Archives Fun

February 13th (Sacramento History Room):

Today I started my first day as a volunteer intern for the Sacramento Room inside the Central Library, see http://www.saclibrary.org/Locations/Sacramento-Room/.   This internship will provide training with processing, preserving, and cataloging special collections records.  My direct supervisor for this internship is Amanda Graham, Archivist for the Sacramento Public Library.  My specific duties will include processing a small collection of photographs, entering the metadata in a photograph accession register, and rehousing them in appropriate preservation material if necessary.  I may also process a manuscript collection and have an opportunity to learn more about Encoded Archival Description (EAD).

I spent three hours today reading over documents of archival processing and photographic preservation from the UC Libraries system and the National Park Service.  I also perused the catalog records for photographs in the Sacramento Public Library's OPAC and descriptions in the Photographs Accession Register. 

In 2005 I had a completed an internship for my history degree at the Center for Sacramento History/SAMCC.  Although I learned much about archival processing techniques in that position I can see that a lot has changed over the last nine years and that I will need to get up to speed on a whole new way of processing archives.  There are new digital tools and technology that archivists use to process metadata.  In addition there is a new approach towards processing archives called the "More Product, Less Process" (MPLP) philosophy.  This philosophy advocates reducing the backlog of unprocessed special collections by using the minimum of amount processing work to make the collections accessible to the public.  Public access to holdings and efficiency are priorities. Since the Sacramento Room is an archives within the Sacramento Public Library system - the emphasis is on making the special collections items immediately accessible the public as much as possible.

I have an interest in pursuing archival studies as a concentration for my MLIS studies at San Jose State University beginning in the fall 2014.  This position is great stepping stone towards that objective.