historyinternblog

[historyinternblog]

Week 4

This week, we had a meeting in person at the university on how to scan documents. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend because of the distance. Luckily, I was able to go through the steps on how to scan documents, and what was scanned as practice.

I continued my metadata forms this week, and learned a little bit more about Eleanor, even though the documents were mostly statements and meeting programs. Eleanor was the treasurer for the Public Affairs Council in DeBary and was in charge of bank statements and monetary transactions with the organization. She had a lot of responsibility with the organization and was given a lot of documents to handle. There were some meeting programs on electing new officers, and on the programs and other documents, I noticed that her name was spelled Elynor, and not Eleanor. I thought that was interesting to learn that she spelled it either way.

She was also a part of this hearing for the state where they were going to build a highway, 4 lanes, and 12-foot tall walls. In the document it had the itinerary of the hearing and what was going to be discussed. She was a part of a lot of activities with the pubic affairs council in Debary, which is amazing that she was a part of so many organizations.

The program meeting to nominate new officers had the wrong spelling for be, as it was bee, which is also interesting to think about; I wonder if it was done on purpose or if they spelled be as bee back in 1986. There was a quote on the document that I enjoyed, it was “If you find a path with no obstacles on it, the chances are that it doesn’t lead anywhere.” Other documents included the rules and description of being a treasurer, which Eleanor signed in 1986.

I got to see some of the bank statements, and what they looked like back in 1989, when they used fax machines and fax paper.

The next few documents will be paperwork on the women's club she was a part of, and I am excited to learn more about the organization for the women's club next week.

The only photo I got to see of her was in a newspaper clipping of her with 2 other members in the women's club at a holiday luncheon. She was helping with refreshments, which I would have liked to see more of her in the public affairs council.

[historyinternblog]

Week 3

This week, we had a meeting on Tuesday where we discussed what we are going to do and what we have already done. Since getting my assignment for our metadata sheets, I have learned a bit about the person I am working on, and her name is Eleanor Samels. A little more about metadata sheets, these forms are assigned to us so we can fill them out to the best of our knowledge on each artifact we have. We describe each piece and put it in a separate folder.

Eleanor Samuels didn’t have many artifacts about who she was, but more of the volunteer services and bylaws she was a part of when she moved to DeBary, Florida. I think this is suited for her because when doing some research on her, she was a lovely lady, and she cared more about volunteering in her community. I like that I get to learn about the organizations she volunteered for.

There is a newspaper article clipping with a photo of her with 2 others who helped at a luncheon for the women’s club she was a part of, but that was the only real photo from the project I am working on.

It is fascinating learning about the different volunteer programs she was a part of, and learning about what the organizations and in place in terms of bylaws. I’ve only completed a few metadata sheets, but as I do more, I can learn more about what else Eleanor was involved in.

I also did some research on Eleanor to see if there was anything I could find on the web, and I found her obituary back in 2011. In her obituary, it mentioned all the volunteer activities she was a part of that I am working on, plus more organizations that weren’t mentioned in the artifacts.

We also did some practice on transcribing oral history, which are videos of interviews that were recorded. We transcribed a shorter video, just so we can follow the guidelines provided for us to get a better understanding of what the next project will be.

It was interesting learning about what my other classmates were working on when they mentioned it at the meeting on Tuesday. We all have different projects to work on, and every project is accessible to us to look at.

I am excited to keep working on my metadata forms and learning more about the organizations that Eleanor volunteered with.

[historyinternblog]

Week 2

Hello everyone! Week two is ending and it is time to share about what all happened during this week.

We had a few assignments to complete like reading up on the Harvest RICHES Brochure that covers what RICHES is and the type of work we will be doing. The brochure went into details about what metadata is, why it is important, how to transcribe properly, and had videos on the different forms we will be using.  A knowledge test was made for us to complete after reading everything in the brochure and the videos.

I am super excited about working on my first project with this internship because we get to have a lot of hands-on learning experiences. Thursday, we had workshops to attend to find out more about what is metadata, why it is important, and also more about RICHES.

Someone from RICHES was able to come in and speak about the program, give us some background, and provided us some exciting tools they are working on, like this website for tracking the archives on a mosaic interface. It is still in development, but I will be excited when its fully up and running to look into some of the information.

Next, we learned a little bit about how to transcribe oral history, we were able to get guidelines on the way RICHES would like us to transcribe. We were also given a guideline on Oral history best practice for Archives. It is our reading material for this week to look over on best practices and the steps it takes to properly archive artifacts and documents.

After the workshops on metadata and transcribing, we actually practiced how to complete the metadata forms so we can begin our first projects completing the forms. It was a lot of fun learning how to complete the metadata forms; we all took something from our rooms and shared it with the class on what we chose to use for the metadata forms. All the pieces people shares were very interesting. I was glad we were able to get some practice in before actually starting on our projects.

Finally, we were assigned our projects with the intern tracker on who we get to preserve artifacts for and fill out the forms for them. I have begun looking into the folders that were shared with us just to get a better understanding of where everything is, like the metadata forms and the artifacts in the folders. I haven’t quite got started on the project, but I will start over the weekend since there was a lot of information given to us on Thursday.

I am excited to start this week and looking forward to our next meeting on Tuesday!

[historyinternblog]

Week 1

Hello everyone, my name is Sarah Green and I am living in Florida. I moved around a lot and originally from Indiana. I am a gamer and enjoy playing video games when I have the time. I also like to paint and learn new things. I am a coffee addict and enjoy a Dunkin iced coffee from time to time.

I am starting this blog for my internship for my history class that I am taking for the summer, which I will be working with other students like myself, and mentors with this project for RICHES. This project will be a part of the Harvest history festival where people are encouraged to bring a photo or piece of their history that they want to share in communities that don’t really have their histories shared.

I am enrolled at UCF while trying to obtain a bachelor’s degree in history since my interest is learning about history. I have a bachelors already in labor studies, but trying to get a second degree because my interests have moved to history.

I would like to someday work at a museum, school, or library as an Archivist to protect historical artifacts, or to work remotely as an archivist to transcribe different documents. Other jobs that do interest me would becoming a history teacher for high school, eventually becoming a professor at a college.

I guess my favorite subjects would be ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Ancient Eygpt fascinates me because I enjoy learning about their culture and mummification. I enjoy learning about Mesopotamia because it was one of the first civilizations, so it is interesting how they came up with their ideas.

I do enjoy learning about the different labor movements since my first degree was in labor studies, so learning the different working conditions around the world is also interesting to me.

I am excited for this opportunity to learn more about archives and how to transcribe them. I am also looking forward to what I will be learning while transcribing and the stories that were gathered trying to transcribe them. I am also excited to be communicating and collaborating with my fellow students and mentors on this project.

Learning the different steps will also be important in this internship that I am excited to start.

Hopefully with this internship, I will get better at blogging my progress each week since I am new to blogging. I hope you enjoy each week when I post my blogs.