Last week was busy,busy, busy! The UCLA service students are helping the collection move along rapidly. I have two students processing a particularly large collection, The Marilyn White Collection. To successfully have two students process one collection they must; confirm that they will come in on different dates, adhere to the same processing standards, and complete the box they started that day. So far, 10 boxes have been processed in 18 hours, an excellent rate!
The processing procedure I developed for this collection is based on the fact that MCLM is a library. Because MCLM is a library we must know exactly what type and quantity of book is in each collection that is donated. In order to determine this the procedure is to create an excel sheet only for the books, pamphlets, brochures and other printed matter (excluding correspondence) that details the title, quantity and year of each item. This excel sheet can then be compared to our current holdings and then a weeding process can then occur.
An interesting item that I found in the collection yesterday was some of Mayme's water color paintings. She made these drawings in a class that Avery taught, MCLM currently has the paints and the works she created. A fun little piece of institutional history!
Week 32 at The Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum
The launch of MCLM new online database is tomorrow! I am very excited for this event as I will be giving demo on how to use the database. The database launch coincides with an event MCLM is hosting entitled Africa Speaks, American Answers: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times. This free event is a celebration of Jazz Appreciation month featuring a discussion with Dr. Robin Kelly, the Gary B. Nash Professor of American history in the UCLA department of history, who will be discussing his book Africa Speaks America Answers: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times.
Last week volunteers completed to detailed inventory of the James Jefferies collection. Inventories are an important part of any processing procedure. I find that a basic inventory allows me to look at the entire collection quickly, and then decide how to move on to processing at a folder level or cataloging at the item level.
Last week volunteers completed to detailed inventory of the James Jefferies collection. Inventories are an important part of any processing procedure. I find that a basic inventory allows me to look at the entire collection quickly, and then decide how to move on to processing at a folder level or cataloging at the item level.
Week 31 at The Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum
Last week, I processed a portion of The Marilyn E. White Collection. Years ago, Marilyn White was a volunteer at MCLM that donated a collection that consists of books, dolls, plaques, pamphlets, stamps, photographs and brochures. Judging from the items within the collection Ms. White was an Olympic participant and singer. The portion of the collection I processed consisted mostly of stamps that portray African American leaders.
The pushing of inventories into the database continues. As apart of this process I am given the opportunity to handle collections. One interesting collection was the Anne N. and William L. Smith Collection. circa 1900-2008. Anne Nichols Smith, a teacher, and her husband William L. Smith, a physician in private practice, were active in Los Angeles community service organizations. The collection primarily consists of books, magazines, and pamphlets by and about African Americans. The collection also contains medical equipment. Some of the medical equipment included in fascinating! Like the clamps and speculum, need I mention the vials of sulfate and syringes.
The pushing of inventories into the database continues. As apart of this process I am given the opportunity to handle collections. One interesting collection was the Anne N. and William L. Smith Collection. circa 1900-2008. Anne Nichols Smith, a teacher, and her husband William L. Smith, a physician in private practice, were active in Los Angeles community service organizations. The collection primarily consists of books, magazines, and pamphlets by and about African Americans. The collection also contains medical equipment. Some of the medical equipment included in fascinating! Like the clamps and speculum, need I mention the vials of sulfate and syringes.
Week 30 at The Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum
There were a few events that occurred last week at MCLM. The Hollywood Chapter of (The National Organization for Women) held a Feminist Art http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif Extravaganza. The event featured an silent art auction, live musical performances, an enthralling poetry reading and a female break dancer. On Thursday, MCLM also welcomed the World Ventures Travel Group. The event was for about 25 members of the touring group.
The head archivist at MCLM, Cara Adams gave two tours last week. A student from John's Hopkins was amongst one of the tour groups. The student and I previously corresponded via email discussing MCLM's digitization initiatives. MCLM has some of its items digitized but it is my personal belief that digitization on a mass scale must occur as part of a grant project. Unfortunately, there are not many grants that support basic digitization, but there are a plethora of funding opportunities that support innovative digitization methods.
I have continued pushing inventories into the database and updating the finding aids. I have a group of volunteers separating the photograph collection into appropriate subject headings. MCLM's photograph collection is quite diverse, the subject categories we are assigning to the photographs are; entertainment, disciplines, politics, Los Angeles ,sports and descendants of Mayme A. Clayton. After I began working on the photograph project I began to understand the importance of labeling images before donating them to an archive, library or museum. Beyond providing a name it is necessary to detail what the person in the image did (e.g. career, interests, goals etc.), this is vital provenance information that expedites the cataloging process.
The head archivist at MCLM, Cara Adams gave two tours last week. A student from John's Hopkins was amongst one of the tour groups. The student and I previously corresponded via email discussing MCLM's digitization initiatives. MCLM has some of its items digitized but it is my personal belief that digitization on a mass scale must occur as part of a grant project. Unfortunately, there are not many grants that support basic digitization, but there are a plethora of funding opportunities that support innovative digitization methods.
I have continued pushing inventories into the database and updating the finding aids. I have a group of volunteers separating the photograph collection into appropriate subject headings. MCLM's photograph collection is quite diverse, the subject categories we are assigning to the photographs are; entertainment, disciplines, politics, Los Angeles ,sports and descendants of Mayme A. Clayton. After I began working on the photograph project I began to understand the importance of labeling images before donating them to an archive, library or museum. Beyond providing a name it is necessary to detail what the person in the image did (e.g. career, interests, goals etc.), this is vital provenance information that expedites the cataloging process.
Week 29 at The Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum
Last week, I was given the honor of accepting an award on behalf of The Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum. The award was posthumously presented to Dr. Mayme Agnew Clayton for being a champion of Black History & Museum Founder. The event, hosted by The Museum of African American Art, focused on African American women in honor of March, Women's History Month.
The next day, MCLM hosted a disaster preparedness workshop. This type of workshop occurs in many locations and is funded through a NEH grant. Westpas, a preservation assistance service, is the grant writing agency. The event opened my eyes to the amount of planning that must go into preparing for a disaster, especially earthquakes.
On the collections side of events from last week, I have assigned a group of volunteers to inventory the entirety of the James Jeffreys Jr. collection. This collection consists of photographs, prints, and some mixed media paintings. Once the inventory is complete it will be pushed into the database.
The next day, MCLM hosted a disaster preparedness workshop. This type of workshop occurs in many locations and is funded through a NEH grant. Westpas, a preservation assistance service, is the grant writing agency. The event opened my eyes to the amount of planning that must go into preparing for a disaster, especially earthquakes.
On the collections side of events from last week, I have assigned a group of volunteers to inventory the entirety of the James Jeffreys Jr. collection. This collection consists of photographs, prints, and some mixed media paintings. Once the inventory is complete it will be pushed into the database.
Week 28 at The Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum
Last week marked the final training session for the new OPAC. There were about ten volunteers who attended the training ranging in age from 21-65. The document I created to help the volunteers through the cataloging process was well received overall, but I felt there were some improvements that could have been made. The first thing I would change on the document is the font size, a larger type (greater than 12 point) allows the volunteers to easily read the text. Another feature of the document I would change is using circles to highlight important parts of the screen instead of arrows; arrows have a tendency to get lost in the text.
Last week, I began creating the finding aid for the Khalid Kwame Collection. This jazz collection consists of about 10,000 machine readable artifacts (e.g. CDs, Tapes,and Albums), 7,000 pieces of textual documents and a few pieces of AV equipment. While working on the finding aid I wrote a biography on the Kwame by pulling information about his life from business cards, wills and donor forms.
Last week, I began creating the finding aid for the Khalid Kwame Collection. This jazz collection consists of about 10,000 machine readable artifacts (e.g. CDs, Tapes,and Albums), 7,000 pieces of textual documents and a few pieces of AV equipment. While working on the finding aid I wrote a biography on the Kwame by pulling information about his life from business cards, wills and donor forms.
Week 27 at The Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum
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Last Saturday I gave a presentation/training session to the volunteers about how to catalog a book. For the training session I put together a detailed workflow. I was surprised by the amount of time it takes to successfully construct a receptive workflow. The features of a successful workflow are; being detailed , use arrows and circles to emphasize the important areas of the screen and make the steps bold.
The second part of the training session was focused on pulling Library of Congress Subject Headings. Every item that is cataloged must have at least one subject to facilitate in the retrieval of information through a search. The item I used as an example to pull subject for was a Kwanzaa Kufi Bear. Kufi bears are teddy bears that adorn a Kufi Hat and often have Kente Cloth clothing and/or accessories. MCLM has two Kufi Bears in their collection,one that is identical to the one in the picture above and another that is Kwanzaa themed.
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