So on Tuesday Christine and I came up with a plan as to what we planned on digitizing. Don't think I've mentioned it yet but we will be digitizing some materials at the new Melrose Center at the Orange County Library in Orlando. They have this huge, brand new scanner that we are going to use on some of these older pictures and documents. Christine thought it would be a good idea if we cut it down to one family so I thought the Vanderpool family would be the best choice. First because they are super underrated (mentioned this last week) but also their group of photos is small enough to practice on but still big enough for me to properly digitize and accession.
Ahh yes speaking of accessioning...
Wednesday we began the process of accessioning. Actually Tuesday Christine came up with this brilliant little plan to organize the photos and original documents and then begin a small spreadsheet describing each picture and slip of paper. That way it would be easier to identify what pieces we were accessioning without confusing ourselves. After everything was organized we realized we should probably call in an expert on the subject of accessioning. Our expert aka Bethany was nice enough to come to the museum and give us a crash course on how accessioning works and how to produce a number. It was actually quite easy once she explained everything. We began with the pictures in the Vanderpool file and it was kind of fun creating the numbers and plugging them into our mini spreadsheet first. Afterwards we took each item and entered it into PastPerfect. PastPerfect was something that Christine and I played with a bit until we understood how it worked and how to upload any type of information on there.
I honestly thought adding all of our information and plugging it into PastPerfect would be quick but it took me about two hours to do. It isn't that it's hard to do but it is a bit tedious. Also I'm pretty sure my eyes started crossing after the first hour. The trick is to make sure everything is perfect since deleting and starting over will eventually cost you some time (it happened to me twice).
I managed to accession all of the Vanderpool documents (receipts, letters, etc.) on the mini spreadsheet but unlike the photos, I was not able to add it to PastPerfect. But that is okay since I'll be finishing up the rest of the documents tomorrow or Wednesday after everything has been digitized.
Happy Monday and I hope everyone had a lovely weekend.
-Ambar the History Student
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