Weekend number four!

This weekend I worked on organizing the special collection books again. The staff found some more boxes and decided to move the location of the shelves to another room so that the room they were in can be used as a display room for the museum. Working with these books are so interesting. Most of this collection was property to the old Beauvoir soldiers home and some of it was the Davis families personal collection. The hope is to adventually have it ready for research purposes. It's getting there. I've got a good bit of hours in during the month of June, but I may not get many in July because I'm getting married. I've let everyone at Beauvoir know that I won't be there as much to volunteer in July but since our wedding is there, they'll still see me around. I'll be back in August for volunteer hours after our honeymoon is over, ready to work hard! I really am enjoying my time in archives!

Weekend number three!

This weekend was very interesting! I started a new project because someone else finished the previous one during the week. I worked on transcribing some of Varina Davis' personal letters. Some were hard to read because of the font or the fact that every inch of the paper would be used: front, back, and sides. A project like this just made it so personal. These were real people. It was so neat. Here's a little sample. I hope I get the privilege to continue this project during future visits.

Weekend number two!

My second weekend of archival work has come and gone. I spent the majority of the time organizing the special collection bookshelf. I'm sure I will spend a few more weekends working on this project. They discovered several more boxes that they didn't realize they had, so there will need to be some shifting. Next weekend, I have a cart full of the books waiting for me that were not labeled, so some cataloging will be in order. All in all, it is a really fun project, because I'm getting the opportunity to work with some really rare books and that in its self is a privilege.

First day of practicum work.

Saturday June 6, 2015 was my first day of practicum work for LIS 648. I am doing my practicum at Beauvoir, The Jefferson Davis Home and Presidential Library in Biloxi, MS. It is not my first time doing volunteer work at Beauvoir. I starting volunteering there for another class related to my archival studies last year. When I was there previously, it was a under another librarian. Now they have a new librarian/archivist I will be studying and working with, Mr Spence.

Saturday I spend the majority of the day organizing several sets of books to find out if any of the sets were actually complete. Beauvoir is still recovering from Hurricane Katrina, so there is a lot of reorganization taking place. There were around two dozen boxes of books that appeared to be the duplicates of a set that they do have completed and on the shelf for use by the patrons of the library. The books are The War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies and The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion.  The idea was if any of the books in the boxes were complete sets, then they could be sold. Another employee, Makayla and I, worked the majority of the day separating the books. We only ending up with two complete sets, one regular set and one navy set. We had about five half sets. We then boxed the books back up, this time properly labeling the boxes. The complete sets already had several interested buyers.

Next, we took a quick lunch break. There was a vendor selling hot-dogs, so we grabbed some food, headed to the break room and chatted while we ate. Once we returned to the library, Mr. Spence put us to work organizing the special collection books. These books were placed on bookshelves in a backroom without any rhythm or reason. The task at hand is to give these shelves some method to the chaos. Makayla had to return to the desk in the library to assist patrons. I managed to get through about two or three rows before it was time for me to leave. This will probably be a project that will span over several visits as it requires more attention and care than other projects.

Since I work full-time at a public library, my practicum hours are limits to weekends so I will resume next weekend with my new adventures of archives.