School Library
My last post was dated April 6th and a lot has happened since then. I worked a total of 8 hours at my school library position on Monday, April 7th and Tuesday, April 8th. There was nothing new to report with my work at the middle school during this time - other than a steady increasing use of the library during the lunch hour. Students are being more conscientious about returning their books on time.
I did not work over Spring Break, however returned to my job on Monday, April 21st at the middle school. I spent a great deal of time over the next three days educating students on the call number/dewey decimal system - they seem to have forgotten over the semester! An English teacher at the school has given the students a "Next Bestseller" assignment in which they needed to select a recent, popular/high recommended title for teens, read it, and write a review. I quickly discovered that the students needed guidance in using the catalog online, deciphering call numbers, and choosing a good book based on inside cover notes, genre, etc..
Sacramento Room
Thursday, April 10th I was introduced to my third task/objective for my internship at the Sacramento Room - evaluating and processing a small manuscript collection. This appears to be collection of ledger books, personal letters, and legal records for a grocery business in Sacramento going back to the 1880s. I'll be writing up some accession notes and creating a finding aid for this collection. Also determining if there is any extraneous information. More about that in my post dated April 24th.
Tsakopoulos Library Galleria, Sacramento Public Library Central Branch
Tsakopoulos Library Galleria, Sacramento Public Library, Central Branch
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Saturday, April 5, 2014
ContentDM Training
April 6th (Sacramento Room)
Today I have chosen to spend my time learning how to use ContentDM and digitization techniques at home with some of my own historic photographs :). Hoping this can be used to create my own digital collections interface for friends and family!
Today I have chosen to spend my time learning how to use ContentDM and digitization techniques at home with some of my own historic photographs :). Hoping this can be used to create my own digital collections interface for friends and family!
Digitizing & Uploading Metadata
April 3rd (Sacramento Room)
Today I received a tutorial in how the Sacramento Room utilizes OCLCs Content DM software to create and manage it's digital collections online. According to the Sacramento Room's digital collections website, (see http://cdm16362.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/about) The Sacramento Room Digitization Project is "made possible by funding from the Sacramento Public Library Foundation, Sacramento Room Endowment, and was launched in October 2010 with the intention of showcasing, in digital form, several choice images from the Sacramento Public Library’s Sacramento Room. The project mission is to provide an image-based window into the social, political and economic history of the Greater Sacramento area from the 1840s to the present day. The Digitization Project is also intended to be a dynamic venture, seeking growth through the addition of collections and improvement through staff scholarship and community input."
This image of Mather Aviation School, ca 1920s, is one we chose to upload into the collection as an example: http://cdm16362.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15248coll1/id/3289
Scheduling Challenges/Importance of Communication!!
March 31st-April 2nd (School Library)
So my week in the school library did not get off to a smooth start. When I came in at 9:30am on Monday, March 31st I was surprised by a classroom of students who were waiting to check out their textbook novels assigned by the teacher. This particular class visit was not scheduled on the master library calendar maintained by the teacher librarian on MS Outlook, so I had no way of being prepared for the class. If you've ever had to try and maintain order amongst 30+ teenagers who've already been waiting in line for 5 minutes for their turn at the circulation desk then you'll understand what I was dealing with. They don't all bring their library cards either!
April 1st and 2nd - just trying to keep on top of the returned textbook novels and overdue fiction books that are now starting to grow in number as we approach the end of the school year. Eighth graders are getting the message that their graduation and end of year field trips might be affected by library fines, overdue books, etc.. At the end of 2013, the District's textbook services set the Destiny system to automatically roll over overdue books after a certain amount of time to "lost" status. Just this week I was asked by a student if the we had "The Mazerunner" in our collection - the catalog indicated yes so I checked the shelf and the book wasn't there - when I rechecked the catalog it indicated the one copy had been "Lost". I searched for the last patron who had checked out the book and the Librarian was able to send a notice to that student to return the book immediately. The book showed in the return dropbox at the end of the day :).
Sacramento Room Site Visit
March 27th (Sacramento Room)
Spent an hour today with my instructor and employment supervisor going over what I have accomplished to date. I have accomplished my first objective of learning new techniques for preserving and processing historic photographs - the creation of a photographic accession register for a group of photographs and lithographs is my concrete proof. We discussed the importance of learning the processing for digitizing and uploading the metadata for images into the library's digital collections. Next time I'll be given a tutorial in scanning and uploading photographic metadata using Content DM.
Spent an hour today with my instructor and employment supervisor going over what I have accomplished to date. I have accomplished my first objective of learning new techniques for preserving and processing historic photographs - the creation of a photographic accession register for a group of photographs and lithographs is my concrete proof. We discussed the importance of learning the processing for digitizing and uploading the metadata for images into the library's digital collections. Next time I'll be given a tutorial in scanning and uploading photographic metadata using Content DM.
More School Library Challenges
March 24th-25th (School Library)
Still trying to focus on getting the fiction collection in shape for end-of-the-year inventorying but I can see this will be a challenge. I've needed a diversion from the same old, same old so started brainstorming a few ways of brightening up the library for the month of April. Purchased a few posters from ALA and rearranged the paperback and graphic novels collection. It's not much but it's a start. Just trying to be creative with what I have :).
Still trying to focus on getting the fiction collection in shape for end-of-the-year inventorying but I can see this will be a challenge. I've needed a diversion from the same old, same old so started brainstorming a few ways of brightening up the library for the month of April. Purchased a few posters from ALA and rearranged the paperback and graphic novels collection. It's not much but it's a start. Just trying to be creative with what I have :).
Lithographs of Early Sacramento
March 23 (Sacramento Room)
Today I spent 3 hours covering lithographs of early Sacramento ca 1850s plus an early sketch of Sutter's Fort ca 1862. The processing and description of lithographs are pretty straightforward. Most were engravings used in the Daily Union in news articles covering the Great Flood of 1851. Versions of these same prints are already available in the Sacramento Room's digital collections as well as the Center for Sacramento History's photograph catalog. The key in the review work I'm doing on these lithographs (similar to the photographs) is creating precise descriptions of the images (size dimensions, color vs. b&w, content, pub date, etc.) that can be uploaded with into the digital collections index for its metadata records.
Today I spent 3 hours covering lithographs of early Sacramento ca 1850s plus an early sketch of Sutter's Fort ca 1862. The processing and description of lithographs are pretty straightforward. Most were engravings used in the Daily Union in news articles covering the Great Flood of 1851. Versions of these same prints are already available in the Sacramento Room's digital collections as well as the Center for Sacramento History's photograph catalog. The key in the review work I'm doing on these lithographs (similar to the photographs) is creating precise descriptions of the images (size dimensions, color vs. b&w, content, pub date, etc.) that can be uploaded with into the digital collections index for its metadata records.
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