April 9, 2013
For the past two
weeks, I've been working with PastPerfect, the software program used
by the +Florida Historical Society to keep track of all of its
documents, books, photos, and objects. Despite the vast degrees of
cataloging its capable of, PastPerfect is fairly easy to learn. I
did, however, find it useful to keep side notes to highlight search
terms for others to use to find the series of documents I've already
entered into the database, as well as notes on whatever labels I used
in the cataloging fields (keep in mind my additional ones jotted down
to remember the general Works Progress Administration Collection). To
put it simply, its a slightly more intricate Microsoft Excel, but
geared toward digitally labeling and managing material in the field
of historical study.
I must admit, the
notes I mentioned above – those I took to remember the general
Collection – were not sufficient to register material into
PastPerfect. The program requires basic information like date of
creation, title, container, author, subject, etc. My notes took down
some of these, but they were primarily on points of interest to the
public, researchers, myself, and the people I work with (especially
the other interns). Sometimes, these notes were on subjects I
knew little about, explaining why I jotted them down. If I had a
larger exposure to the history field some of these notes would have
never existed. It also would have helped to know more about the
collections researchers and the public frequently demand. Still, I
managed, though not without spending some time to make sure that what
I'm entering in will show up for the most basic PastPerfect search.
This translates to me spending almost all of my time at the Florida
Historical Society's Research Library methodically going over WPA
memos, letters, source lists, notes, finished documents, and typed up
versions of old documents.
For those resistant
to clerical work, I do not recommend archival work. Careful attention
to a memo or letter's sender, receiver, contents, and date of
creation is a must. Solid reading comprehension and delicate skimming are
required when summing up long or convoluted documents. Other times,
documents will be handwritten photocopies, so figuring out the
subject of the document requires the ability to decipher people's
hand writing. Furthermore, you are required to peer into the white of
a lit computer screen for considerable periods of time. Finally, a
keen sense of organization becomes your ultimate tool in cataloging a
collection as large as the WPA one (21 boxes with an average of 6
folders in each, each folder containing an average of 6 documents).
It's a good thing the interns before me took time to make notes. Archiving is serious clerical work, but the work environment at the
Florida Historical Society in Cocoa is comfortable and cheery, so the
pressure is alleviated.
Anyways, thanks for
reading. Hope this has been informative. Expect frequent posts in
the coming days.
Cheers,
JCS
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