Week 11

1) What I have accomplished throughout the week:

Preservation
This week I continued cleaning and sewing pamphlets. I also began listing the Craigie journals I had previously worked on by searching for annotations and cleaning. This listing involved documenting each volume's title, volume number, issue, dates published, and determining if it was a duplicate and the library already held a copy. This created a finding aid for the materials that were donated by Craigie.

Librarianship
This week I continued working on the New Perspectives project, by researching American university rankings by department. I found the top schools in the States for sociology, history, art, and museum studies and determined the department chair contact information. I also helped set up the new display in the rare books room, creating and laminating labels for the pieces being put on display.

Archiving
This week I continued cataloging the photographs from the Miss Great Britain archive. The archive is comprised of 300 photographs, so the project will take some time to complete. As before, I measured the size of the photo, created a short title for it, described it's contents, described it's physical features, denoted the photo's maker, and listed in what album number the photo was held.

2) What intersections I have seen between my job duties:

This week is my last week at my internships, though since I am staying in London a bit longer I am continuing my work at the Women's Library. This week was mostly about tying up loose ends at the Natural History Museum and finishing up the projects I have been working on all summer. The listing I did in my preservation internship was almost exactly like the listing I have been doing during my archiving internship, which has been a common theme throughout my work. It seems that listing and cataloging is a part of all three occupations.

Week 10

1) What I have accomplished throughout the week:

Preservation
This week I continued and finished my work on the divorce hearing pamphlets. Again, I was cleaning, stripping, and sewing the papers. As well, using Japanese Tissue Paper, I mended pages of a book that had been torn, and learned how to use glue to fix a book whose spine was coming off. This involved gluing down the pieces coming away from the text block, wrapping in grease proof paper, and then bandaging the book together to ensure the glue dried in the correct place.

Librarianship
This week I was given a tour of the Conservation department and a talk on the department's processes and activities. It was especially interesting to be exposed to the library materials from this new angle. Many of the items I have been working on at the Natural History Museum have either been through conservation, or need to be evaluated. To see where these materials go was very useful. I also received a tour of the entire museum, and was able to go into many of the science departments for the first time. Through this tour I gained a better understanding of the audience to which the library is directed, and the work that is being achieved using the resources we hold. I also got to see a giant squid, which didn't have much to do with my work but was really impressive. Finally, I continued my work on the New Perspectives project- researching British universities who received high marks in social sciences, art, and history in order to contact the heads of department in each area.

Archiving
This week in my archiving internship I cataloged two folders of posters held within the Miss Great Britain archive. Cataloging this material was really similar to cataloging photographs, one major exception being the focus on color. When cataloging the posters it was necessary to note all the colors used in the printing, and to describe the contents using its colors (ex. poster contains a blue door and a woman in a red dress). This is to make it easy for posters to be identified by the archivists. This week I also finished cataloging another section of the Miss Great Britain photographs.

2) What intersections I have seen between my job duties:

Many of the things discussed in my conservation talk at the Natural History Museum overlapped with my work at my preservation internship. Many of the same preventative techniques are used, such as moderation of temperature and humidity, boxing of fragile items, and proper storage of library materials. Also, many of the mending done in the conservation department is similar to the mending I do in preservation. The two areas are very similar, though the more advanced problems (such as larger paper mendings and chemical cleaning) are held within the realm of conservation and are not dealt with at my preservation job. These things are done in-house at the Natural History Museum.

Week 9

1) What I have accomplished throughout the week:

Preservation
This week I continued my work cleaning, stripping and sewing pamphlets from the collection of divorce proceedings from the 1950s and 60s. This week my work involved patching pamphlets whose paper had been torn. I did this using Japanese tissue paper and non-acidic glue. I also mended smaller tears by figuring out which way the tear would naturally lie, and then glue the pieces back together again.

Librarianship
This week I created space in the Darwin Collection for items that are being removed from storage and added to the collection. This year marks the 200 anniversary of Darwin's publication of the Origin of Species, so many of his works held by the museum are being digitized in recognition of the event. I also cataloged 10 boxes of art work by two artists- Naeve Parker and Maurice Wilson. This involved putting the drawings and paintings in order, numbering the boxes, labeling the art work, and creating a finding aid listing the contents of the box. This was especially interesting because the art work was of dinosaurs and prehistoric man. I also began researching institutions of higher education that may be interested in the facilities provided by the Natural History Museum Libraries. There is currently an outreach effort to attract highly ranked universities to use the library for social sciences, arts, and history. I researched the ranking of institutions and determined the appropriate contact person for each department.

Archiving
This week I began listing the photographs I have been re-packaging for Miss Great Britain. This involved creating running numbers for the photographs, labeling them, creating a title, discovering the date of creation, describing the contents, determining any copyright, and listing the photograph's physical features and format.

2) What intersections I have seen between my job duties:


I saw a similarity between my librarianship and archiving internships this week. I had to organize and number some of the art work in the Natural History Museum library, and used similar techniques I have been using to organize and label the Miss Great Britain photographs at the Women's Library. This shows that similar strategies are used to organize information in both environments.

Week 8

1) What I have accomplished throughout the week:

Preservation
This week I completed my work with Craigie's journals by cleaning the volumes of grime and dust using a smoke sponge and a brush. This took sometime because the volumes were particularly dirty (which shows how improper storage can lead to quick degradation of the text block). I also continued my work on collection pamphlets, stripping, cleaning and sewing them.

Librarianship
This week I continued working on listing and cataloging the undocumented maps in the Oceanographic collection. There were issues while working on these, as I came upon many with missing titles and publication dates. I have not worked with maps before this experience, so I have learned a lot about how librarians catalog and research in this format.

I also organized a folder held within the museum library's archive which held correspondence between a librarian and a scientist in the 1970s. I arranged the letters in chronological order, removed any rusty metal (paper clips, pins, etc.), and created a detailed list of the contents of the folder. The description included the letters' sender and receiver, date, and format.

I also continued my work with the Challenger voyage collection. I removed items from the shelf that related to the voyage and listed what the volumes contained. There is a scientist visiting from France within the next few weeks who is focusing specifically on the Challenger voyage. The list I am compiling will help him find useful materials for his research.

Archiving
This week I completed the biographies of Nan Berger and Helen Joseph. These will be published on the Women's Library website this week. I also finished re-mounting old photographs of suffragists from the 1910s, and also re-packaged them in melanex folders held in a binder. I finished re-packaging the Miss Great Britain photographs and also put these in melanex folders and organized them into folders. Next week I will begin listing the contents of the photos.

2) What intersections I have seen between my job duties:

This week I worked with some museum archive content during my librarianship internship, performing many of the same tasks with that material as I do during my archiving internship (like stripping material of rusty metal, organizing according to original order, and creating a detailed list of contents). As well, I was instructed to follow preservation guidelines when re-packaging the material in the Miss Great Britian archive.

Week 7

1) What I have accomplished throughout the week:

Preservation
I continued my work with pamphlets this week, but worked solely on one collection- minutes and proceedings from divorce cases which took place in the 50s and 60s. I stripped the pamphlets of rusty metal, cleaned them with a smoke sponge, and sewed together the remaining papers. I worked unsupervised this week.

Librarianship
This week I finished my work on the Forster artwork, by checking the published art collection catalog and correcting the numbers associated with each drawing or painting. This will be used to correct official museum records. I also continued my work on listing maps that are uncataloged. This involved working my way through an abandoned pile of old maps, and determining the title, publisher, date, format, and description. I then transferred this information over to an Excel spreadsheet. Finally, I continued my work on creating a finding aid for material within the general collection relating to the Challenger voyage. This involved finding the material, listing the details, and compiling everything on an Excel spreadsheet.

Archiving
This week my work on the Nan Berger archive was posted online. It can be seen on the Women's Library website, and can be used by library patrons to search her archive. I wrote a short biography of Berger that will be posted on her archive, and also wrote a biography for Berger's friend and political partner Helen Joseph. This biography will be posted on Joseph's archive on the Women's Library website. I also began my work on the Miss Great Britain archive. This archive contains over 300 hundred photographs, and began my work by re-packaging the pictures in Melanex folders which will eventually be placed in a folder. I briefly worked on some other photographs that needed to be re-packaged, which were very old photographs of British suffragettes. These were especially interesting because pictures included images of women being arrested, women campaigners, and portraits of celebrated suffragettes. The pictures were mounted on acid free paper, and I had to re size the paper and package them in Melanex envelopes.

2) What intersections I have seen between my job duties:

My internship duties have become much more defined this past week, and there are have been few instersections between them. Again, there are similarities between the methods for listing library material and listing archive material (which I am doing at both the Librarianship and Archiving internships). When I re-packaged the photographs in my archiving internship, I was doing so according to preservation standards. This showed an awareness of the importance of preservation within the archiving field.

Week 6

1) What I have accomplished throughout the week:

Preservation

This week I finished finding notations in the donated journals of Jill Craigie. Now that this task has been completed, the journals are available for library patrons to use in their research. While looking through these journals I found artifacts that were sent to the archive deaprtment, including an eye glasses case used as a book mark and notes written to Jill and her husband. As well I continued sewing and cleaning pamphlets, and sewed together a large publication. I worked unsupervised this week.

Librarianship

This week I worked with various published lists of museum content, as well as the library catalog, to find items in the stacks that contain manuscript content. I then entered this information into the EndNote software to create a working bibliography of the manuscripts located at the museum. This will be used for those researchers looking specifically for manuscript material. I also began listing and describing unlabeled maps within the Oceanographic collection. There are many stacks of maps in the library that came from an unknown source, and these maps have not been cataloged. By listing and describing their contents, the library will be able to determine if they will keep the material or sell it.

Archiving

This week I created folders for photographs and slides located within Nan Berger's archive (which I have been working on for the past few weeks). I also completed the electronic finding aid that will be available online for users of the library to search. This finding aid will be the patron's method of searching the archive. Before completing my work on the archive, though, I copied all press cuttings onto acid free paper to prevent degradation of the content. This will allow users to handle the press contents without fears of damage due to fragile paper (newspaper is especially acidic and degrades quickly). As well, this week I was allowed to sit in on a brief meeting where employees discussed potential aquisitions. This was extremely interesting as I was able gain some insight into the thought process and logisitics behind purchasing archives.

2) What intersections I have seen between my job duties:

While completing my preservation work I found some materials located within the journals that were considered archive material. This shows that there is sometimes a fine line between regular library content and archive content, especially within a special library environment such as the Women's Library. The same was found when packaging my Nan Berger archive, as there was discussion as to whether her publications should be included in her archive or incorporated into the stacks. It was eventually decided to keep the items in her archive. Again, I could see strong connections between the listing and describing of my archive and the listing describing involved in my library work (while describing the maps in the Oceanographic collection).

Week 5

1) What I have accomplished throughout the week:

Preservation

This week I learned more book bending techniques and was encouraged to work independently. I learned how to fix a split hollow central on a book, which normally occurs at the top center part of a book (from people pulling the book off the shelf by the spine). To fix the book, I created a bridge for the gap using cardboard and glued the torn pieces together. I also learned how to fix a book whose boards had become detached from the text block. This involved creating a joint using cardboard to hold the spine in place. I also continued my work cleaning and sewing pamphlets, learning how to sew together pamphlets containing multiple sections.

Librarianship

I began my week working on a project concerned with art work stored in the rare books room. I had to pull items by an artist named Forrster, who went on Cook's second voyage, and check each item corresponded correctly with the published museum index. Many of these items were mislabeled, and it was necessary to check species names and picture descriptions. I also visited the library at the London Zoological Society with some co-workers. The LZS is part of the London Zoo and is used by the zoo staff members. We were given a tour of the library's holdings, including archives, art work, serials, books, and digital photographs. It was a very informative visit. As well, this week I met with the NHM cataloger to receive a tutorial on the cataloging procedures here at the museum. This was especially useful as my experience with cataloging is minimal. I was given a background on the development of international standards, and a look at how cataloging at a specialized library is unique.

Archiving

This week I continued to work on Nan Berger's archive. I finished cataloging the archive's photographs and slides, and then organized the archive into a final order. I then learned how to repackage the archive's items into folders and correctly label the folders according to the library's standards. I also learned how to tie together volumes included in the collection, and correctly label them with the contents contained in corresponding folders.

2) What intersections I have seen between my job duties:

In my tour of the London Zoological Society I was introduced to many different aspects of their library, including archiving and preservation. This demonstrated the point that most libraries do incorporate aspects of these fields into their librarianship work. As well, when checking the published descriptions of pictures held in the NHM rare books room, I was using published museum archive material to do so. Institutions as large as the Natural History Museum are able to publish aspects of their archives, showing the importance of keeping such records.