see in the photos above, over the years William Tipton modified the way in which he marked his photos. From the mid 1870s to 1880, Tipton stamped his photos with "W. H. Tipton & Co." During the early 1880s, Tipton began stamping his photographs with simply "Tipton." From the mid-1880s on, Tipton adjusted his stamp once more to read "W. H. Tipton."

But back to CONTENTdm. After I informed CONTENTdm that these new creator names were acceptable, I could then select all of the uploaded Tipton photos I had modified and approve them. At this point, Catherine informed me that I needed to delete the old object files of the digitized photos I wanted to replace. After individually deleting each of these, I indexed the collection in order to add my new object files and delete the old ones. All in all, thanks to Catherine's great help, things went smoothly and I was able to complete the process from start to finish twice today without a problem!

As I learn more and more about digital collections, I am becoming all the more excited about starting graduate school in the fall. I will be attending the University of Pittsburgh in order to receive my Master's in Library and Information Science, with a specialization in Archives, Preservation, and records Management. I know that my experiences here in Special Collections will greatly aid me in understanding the concepts I will learn beginning in the fall. It is so awesome that, even as a novice without a master's degree, I have this opportunity to learn about the behind-the-scenes archival work that makes digital collections possible. I really can't wait to build upon this knowledge in the fall and to enrich my passion for archival studies! :)

The Known and the Unknown

Hello everyone and happy Wednesday! I've just emerged from another week in the world of CONTENTdm and I feel like I'm understanding more and more what it likes and what it doesn't like. Thus far, I've added a digitized image of the reverse side of close to 30 Tipton photographs!

During the process of adding metadata and digitized images to extant Tipton photographs in the GettDigital Collection, I have become more familiar with the steps needed to create folders that are compatible with the CONTENTdm system. In fact, I hardly cringe anymore when CONTENTdm is extracting the information I have placed within various file folders in order to create a cohesive entry for each photograph. :) For me, the most helpful step in the learning process was understanding more fully how CONTENTdm took the disparate metadata in excel spreadsheets and jpeg images and transformed it into a keyword searchable digitized photograph entry. Although I will not claim to know the tecnical intricacies of how CONTENTdm operates, I can see how the information I put in the different rows and columns (aka fields) of an excel spreadsheet are transferred into the metadata that appears under a digitized photograph in the GettDigital Collection.

Now that I have demonstrated how I am "in the know" about certain facets of CONTENTdm, I feel the need to also share one the aspects of the system that I'm not familiar with yet. After I have gone through the process of modifying and adding metadata and photographs, I upload the information in CONTENTdm and prepare it for publishing on the GettDigital Collection. My adjusted Tipton photo entries are in a certain digitzed pergatory of sorts until Catherine Perry, Special Collections' Archival Assistant, publishes them in the GettDigital Collection. In addition to adding the new entries, Catherine also has to take down the old, unmodified entries. Although I have yet to understand this process, Catherine has promised to show me how to do this next week! In this way, the unknown will be known before too long!

Musselman Library Reference Desk, this is Audrey, how may I help you?

I never thought I would feel this comfortable at the desk. At the end of last week a lot of librarians weren't in the building so I picked up one of their shifts. In January I never would have thought I could just volunteer for that. The idea of being at the desk alone was pretty scary, so the thought of being at the desk when there were very few librarians even in the building would have been flat out terrifying. But it was fine! There weren't too many questions because it was the lunch shift on Friday so for the most part students were either having lunch or had already checked out for the weekend, but I was still kept moderately busy answering people's questions.

I don't even get that nervous when the phone rings anymore! About half an hour ago someone doing genealogical research called the Reference Desk with questions about which library services are open to the public, and also asking about The Journals of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg. I told the man on the phone that our library is open for public use and that I would look into his questions and send him an e-mail. Several minutes ago I sent what I think was a very helpful e-mail about how to set up a library account for Adams County residents and about our two copies of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg's journals (one is in Special Collections).

I really enjoy being helpful and I like that my Internship allows me to do that. The flip side of that is that I feel bad when I am unhelpful, but at this point I think those moments are becoming few and far between. On that note, I think it's about time for me to help some students by refilling the printer paper.

Beginnings and Endings

Before I dedicate the rest of my blog entries to my work with CONTENTdm, I have one more exciting piece of news regarding the manuscript collection I processed... the finding aid for MS-118 Wikoff has been digitized and is now available on the Special Collections website! Here's the link! The photo to the right serves as the cover page to my completed finding aid. The three images in the center of my finding aid are photocopies of the three articles Mr. Wikoff published in the Gettysburg magazine based on the alumni letters that comprise the manuscript collection.

Now back to my current work at Special Collections! As I mentioned in my last post, I am in the midst of working with a collection of William H. Tipton's photographs that appear in the GettDigital collections. In addition to modifying the creator name and date of each photo, I am also adding a digitized image of the backs of many photos. As it stands now, only the fronts of the photos taken by Tipton are viewable online via the GettDigital Collection. Although I only want to add another view to a photograph already a part of the GettDigital collection, I cannot simply upload an image of the reverse side of the photo and be done. Rather, I have to copy already-existing information that describes the photograph (aka metadata) from an old excel spreadsheet into a new one. I then have to make other changes to the new spreadsheet, photocopy the reverse side of the photo, and save a copy of this image and the image of the front of the photo in a special folder.

The most fascinating facet of this project thus far has been to learn more about the work that goes into digitizing a photograph. All too often we take for granted the ability to keyword search a digitized collection without reflecting on the preparations that make the search possible. It's been really awesome to learn more about CONTENTdm and how it transforms excel spreadsheets and jpeg images into a digitized collection. As I hope can be seen in this entry, I have learned so much about the digitization process over this past week! However, as I am also sure is evident in this entry, I still have so much more to learn about the digitization process! In light of this, I am so thankful for the knowledgeable people that surround me and their kind willingness to answer all of my questions! :)

Fronts and Backs

Hello everyone and happy Wednesday! I come to you with an exciting piece of news- I have completed processing my manuscript collection and it is has joined the ranks of other processed collections in the depths of Special Collections! As you might guess, I felt an emmense sense of accomplishment as I completed my finding aid and prepared it for Karen to review. After Karen approved the manner in which I had processed the collection, I put descriptive labels on the manuscript collection boxes and headed back to the temperature controlled shelving area. As I put MS-118 Wikoff on the shelf, I felt like an investigator on Cold Case putting an long unsolved case to rest (forgive the crime-show reference :) ).

As I reflect on the experience of processing MS-118 Wikoff, I'm really thankful for the opportunity to thoroughly get to know the collection before processing its contents. I was able to acquaint myself with the memories of so many alumni, and I hope that my efforts will also allow patrons in the future to acquaint themselves with these memories.

Now that I have completed processing MS-118 Wikoff, I have moved on to another project concerning the Library's "Gett Digital" Collection. Within the collection's historic photographs, there are a number of Gettysburg College pictures taken by William H. Tipton. Gettysburg's long-standing, go-to photographer for quite some time, Tipton took many of the photos that we have of Gettysburg College students and professors. Over the years, the name and location of Tipton's photo studio changed a number of times.

My principle task is to go through the photographs taken by William Tipton within the Gett Digital Collection in order to discover the name of the photo studio at the time the picture was taken. Currently, photographs taken by Tipton in the Gett Digital Collection list the creator as "William H. Tipton." We would like to modify this section to contain the name of the photo studio instead.

This search has led me to looking up a number of student senior pictures dating back to the early 1870s. In an odd way, I feel a connection or camaraderie with these students. Although they graduated so long ago, these photos freeze them at the approximate point in their lives that I am living right now. I, too am on the cusp of graduating from Gettysburg College. I wonder if they had their futures lined up when these photos were taken and if they also felt a hybrid feeling of excitement and apprehension.

Enough nostalgia though. In going through these photos, I discovered a number of absolutely beautiful backs that Tipton used over the years to leave his mark on the photographs he took. Some are fascinatingly descriptive and others are ornately artistic! My personal favorite is the back that informs the viewer that Tipton's gallery recently moved and is right "next door to Buehler's Drug Store."

Needless to say, I'm already attached to the fronts and backs of these photographs.

So Far, So Good

Since I've come back from Spring Break, I've started working on a Collection Development project. So far I've been looking at books that people have given as gifts to the college and deciding whether or not we should have them in the collection. At this point I seem to be stuck thinking that we should just keep all of the books I've looked at so far because they all seem at least moderately interesting or helpful. My pack rat tendencies are coming out; it's something I need to work on.

In general, things with my internship seem to be going well. I think I equally enjoy my time at the desk and my time in the office. They aren't actually that different sometimes because my desks shifts are usually relatively uneventful. On Monday afternoon people haven't started to worry about their research projects yet, and Thursday mornings are usually pretty sluggish too (especially a rainy one like today). At this point I don't feel as though my coursework has had very much influence on my internship, but my internship has definitely had an influence on my coursework. This is especially true for my class on Environmental Issues - knowing how to find good articles on current controversial issues has made my work a lot easier. I also like to think that my internship has had an influence on other people's coursework too. By learning how to give good answers to people's questions, I hope I am making their work easier too.