September 21st, 22nd - Scanning refinement and ILLs

Over the course of this project, another intern named Maureen from Loyola University libraries will also be working on the project, albeit on different days from me. I'm keeping in touch with her via e-mail about progress, stopping points for scanning and metadata, and also any tweaks or changes we might want to make to the project overall. On Monday I primarily worked on filling in metadata. It can be slow going--on a good day, I feel like I can complete about 20-25 entries during my 3 hours.

I made Tuesday a scanning day to work on technique. A good day of scanning will allow me to complete 2 pages of a scrapbook, from scanning to editing and renaming.With the time I am allotted off work for this practicum, I've found it ideal to work on either scanning OR data entry on a given day, not both. This session, I began to develop a bit of a 'zen' sense for moving the scanner. I count the seconds as I move the scanner down an article and try to match the distance covered to the rhythm of my counting--a very intuitive system of measurement. But the resulting scans are proving to be some of my best. I still have the occasional phenomenon in the scans that I call "scrunching"--it looks like every two-five inches, I get a line of text that is distorted by a severe reduction in height--I don't know if this means I sped up for a nanosecond, or maybe slowed down, or maybe just took too deep a breath. Next time I come in, I'd like to do a few tests on my speeds, maybe doing two scans moving faster and a final moving more slowly, to see if different paces help me avoid the miniscule speed changes I suspect cause the occasional scrunch of text. As long as the text is legible and the scrunching is minimal, I feel the files are satisfactory for LDL (or just the library's) requirements, but getting it close to perfect just feels really, really good.

"Scrunching" and distortion in scans--this example I find egregious, so I would definitely re-scan the article.
 

Another general library task I learned about was ILLs. Especially within the art world, books often are out of print. In this event, Sheila turns to ILLs, which the Louisiana State Library facilitates for NOMA. They reach out to universities and other holding institutions to obtain materials the curators need, but otherwise can't be obtained. Sheila has a few rules of thumb to keep the process smooth, because screwing up ILLs can lead to a bad reputation and no future ILLs! One--Always use the envelope you received the item in to send it back. That way you return the item with exactly the amount of shipping protection its owner felt appropriate. Two--Always make sure the lending institutions identifying forms stay attached to the item, and a copy stays in the library's files--not being able to figure out where to return an item to would be bad! Three--make everything clear to the curators--while loans are similar in every field, they might take for grated that lending libraries find books as important as works of art to their trade!

On a side note, Sheila has invited me to attend the Mississippi Library Association conference with her on Oct. 22nd, where I can meet some of my USM professors and also see Amanda Myers' (the intern that preceded Maureen and I) poster session talk on the NOMA Scrapbook digitization project! And also if I can help Sheila with this year's annual Readings 'Round the Big Easy, a literary event organized by her every year at NOMA featuring local authors and critics. I'll be asking my boss if I can be spared for both.