October 20th - Thoughts and preparations

I believe the overall quality of my MagicWand scans have gotten better--there is little to no scrunching, and each scan is generally straight and does not warp too much to one side or the other. I believe I am finally going to explore the Internet to find some trips and tricks for optimal scanning with one of these devices.


Scan quality is typically very important in metadata projects, especially when involving archival materials that are intended to be closed to public use once digitized. Admittedly, the MagicWand and its warping do not provide optimal digitizations; however, the materials being digitized from the scrapbooks are available archivally elsewhere, just not in the provenance/arrangement they exist in in relation to NOMA. As long as the structure of the scrapbooks is preserved in whatever digital format they are presented (whether that proves to be CONTENTdm or Piction), the scans we are making will adequately serve, provided we keep them as neat as the technology will allow.


We also talked about the status of the MS Word document Finding Aids. Because interns like myself are transient contributors to the overall project and Regina is a static docent with no plans to leave the library, we decided that she should keep maintaining the traditional finding aids for in-house use. The text format and CTRL+F searchability of these aids will prove most convenient for Sheila and Regina to use throughout the changes in project contributors. There is also never a guarantee that future library interns will have any experience with metadata or Excel, but the finding aid procedure can be easily taught to anyone with word processing ability.


To discuss the general state of the project, Maureen, Sheila, Regina and I plan to meet this Friday at 2pm. That way we can all be on the same page and will be able to organize the information and instructions for future project interns.


In further news, I will be going to the Mississippi Library Association's annual conference this Thursday with Sheila. I'm excited because the woman who initially developed the NOMA Scrapbook project will be presenting on her experiences with it; also, I will finally be able to meet some of my USM professors in person, particularly doctors Welsh & Griffis. Quite exciting!