07.30.2010

More uploading today. I have made it to 1988 so far, it's actully going faster than I had predicted.

I emailed the tech guy in charge of the EAD tool today. I noticed that there was a warning that copiyng and pasting from Microsoft Word can cause a validation error, that would be no good. So, what I've been doing is transferring the info into Notepad, removing any formating (spaces etc.), and then copying that into the finding aid tool.

The tech guy has yet to respond. But I hope my plan works.

07.29.2010

Continued to uploa the finding aid into the Ohio Link Database. I noticed that since there are exhibitions included on the finding aid that have no archival material records, this document is really more of an inventory.

Due to it being a inventory it is quite large, 36 pages. It may take longer than 50 hours to accomplish this goal. Therefore I am uploading the information with the highest research value first. The date spans with the highest values are the ones that are most recent; so I have started with 2010 and I am working backwards.

07.28.2010

Worked from 1130-630pm on the project, so I'm 13 hours in. Today I finally began working with the finding aid tool. It's easy to use. Using the tool has made me understand the DACS elements extensively, which is nice.

There is one problem, I'm not sure there is a way to load multiple items into a file at once with this tool. Unlike EAD with XML you can simply copy and paste as many lines as desired into the XML editor at the item level. I emailed my Ohio Link Finding Aid Creation Tool contact about this. Hopefully, I will have an answer by tomorrow. If not, this project has to be sized down to gain a good final product.

07.23.2010

Since I'm working from home I pick which days I'll be working. So, I may update on Weekends etc. Anyway today I worked from 10am-4pm as usual on a Friday.

The day consisted of transferring information from the exhibition list to the finding aid. This process is taking longer than I expected and is eating into the amount of time I will have to actually upload information into the EAD tool. I may have to talk to Ellie about only including exhibitions with actual records into the EAD finding aid.

07.21.2010

I'm officially working from home. My project (50 hours) is able to be completed from my at home PC.

Today I worked on manually migrating all the data from the exhibition list onto the finding aid. This should take a good amount of time, so I should start and complete the EAD markup by the end of next week.

07.16.2010

I have officially finished all of my required on site hours and will begin my project next Wednesday working from my PC at home. I finished up adjusting the finding aid and updating the exhibition lists and began working with the finding aid tool today.

While working with the finding aid tool I (finally) figured out the difference between the arrangement terms used at the AAM archives and the terms used in EAD. They are as follows:

Record Group=Series
series=subseries
File=box

I also finally have the SAA terms completely figured out:
Record Group=Collection
Series
File Unit
Item

I think the practicum has done me some good. It only took 100 hours to figure this out :)

07.15.2010

I started working on the finding aid for the exhibition records today. There was some confusion due to a disconnect in understand archival terms. My supervisor was coming from and archival standpoint while I was coming from special collections. I referred to a records group as a collection. Maybe it's my time up at CSU that had me talking that way, who knows.

Tomorrow I will finish the finding aid and begin to work on my project. Once the finding aid is confirmed by Ellie I will be able to complete my project from home, nice.

07.14.2010

Today consisted of searching the exhibition files for additional provenance information on the exhibition records. The exhibition files are the records kept on every exhibit the comes through The Akron Art Museum. The type of records within the exhibition files, receipts for purchases, accessioning information, and curators correspondence. Once I finished doing this I put the exhibition records into the appropriate series.

I also made new labels for the new boxes that had accumulated within particular series.

The rest of the day was spent doing library related activities including; entering books in an Access Database and copy cataloging utilizing OCLC.

07.09.2010

I have officially finished processing the exhibition files! I didn't know I could be this excited. After finishing the processing up I began to describe the in the finding aid. I majority of the records were already described I just added some notes like: contains 1 photograph or contains VHS recording.

I was always told that knowing the provenance of an item is important, but today I really began to understand this. Within some of the folders there are photographs of unidentified people. The provenance for these items are usually unknown. So, instead of having a valuable photograph that could have some research purpose you essentially just have a useless picture.

07.08.2010

Today was more of the same. I continued to process to the exhibition collection. I'm up the the early 21st century so I'm almost done!Tomorrow I should be able to finish the processing and arrangement.

07.07.2010

The practicum is back on!
Today I worked solely on archiving duties. First, I continued to arrange and describe the exhibition records up through 1988. Within the different folders I found records that would fit more appropriately into different series. For example, some records were public program documents not exhibition files.

After the exhibition records arrangement was over I appraised some current records produced by the Akron Art Museum. Mostly these records consist of fliers for the exhibitions, press releases, general history of the AAM and speeches given by trustees.