Week 9, August 10-16

We have now reached the end of the DFW. There is a sense of wishing the project would have been completed but I am proud of the work that I did. Working alone on this project had advantages and disadvantages. For the disadvantages, other than the fact the project would have been finished, I also lament the fact I didn't have a team member to collaborate with. Being able to work with someone and bounce ideas off of each other is a skill I always appreciate developing. But as with anything, I feel I turned this lack of partnership into an advantage. I was able to work in a self-directed manner and with minimal oversight. I had to hold myself accountable at every turn in the road. So, yes, that feeling of guilt at times was self-imposed, but it kept the fire burning to complete the hours and make as much progress on the project as I could.

As for the project, I shunned the idea of a creative piece in order to plug away at the metadata spreadsheet. It wasn't very glamorous, but that's ok. It was a nuts and bolts project, and nuts and bolts is something I wanted to be able to spend time doing. There was something hypnotically therapeutic about the repetition of the data entry. Yet, it wasn't a mindless endeavor. Many of the resources had specific characteristics, and attention to detail was imperative for the integrity of each resource. By treating each with care was also a good way to break the monotony. Here is a link to my final spreadsheet!

In summation, had I given another 50 hours to the project, it could have been completed. But that wasn't a reality this summer. After such a hectic and busy Year #1, it is important I recharge my batteries. I have other creative projects of a personal nature which are nearing completion, so if I can go into autumn having achieved those goals, I will be satisfied. I know the coming school year will be a challenge and I don't plan on having any time for much of anything other than school. Now some of you may be wondering what will come of this website. I plan on developing it as a repository for some of my other achievements at the iSchool. So, stay tuned for that!

Week 8, August 3-9

The second to last week, I found my first real blunder on the website I have been working with. For the subjects of "The Unpublished Papers of Edmund M. Morgan," many of the links to resources in the collection were dead URLs. This made the majority of the week a slog. Luckily, the resources were still up on the old website, so I was able to complete much of the metadata. This also presented an opportunity for me to modify the spreadsheet I have been working on. Each resource that has a dead URL is color coded, with a special disclaimer at the top of the spreadsheet stating what the issue is. The purpose is, of course, to make it easier to discern a resource that needs updating on the website.

Now remember, last week I wrote about some murky areas within the "publisher" and "contributor" section. This has continued, especially since many of the documents were not officially published. One example has been prevalent. There have been many resources of memoranda and correspondence. Typically on these documents there is a label at the top of the page which says "Office of the Secretary of Defense." For the majority of this section I have been using that as the "Organization Responsible for Publication." I am not so sure that is truly the case, but there is no evidence either way. I could possibly have made a separate classification, but I decided against it.

For the most part as I go into my final 4 days of working on the metadata, I am beginning the process of reflection on the project. While these thoughts are formulating, I am thinking about how I may go about my finishing my portion of the project. As I began, way back in the late June, my goal was to complete the collection so that my supervisor can have some closure. I was supposed to have had a partner on the project so that this goal could have come to fruition. Alas, for one reason or another, the other intern opted out of the project, and I was forced to work solo. This left me without a collaborator to bounce ideas off of, and it also left the last part of the project in the lurch. I have no doubts that should I have had a partner, we would have completed it with time to spare. My only hope is that this project doesn't fall by the wayside and that one day soon it can be completed.

Week 7, July 27-August 2

Here we are at the homestretch! It will be a busy two weeks and now I am pushing it harder until I reach the finish line. This project, now that I am in the process of my third deliverable, took a detour last week. My goal was to begin a new software program, OpenRefine. But for the purpose of the project, something like Microsoft Access would have been more appropriate. I have Microsoft Access experience, so I decided to continue with Excel and eschew OpenRefine. This is not to denigrate the software, but I think it was not right for the project. The software requires a completed spreadsheet or document to upload, and then it separates the data into metadata categories. That seems to be redundant, since I need to make the spreadsheet first. I understand how it could be beneficial perhaps with the scope of a different project, but since my deliverables need to be in the form of a MS Excel spreadsheet, I have decided to tackle the data and try to complete as much as I can as possible.

This doesn't mean I am putting my head down and bulldozing thought the data. Each collection demands full attention because there is such a variety in the resources. This means there is a minimum of cutting and pasting, and a maximum of skimming and browsing certain documents to find the information needed to fill in the blank cells. At this juncture, one of the most complex areas to address are the categories of "contributor." Many of the documents are submitted by a chairperson (chairman, really, because most of the documents were written in the 40's and 50's) within the US Senate or Representatives. These groups of congresspeople are then divided into committees. Often times the committee stands on its own, with no individuals, and they are marked as the contributor. Sometimes the name of the committee changes but they are tackling the same topic. I can also mark them as "organization responsible for publication" since there is no true publisher and this group is the one who wrote the document and printed it out. This is why I decided to not have a Publisher category. These resources were published through government channels, and are not limited to the rules of a publishing house. Sometimes these reports are printed out and distributed to a limited group of people. Meaning, it is not for public consumption. At least it wasn't upon printing and distribution.

Yet, sometimes I want to find persons of importance within these documents. Maybe someone is searching for "Chester Nimitz" or "Charles Elston." Well, sometimes their fingerprints are all over the documents, though their name isn't mentioned. This is where some research comes into play. Many times you may get a name, but with only initials for the first name. More research is involved. Google deserves some credit, but so do my searching skills. Multiply this by 100's and soon to be nearly 1000 documents, then you can fill up dozens of hours fast. This is the plan for the homestretch. I have two weeks to go. Wish me luck!