Week Eight, Day Twelve- November 9

So today we began working on the 1960s material. I can't believe how many head shots are in the collection for this decade. We spent the day working on just photos and hopefully we will be able to finish them the next day we come. The photos in this collection had more information written on the back, I'm guessing because more of these people are still around and Bob has been able to speak with them about their experience in the black radio industry. I think as the collection develops there will be more information added to these materials as more people find out about the project and are able to add any knowledge they possess. I really do hope that anyone who works on this project in the future is able to talk with the people in the photos and get all the information they have about this time in Birmingham history because it would be a real shame to lose what they know.

Week Seven, Day Eleven- November 2

Today we were able to finish up processing the 1950s collection. Most of the documents of the 1950s are newspaper articles which I really enjoyed reading as we processed them. Several of the articles were about racial issues in Birmingham and how people tried to shut down several of the black radio stations. There were also several instructional manuals for various radio devices from the 1950s. We processed them along with the rest of the materials, but I am having a hard time thinking of reasons that someone might want to look at them in the future. Well, maybe someone could use them if they were trying to repair an old piece of equipment. There are also several radio devices that Bob would like us to catalog and the instruction manuals might go to them. I definitely think we will need Bob's help in trying to figure out the name of each device.

As I looked back on some of the metadata that we worked on previously, I noticed that I did not include the newspaper article title for some of the articles. This was a huge mistake and I will need to go back and fix it the next time because what good is this description "WBCO newspaper article from Nov. 11, 1958"? Nothing, that's what.

Week Six, Day Ten- October 30

Today we worked towards finishing the metadata for the 1950s. I really thought that since we finished the pictures the last time we worked, but we would be able to finish the documents in one day. No such luck! There was just so much to look at and type. The processing goes so much faster with pictures because there is only a little bit of information that you need about a picture, who is in it, what year was it taken, and in the case of this collection, to what radio station does it relate? Well, the same can not be said for documents.

I think it takes almost twice as long to catalog a document than a picture. I think this is mostly due to the fact that I enjoy reading most of the newspaper articles and some of the letters to get a better feel for how to describe them in the metadata. But its difficult to write a description because there is just so much information in most of the documents that a little line in a spread sheet. I don't think its good to overly describe the document because then things get too wordy and it might make it difficult in searching by research for items of interest. I think with practice I'll get better at making precise descriptions for documents like I can for photos.

Week Six, Day Nine- October 26

Today we continued to work on the materials from the 1950s. There are just a ton of photos in this collection! Most of the photos were head shots or promotional photos of various radio personalities which I think is interesting, but I'm not sure how it would be helpful to researchers unless they were just looking for a picture of a particular radio personality that they had already researched. Whenever I work on processing a collection, I always like to imagine the ways in which researcher might be able to use the items in the collection. I guess I just haven't thought hard enough to discover the ways in which this collections will be used, but I'm sure that I will come up with something. When I first started to work on a collection at the archive at the university, I hard a very difficult time thinking of ways someone would want to use the materials I was working with, but as time went on, I began to see the value in the items and the entire collection. I'm sure with time I will be able to think of something.

We were able to finish up the pictures today and go a start on the documents. I find this to be much more entertaining and interesting because some of the letters and newspaper articles really tell the story of the development of black radio in Birmingham and other cities in the United States. I especially enjoyed looking at various Federal Communication Commission reports because they give facts and figures to the overall history of black radio.

Week Five, Day Eight- October 23

Today we continued to work on creating a metadata spread sheet for the collection. Since we had finished the 1930s and 1940s, we began working on the 1950s. There is a lot more material for this decade so it will probably take us at least another day of working to finish it up. There are a lot more photos in the this collection and many of them are head shots of various radio personalities. It looks like Bob or someone else has written names and dates on some of them, but we will have to talk with him after we finish processing all the materials to find as much information about each item as he has. I'm also beginning to think about ways that we can put information that Bob might not be totally sure about into the metadata. If he thinks he knows who is in a picture, but isn't totally sure, we don't want to put that into the description field because it might end up being wrong and that might lead a researcher down the wrong path. But it could be right and we wouldn't want to exclude information we are not sure about.

This issue is something that the world of metadata must work on and try to figure out a solution. When one is processing a collection and making the metadata, you can't put in information that you are unsure of, but you also don't want to leave it out. It would be helpful to develop a field within the metadata schema that would also a person to include information but make sure the patron or researcher know the information may or may not be correct. It would also be helpful to let users make additions to metadata, but this also could only be done if the information is displayed in such a way as to make it clear it came from the public rather than the archive itself.

Week Five, Day Seven- October 19

I felt like today was one of the most productive days that we had at the museum. Since most of the photos had made it into protective sleeves, we were able to move on to the actual cataloging of the images and papers. We began with the 1930s since this decade had the least amount of materials. At first we started out with the unique identifier system that Latoya and I had developed earlier, but as we worked, we found that it really wasn't going to work for the needs the collection. At first, we thought that we should work each individual radio station into the number, but this became a problem because some of the materials were not related to any one radio station. This caused us to drop the radio station from the system. So, our final unique identifier number will look like this 0002.0002.000001. The first number tells you what type of material the item is, whether its a picture, manuscript, or recording. The next number tells you what decade the item is from and the last number is the individual item's number within each collection. We were able to make a spread sheet for the 1930s and 1940s. Once we have made a spread sheet for each decade and given each item its own unique identifier, Latoya and I are going to sit down with Bob and have him give us as much information about each piece as he can. We will use this information to refine the metadata and to create a finding aid that can be used by researchers or other interested persons.

Week Four, Day Six- October 16

Today, more archive materials from Gaylord arrived so we were able to finish putting all the photographs into protective sleeves and finish putting all the manuscripts into their own folders. Even though this process takes forever, I think it is really important because we want to know this collection as well as we possibly can before we begin the cataloging process. Not taking the time to get to know the collection can have a very negative affect on the final product of a finding aid because we would not be able to link up similar materials so that it is easier for a researcher to find the information they are looking for. I know it can be very frustrating when you don't have any idea the proper chronology for a collection and you are forced to make one up by yourself. Because a collection may no longer be in the correct order, it is so very important to take the time to look at each item, both as an individual record and as the item relates to the rest of the collection. If the person developing the finding aid does not take the time to match similar materials, a researcher may find it difficult and frustrating to use the materials. It really is up to the person who is working one on one with the materials to take the time to put them in the most logical order possible. I hope that all the time we are spending looking at the materials as we put them in protective sleeves and folders will enable us to develop the most logical system for organizing everything which will lead to a well thought out and developed finding aid.