Week 11: Best Practice

While working on the corrections for the spreadsheets, I often use different color codes. As I continue to work through the DeBary spreadsheet, I use green to highlight all the double- and even triple-checked correct cells, keeping everything organized and ensuring that nothing is overlooked. Over time, I’ve tried out a few different color-coding methods, but this one has been the most helpful in identifying what I still need to complete easily.

Small snapshot of color-coded spreadsheet

Overall, I strive to make my work visually appealing by incorporating colors, especially in spreadsheets and their otherwise plain formats. Many of the cells I need to work on involve restarting the content for formatting or, in the case of Cats, including additional information needed for effective accessibility. It has admittedly taken longer than expected to fill out all of these categories, including Cats, Subjects, and Titles, as I go collection by collection to ensure I’m gathering the right idea about their significance. Still working with RICHES’ digital archivist, I am navigating the new titles because, at times, it’s difficult to understand how to rewrite them to their standard and just how much information to include, which isn’t a lot.

Cats Before Edits

Cats After Edits

For the Davis collection, I’ve been reviewing their artifacts more lately, and one of the repeating items included articles about bridges that have been built in DeBary. Since the city is relatively new compared to many other Florida cities, it’s interesting to see how the architecture looks and how it has held up over the years. Rather, a case of one bridge that was written about in a newspaper article, which needed to be replaced as it would dangerously “quake” the control room over the bridge.

DeBary bridge article

I can’t believe how close we are to the end of this semester, and I want to get as much done as possible. All things considered, compared to the initial review of this spreadsheet, I’m really pleased with what I have been able to accomplish thus far, but I'm still hoping to make a bigger dent in the Subjects, as those need much more attention. As November approaches, I’ll start communicating more with my intern about the upcoming showcase, which is both exciting and nerve-racking, as this time I will have to step up as the lead for coordinating meetings and facilitating any plans for the presentation.