Week 7: It’s All Part of the Process

This week I’ve experienced ups and downs, but I eventually got back on track with a clearer path that I want to follow for the next few weeks. Fortunately, as a team lead, these moments have also given me insight into tasks that I can suggest to my intern once she completes her work on the Greenwood spreadsheet.

My primary focus was on correcting spreadsheets from this past summer. As I’ve expressed in previous meetings and blogs, this has been a process that takes me one step forward, then one step back, which is frustrating at times, and I’m trying to do it as correctly as I can at this stage; otherwise, it doesn’t make sense. I began to worry about how this looked on my part and my progress, and I needed to reach out to the project manager, Sarah, to ensure that we are still on the same page with our goals for this semester. After discussing the situation, I felt much better about just doing what I’ve been doing and not worrying as much about trying to completely fix every single spreadsheet.

Obituary title example on RICHES database

Despite all the back and forth I may have had with the spreadsheets throughout the months, it would be entirely misinterpreted to think that I’m not having fun with them at the same time. It’s the best opportunity to make these corrections. I followed up with the RICHES digital archivist to clarify how to create some of the titles, as I was getting stuck on the obituaries, especially. It seems to be simplified down to either the actual title of the obituary or, perhaps, listing the person's name.

After needing a little bit of a “break” because of my disability, I still wanted to be proactive, and I knew the perfect way to go was to fill in some of the easier corrections on a different spreadsheet that I had yet to look at. DeBary holds a special memory for me as it was my first collection I worked on, so I was hoping for a bit of familiarity. Unfortunately, it would stop at one because, in addition to mine, a few others worked on this spreadsheet, and there is a good handful of collections that have been completed.

My DeBary Subject Headings

However, what I saw when I viewed the spreadsheet as a whole for the first time was a little shocking, as I quickly noticed that there was a lot of work to be done. Some categories need to be entirely revised for one reason or another. One category in particular is the Subjects, which are short terms that the curator conjures up by using questions like the 5 W's and inputs into the Library of Congress’s website to check if they are “authorized,” yet, most of the subject headings are complete sentences. To add to the damage, the Library of Congress’s website has undergone a massive update since the summer, and some of the terms I previously used no longer exist there or are no longer labeled as authorized. I am currently waiting for a response regarding the next steps in this situation.

I spent a few hours on the document the first night and made good progress on fixing a few of the columns. Since I discovered this, I proposed spending this week and potentially next week working on those corrections before RICHES has a chance to review the DeBary sheet and provide extensive feedback.

UCF Department of History Internship Evaluation Sheet

Additionally, I continue to exercise my leadership skills, and although it wasn’t required for my intern, I decided to practice writing her midterm evaluation. I kept some of her feedback preferences in mind from the initial form that we all filled out before the semester started. We seem to share a similar approach in wanting to identify areas for improvement, and for me, it’s sometimes easier to receive feedback rather than provide it. Nevertheless, I’ve become much better at giving positive and constructive feedback, as that’s what helps us grow in this environment, and I don’t want to deprive others who want helpful comments. My concern about her research for metadata sheets was relatively minor; I hope she takes my comment into consideration for future sheets, as it’ll make the processing a little easier.

I’m looking forward to next week’s in-person meeting, and if needed, I hope to spend some time afterwards assisting with digitization or processing for the Mission Memory project. (Looking for an excuse to scan things.)