Last Week!

Well, it is the last week of my internship. I didn't write a blog last week because there was nothing really to talk about! I have finished my projects for the semester, and all I have left is getting my hours in. I have a presentation tomorrow on all I have done this semester, and I think I will be all right with it. Well, that's about all. It's been a great semester, and I met some wonderful people. I am hoping that I will be able to keep volunteering with the Public History Center, depending on my schedule this summer. This has been a great experience and really helped me cement my desire to work in a museum, and how interesting and fun I find working in archives. That's All Folks!

Two Weeks Left

Well, like I said before, we are nearing the end. On Friday the 18th we will have our showcase with all the other interns to show what we have done this semester. I am pretty much done with the work that has been assigned to me, but I still need enough hours that I will be coming in the next two Tuesdays for a few hours, along with Thursday and Friday to get some extra hours in. Everybody here has been so nice and welcoming, I'll be sad when I leave. Hopefully I will have time over the summer to just drop by and volunteer a little bit.

Nearing the end!

Well, it's the end of March now, and I am expected to present what I have done during my internship within three to four weeks. Considering I'm only here for ten hours a week, that is not a lot of time to finish everything up! Professor Sample is pleased though with everything I have gotten done so far as I have finished everything she majorly wanted done. The rest is just icing on top of the cake according to her, even if it doesn't feel that way to me. I have to make a PowerPoint explaining my job so that the intern who comes next will know how to do what I have been doing. While I feel that accessioning artifacts into PastPerfect is simple once you know how, it's a tad bit difficult to explain with just words and screenshots. So creating the PowerPoint is taking up time that I could be spending doing other things, but then again, isn't the PowerPoint going to make things run smoother and faster for future interns if I do it right? I guess it's a catch-22 - go quick to get my own work done faster, or be slower and more detailed to make future intern's work go quicker?

It's a New Day

Hello again everyone! I'm back at work after taking Thursday off, and working hard is my plan for today! I have been accessioning items at random based on what I thought was most important, but now I am focusing on one area at a time, and today I will finish at least the front desk items if not more. It feels so good to have a plan in place, especially one that I can conceivably finish!

Live after Five!

Hello again world! Checking back in after a wonderful spring break, to find out that Sanford held on Thursday a monthly event named Live After Five. This i like a huge block party, that I was a part of working at the PHC table over in the KidZone! We made Saint Patrick's Day headdresses and pictures of Shamrocks! On top of that, coming back to internship after spring break had a huge surprise over in the archives room! Professor Sample had found in a teaching trunk a 1906 Kodak Folding Camera and an old candlestick telephone! They are going to go into the Turn of the Century Classroom now that I have accessioned them!

Shirley!

This post is dedicated to the wonderful Shirley! Shirley is a long time volunteer at the Public History Center - at least 15 years working here. She is the one who taught me how to use PastPerfect, and has helped with with a million tiny details since I started my internship. She is one of the sweetest and most caring women I have ever met - everyone who works here has been absurdly nice and awesome, and I would just like to give my thanks. Last week I used a scanner for the first time in years and had no trouble at all with it! Success! I also noticed a packaging error in our collections toolkit. The collections toolkit is full of our supplies for writing accession numbers on artifacts. There are a number of different acrylics, and solutions, and things with names like B-72 or N-67. While reading through the how-to manual, I realized that we had double the N-67 and none of the B-72! It just goes to show that everybody can make a mistake when putting together a kit, and that having good observational skills will help you with life in the long run.

Accessioning post #2

Remember how in the last post I said I learned how to accession? Not quite true. I learned how to put my inventory into the computer, but there is more to it! With every item put into PastPerfect, they are given a number. Which you then have to in one way or another label the artifact with. I have spent the last two weeks putting things into PastPerfect but then also labeling each artifact with what I've started calling its "SM" number. (All accession numbers start with SM - standing for Student Museum). It is taking awhile and leading to me having several projects at once. I mean, you can't just sharpie the SM number onto the artifact! With papery substances you can just write with a pencil, but I haven't had anything papery come through yet. So instead we paint on a clear coat of protective almost nail polish-like substance, which is then covered in white acrylic paint, which I can finally write the SM number on! To make sure each coat of paint is dry, I leave a day in between each coat, making it take much longer to write the SM number on each artifact. Maybe I'll start leaving just an hour or two between each coat. We will just see what the future holds!