"Things are starting to fall into place."
I was relieved that my Supervisor felt this way, and that I was finally feeling the same, too.
For our weekly phone meeting, my Supervisor also invited a colleague to join us. I'll refer to her from now on as "the Curator.". The Curator is my point of contact for the postcard cataloging portion of my internship, which will begin soon. Earlier in the week, she sent me a package containing DVDs of the postcard scans, and just before we met, e-mailed a template with instructions. We went over the instructions together, discussing such things as where to find resources for research (city directories, local postcard associations, etc), what sort of authority control to apply (if any), and the possible inclusion of additional fields. She also gave me some interesting context related to the origin of the postcards and the project, as well as a potential deadline that would allow her to make use of the cataloged records for a Golden Gate anniversary project in May. And finally, the Curator and I decided that weekly Saturday meetings just before (or just after) the ones with my Supervisor would be best. So for the duration of the cataloging project, weekly recaps will include meetings with the Curator, too.
My supervisor was pleased with my Letter of Introduction and Library Contact/Info List, and thanked me for my hard work, which made me very happy. She had a few suggestions for my Letter, which she sent to me by e-mail after a brief discussion of same. We then turned our attention to the Contact/Info list for the rest of the meeting.
The Contact/Info List is a compilation of quick facts and website links for each library we hope to hear from, as well as several alternates, should any first choices fall through. Typical information found on this list includes: presence/absence of digital archives, presence/absence of digital policy, potential contact person(s), links to annual statements (if any), to reorganization projects (if any), etc. I compiled the list by exploring each library's website in detail. Compiling the list was beneficial for two reasons: (1) it meant instant access to important facts about each library, which will be useful when I ask follow-up questions, but also (2) it gave me a stronger sense of the "personality" of each library, the effectiveness of the website, the structure, hierarchy, departments, etc. So my knowledge of library organization and information display in general increased, too. We spent the rest of our meeting going through the list line by line, sharing the information and making strategic decisions.
In some cases, my Supervisor already had connections, so it was simply a matter of getting a name and phone number from her. In other cases, we were able to guess potential contact persons through names on staff lists and blogs. And there were also some libraries where our only strategy seemed to be to submit a question through the Reference department and hope for a specific contact person's name in response.
If all goes well, next week will begin the first wave of contacts and the first attempts at cataloging.
See you then!
2 comments:
Hi Karen, Although not responding to each post, I am enjoying reading them. Your detailed post with SLOs was very well done. And I couldn't help empathize with ou both when losing time for a social obligation (which really should be enjoyable and not an obligation) and when fretting over the first draft of the letter. It appears all went well. I am so glad everything 'is falling into place.'
Thanks! Yes, there were some setbacks this last week, but we also finalized the letter and I've made initial contact with most of the libraries on our list. If I can establish contact with the rest of the libraries and get a solid batch of cataloging done by Tuesday (when I next meet with the Curator, then I'll be in good shape for the coming week.
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