Week 2: The Digitization Process

Digitally processing artifacts is not as simple as scanning them and uploading the images to a website. It takes months of categorizing and refining details, especially depending on the organization's formatting rules. This week, I have experienced the near end of the process and the very beginning of another.

Brief Magazine discusses World War II Japan

C.S. Buchanan

In-Person Digitization Training

On Tuesday, we held an in-person digitization training, which provided a great opportunity to meet some of the other interns I had yet to interact with outside of Zoom. There was a lot of collaboration within the group present, and it was enjoyable to work with these individuals on the project. We began hands-on work promptly by scanning and completing metadata sheets for a box filled with artifacts. It was a similar experience to a History Harvest, especially since Sarah was the one providing the artifacts that the Mission Memory team would be working with.

DH.9 Plane from World War I

My role during the training was to complete metadata sheets; however, there was a lot of material to fill out in only two hours. I wish I could have gathered more information on everything, but I don't think that would have been possible. Further background information would have required additional outside research for context. For example, I was working on some sheets for photographs that depicted a DH.9 plane, which, from that session alone, I didn't know how they fit into the broader story of Claude S. Buchanan or the First World War. I have not spent a lot of time on World War I stories in general, so it was also a valuable learning experience about the technology involved in that particular war.

This week has continued to test my communication skills. I want to improve them so that I can accomplish tasks more effectively and maintain strong connections. On Thursday, I met with Sarah and Jesse to review the feedback comments left by Geoff. One question I raised was about the copyright changed to a lot more than "RICHES", trying to find out if it was a specific case for the military items, as they were all listed with different names. It turns out that those should have been listed with the donor's name, since the people appearing in the items have passed away.

I've been able to use this example as a helpful learning experience by examining the guidebook more closely and refining the categorization labels. Otherwise, I found it important to clarify this because I have noticed over the past few months that the metadata sheets do not always translate completely. In the copyright section, I was trained that the digital versions are simply credited to RICHES. While reviewing the guidebook, I found an example that was closer to the feedback. It may be ideal for all of the interns to start including the donor’s name in that section, as it would be less helpful if we're not all in agreement on what needs to be written and risk having information left out.

RICHES Guidebook details for Rights Holder

Within the next week, I will inform my intern, Sarah, about the key points covered in the meeting and provide her with a link to the Apopka spreadsheet for reference. At some point, I will assign her tasks that involve a spreadsheet, so I'm thinking that if she can get a preview of one with everything filled in, including Geoff's expectations, it would serve as a good reference point. If she has spare time, it would be ideal for her to work on some of the simple corrections, such as fixing capitalization for proper nouns only. This would provide excellent exposure to the spreadsheet, rather than jumping straight into filling out an entire one. I know when I first started doing it, I was a little overwhelmed with all of it, so I was trying to suggest ways to introduce that part of the processing.

During the meeting, we discussed the challenges of striving for perfection in all our work and how to manage our expectations. The fact is that it won't be attainable; otherwise, we would have to work on these projects forever, and we do not have that kind of time. I'm excited to hear that once I help clean up the Apopka spreadsheet, we could potentially submit it, and that's my main goal for now.