Done Digitizing!

Today is my last day working as a Digitization Assistant since next semester I will be assisting in Archives. After finishing the Shull Slides before Thanksgiving, I've been working on the 1933 Wallulah. All the pages of the 1933 Wallulah have been scanned except for the front and back cover. I have also finished editing all of the inside pages. All that is left to complete is the scanning and editing of the front and back cover. The pages will also probably need to be checked for any errors. I had a pleasurable time scanning this semester, and would love to come back if I'm ever needed!

Thanksgiving Eve

Today I only worked for a half hour adjusting the Jim Shull Slide spreadsheet.

I figured out where the error occurred; on js_misc113.tif Phile Cornelius was not listed as the artist and this messed up the order of all the slides after it. The spelling of the artist's name will need to be checked by Archives; the handwriting on the slide front js_misc_front113.tif was hard to read

Now all the slide files are aligned with their proper metadata. However, other categories of metadata are missing for js_misc113.tif.

I also noticed in the folder for "RotationQuestionThumbnails" that the image fb009.tif which I had listed in question on the spreadsheet was not in the folder so I added it.

The files js_misc101.tif and js_misc102.tif appear in the Shull Slides > JS Miscellaneous > Slide Images folder on the computer directly connected to Drobo. However, it is baffling that these files did not show up on Sara's computer as the screenshot shows. Hopefully, they will be accessible Monday when we return.

"Sliding" Forward

I am FINALLY finished with all of Jim Shull's slides. I noticed that the spreadsheet for metadata was one row short of a slide. Also, the numbering system in the first column is skewed since there is Slide 103A and Slide 103B, and there are two labeled "120." There are in total 196 slides (with file names 001-196) but I'm not positive if the metadata on the sheet is exactly aligning with the correct files, since metadata for one slide is missing.

I was also able to begin re-scanning the 1933 Wallulah.

Scanning Away

Today I continued scanning the remainder of the Shull Slides. In case Sara doesn't receive the email; I was able to cancel my appointment so I will be into work tomorrow. I have about 40 more slides to scan, so hopefully I will be able to finish up this project tomorrow. This will mean all the Shull slides are complete and I can resume work on the Wallulahs.

Scanning Shull Slides: The Sequel

Today I received the rest of the Shull slides to scan. I've been able to scan 75 of them, the actual image in addition to the front matter. We decided to call these slides js_misc#.jpg. There's still quite a few more left to scan. I've been scanning everything first though, and then straightening and editing the front scans when I have time waiting for images to scan.

Salutations Slides! (for a little while...)

Today I FINALLY finished scanning all of the first set of Jim Shull's art slides. It seems like that project was going on forever. I've definitely realized that Feynman is much quicker than the Epson scanner ("Gregor"). I'm back to the 1933 Wallulah scanning and editing pages.

Mary showed me that there are more Jim Shull slides to be scanned but not nearly as many as the first round- only about two columns in one of the plastic cases.

First Day Back

This is my first day back after my concussion was diagnosed last week. I only worked two hours today but I managed to finish scanning Bruce West's slides and make some progress on Carl Hall's slides. Looking at the comment to my last post, are there more Shull slides to be scanned then?

I also replaced the yellow and photo black cartridges in the Epson printer since the light was blinking for them to be replaced, so all the cartridges and number amounts should be up to date. I'm hoping to work a full shift Monday afternoon.

"West"ward Expansion

Today I received a small, new project from Archives which required me to scan an old newspaper article featuring a local artist. I was really intrigued by this woman's impressionistic paintings of seascapes. After I finished this task I continued with the Shull slides. I'm nearly done with artist Bruce West. The final two artists have a considerably smaller collection totaling around 90 slides so I am definitely nearing the end!

That Darn Slide

I finished Lee Kelly's slides and I am now down to three remaining artists to scan. One slide that was enclosed in a plastic case gave me particular trouble. In order to scan it I had to remove the negative from the case and align the negative in the slide holder. It would not scan without the holder. Unfortunately, since I had to remove the case I'm not sure if it's oriented the right way so I added this slide to the list that needs to be checked for orientation. Also, I'm unsure if I'll be able to scan the plastic case along with the front matter of the other slides. If so, I'll make a column on the "Jim Shull Slides-Working" spreadsheet and add what is written on the plastic case.

Silly Slides

I'm still scanning the Shull Slides. Right now I'm on the artist Lee Kelly who has over 100 slides. I've made quite a bit of progress but I still have a lot more scanning to do!

Osh Gosh McCosh

Still working on the Shull Slides today, I made considerable progress but I can't really make an estimate of how much longer it will take to finish them. However, the images are no longer mirrors of the actual slide. I have fixed how I put the slides on the scanner so I won't have to go back through all the images from here on out and flip them horizontally. Overall, a productive day.

In Reverse

I spent today flipping most of the images I've scanned. While comparing their orientation with the original slides, I realized that most of the images were mirrored. It took all of my shift to go through each image and flip it horizontally so it matches the slide.

However, I figured out how to scan the images on the scanner so they come out facing the same way as the slide. I edited the scanning instructions so this will no longer be an issue.

I also did find a couple slides where I wasn't positive if the rotation was right so I have listed those in the spreadsheet "Shull Slides to be Checked for Rotation and Mirroring."

Rotations, Rotations

One case of the Shull slides is completely scanned and I have started on the second plastic case. I'm trying to scan the slides in the same orientation as I found them in the box but I'm afraid some of them might've been turned or rotated so I'm not sure all the slides are right side up. Is there any way to check this?

Halfway Mark!

As of today, I have finished scanning nearly half of all of the Shull Slides. Throughout the process I have definitely noticed Gregor's (the big scanner) slowness compared to Feynman (the small, book scanner). However, it's very fortunate to have a scanner that can recognize that I'm trying to scan slides. I'm enjoying looking at all of this local artwork from the 1960s and 1970s, I often wondered what these artists have produced recently.

Pretty Pictures

I'm still scanning the Shull Slides. Today I finished two additional artist collections and started on Shull's individual slides which total about 120. There is quite a diverse assortment of art from sculptures to murals to paintings. I was really taken with Allen C. Stark's artowrk. He uses really short brush strokes to make a very colorful and abstract painting.

Still on Those Slides...

Today I continued with scanning the Shull Slides. I think I'm about 1/4 of the way through all the slides. At least I've scanned the work of nine artists so far.

Mary asked how the process was going. I've certainly been more efficient the last couple of days since I know how to place the slides on the scanner in the right order. I forgot to ask her this, but I was wondering, is there a deadline for this project?

Then and Now, Again

Today Archives presented me with the task of scanning old photos of alumni in Wallulahs. This occupied most of my shift. I completed scanning and editing all of the photos that were provided in the yearbooks they gave me. However, there were some yearbooks that had none of the people referenced on the project sheet, and there were pages and yearbooks on the sheet that I was not given. I notified Archives of this. For the last 45 minutes, I continued scanning the Shull Slides. The process seems to be taking longer not only because of the volume, but because the machine is slower.

Jellin' with Jellum

I continued scanning the Shull slides today. The process is definitely going more smoothly now that I know how to format the slides on the scanner. This is a really interesting project; I especially enjoyed looking at Mike Russo's artwork. Since I've been able to progress through quite a few artists today, I'm starting to think this project might not be as interminable as I had first imagined.

Scanning the Shull Slides

Today I concentrated on scanning the Shull Slides. After a couple tries I figured out how to orient the slides and lay it down on the scanner so it numbers them correctly. I added these notes in the document "How to Scan." I also figured out how to make the scanner scan each front side of the slides individually. These instructions are also included in the document "How to Scan." The process should go a bit quicker since I finally know how to scan the slides so the scanner automatically numbers them in order, however there are still many more slides to go!

Starting Shull Slides

Today after working on Wallulah for a while, I received a request to scan a picture of Lausanne, the ship that carried Willamette's founders to Oregon. I was also presented with the project of scanning all of Mr. Shull's slides.

This was my first time scanning slides and at first I had trouble with the orientation on the scanner. However, now I realize exactly where to place things. I have only scanned one batch of 15 slides. I haven't been able to try to scan their front border yet, but I will play around with that on Monday. This is a very interesting project and I'm glad to be learning about different forms of visual media.

Oh Drobo!

Initially, at the start of the day, Drobo decided not to connect to the computers, so we had to spend time re-connecting it.

Once it was up and running again, I scanned the front and back cover of Wallulah 1932. I edited out the white label on the front cover by using the stamp tool. I tried my best to make it look like the other corners, however it was difficult to make it curved in the same exact way.

I am still scanning and editing the pages of 1933 Wallulah.

Moving on to Wallulah 1933

Today I finished editing the rest of the pages of Wallulah 1932, and proceeded scanning Wallulah 1933.

I also still have two versions of the edited image page189 of Wallulah 1932. With the levels adjusted, there is significant black ink showing through demonstrated in "page189b.jpg"
"page189.jpg" is an unedited scan of the page.

I did not scan the front or back covers of Wallulah 1932 as I was not sure if there was a special method to do so. I can complete this tomorrow if necessary.

I also noticed there was a folder within "Wallulah 1932" titled "Levels," that contained a file called "white_page_blank.alv" Is this something I will need to do for Wallulah 1933 as well?

Tuesday Tasks

Today I continued editing the pages of the 1932 Wallulah. I have approximate 30 pages to go so I will definitely finish my first Wallulah on Thursday. I took Sara's recommendation and focused on quality but I ended up making quite a bit of progress as well.

On some of the white pages, the black ink on the opposite side shows through when I adjust the levels. This is demonstrated most clearly with page189.jpg (without adjusted levels) and page189b.jpg (with adjusted levels). I'm not sure which would be preferable. I think the light from the scanner makes the black ink show through the page. Page 189 was definitely the most extreme example of this problem.

Woohoo Wallulah

Today I continued editing the pages of the 1932 Wallulah, I completeled approximately 60 pages so at that rate I should finish the book on Thursday but I'll try to increase my productivity tomorrow. I'm trying to strike the balance between efficiency and not getting too hasty as to make errors. I've got about 90 pages to go!

Then and Now

Today I printed out the pictures of faculty members for Shanel who will be displaying. I had to replace the cyan cartridge in the printer and marked this on the cartridge total counts.

I also scanned in a football photo for Mary which I believe someone is collecting. It's interesting that people think to use the university library as a way to reconnect with loved ones.

Finally, I finished scanning all the pages of Walullah 1932, however I still have to edit a substantial portion these files.

The Floating Head

Apparently the faculty photos that I scanned and edited were suitable. Shanel is trying to find another photograph of one of the faculty though since the quality is very poor when the photo is expanded. I continued working on Wallulah 1932 and scanned approximately 80 more pages in and have now edited 90 pages. Overall, a productive day!

Alumni Photo Booth Photos

It's awfully difficult to expand small Wallulah pictures into large, high-quality pictures. The only one that turned out relatively decent-looking was Ken Nolley. Despite using
Gaussian Blur, the photos still appear to have dots on them.

The picture of Bill Duvall needs some kind of contrast so his sweater doesn't blend into the background as much. I experimented with the Contrast/Brightness tool but it added an extra layer and put blue blotches on the left side of the picture.

I scanned all of the images through Epson ("Gregor") at 2400 dpi which made a slight difference but they are still very poor quality. I cropped, rotated, adjusted levels, sized to at least 4 inches tall, and blurred the photo as much as possible but I'm desperately in need of some editing help!

Working on Wallulah

Today I managed to finish editing all of the pages I had scanned in last time. I scanned in approximately 50 more pages to edit. I'm getting a little faster at editing each page but it is definitely a more time consuming process than scanning. However, I was able to perfect the position of the book on the scanner so the image is more aligned and I do not have to do extreme rotations in Photoshop. I have officially completed 60 pages of my first Wallulah, here's to many more!

Wallulah: Day 1

Today I started scanning my first Wallulah from 1932. I was able to scan approximately 1/3 of the pages and edit around 1/2 of those that I scanned. I still have a ways to go before I finish the entire yearbook.

It's really neat to see Willamette University during that time period. I couldn't fathom having a professor with the first name "Egbert." Astonishingly, I saw one woman's hairstyle that is quite common today.

But there are significant differences in time. For instance, a piano professor was in complete profile to the camera and seemed to be wearing tinted glasses. Perhaps he was blind? All in all, some very interesting people have studied and worked at Willamette. The Wallulahs are such an amazing resource to study the history of the university.

Salem Historic Photographs: DONE!

Today I continued re-scanning and editing the Salem Historic Photographs which needed to be converted to .tif format.

Sara emailed Archives asking if we should edit out blotches and perfect the photographs or simply crop them and adjust the levels. For practicality, I only cropped, rotated, and changed the levels on each of the photographs.

They are all saved in the sub-folder "Edited TIFF Files." With the file names that correspond to the Google Doc which lists them in the order they can be found in the physical folder.

It feels good to complete this project and eventually see the photos posted online to share with the Willamette community.

Tiff Thursday

Today I wrote up the instructions for how to use the Adobe feature "Picture Package" to print multiple images on one page and posted them on the blog.

I received the sad news that all the Salem Historic Photos needed to be re-scanned as .tiffs rather than .jpegs. I started again on the project and have about 1/3 of the photos re-scanned and edited. However, security on the previously scanned jpegs won't let me delete them so I created a separate folder within Salem Historic Photos called "Edited Tiff Files." This is where you'll find the finished pictures.

I also had to scan a crest and information about the family name "Waller." I wonder if this has anything to do with the naming of the historic building on campus.

Although, slightly disappointed that I wasn't able to complete Salem Historic Photos today, this gives me more practice to do it all over again.

P.S. I tried the time sheet and it worked!

Picture Package Instructions

Click the link below for instructions on how to print multiple images on one page in Adobe Photoshop...

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18PDkH7PZRN-SkNkNyD92w9YKI9bYxKpRo-2FPAmclMw/edit?usp=sharing

The Picture Patch

Today I resumed editing the Salem Historic Photographs, I have two left to complete so I will surely finish that project on Thursday.

Archives also asked for several photographs to be printed. We had some trouble with the cartridges and printer software at first. The coloring turned out very blue.

While Sara was researching the problem, I looked through the .jpg files of Wallulah 1921 (labeled 1922) and Wallulah 1922 (labeled 1923) to make sure there were no missing pages. All the pages were intact but there were a couple thumbnails in Wallulah 1922 (labeled 1923) which showed up bigger than the rest. I'm not sure why that happened.

Once the printer issue was sorted out, I managed to use the new-found "Picture Patch" tool on Photoshop to print different images on one page. This was a useful new discovery that will hopefully aid us in the future.

Under the Assumed Name of "Desk"

Today I managed to scan all of the Salem Historical Photos into Feynman. I'm currently working on editing all of them in Photoshop. 13 more photos to go! I had to go to Rose Marie a couple times to decipher the writing on the back of the photographs. The final photograph in the collection BeefCattle.jpg has a peculiar note on the pack from an owner of a mailing table that he uses as a desk. It is entirely irrelevant to the picture of cattle grazing on the front. In addition to this notice, there is "Ratz!! See?" written in bold, red ink. I'm wondering what inspired these notations.

I did have some trouble editing out the white reflection in Eagle_Rock_or-Crooked_River.jpg The white, smoke-like coloring appears in the bottom right corner of the picture on the digital copy but not on the original. This appeared again in The_Deschutes_River_Canyon.jpg. I might just have to re-scan them. Overall, a productive day, rats and mailing tables aside.

First Day of Work

Today I started my job as the Digitization Assistant in the Hatfield Library. Sean taught me how to scan photos and yearbooks on "Feynman" the Plusteck Opticbook and demonstrated how to scan negatives and large photos on "Gregor" the Epson Scan. I also learned how to crop the photos and managed to scan and edit 2 photos for the Salem History project and scan 3 additional photos. I plan on working on the Wallulahs after I finish the Salem History archives project. It was a very interesting first day filled with a lot of information. It's a little overwhelming at first but I'm excited to be working here this semester.

August 22, 2013 - "Mission... Completed?"

As today is my last day, it is fitting that I spent the majority of it working on the Wallulah. I finished scanning and editing the 1931 Wallulah and took care of a quick project from archives in the morning. I also took advantage of the delicious blueberries and cookies in the break room that Sara brought (Thank you by the way, they were delicious!).

In the afternoon, once I finished the 1931, I was just about to begin scanning the 1932 when Rose Marie brought me a large stack of photographs to be scanned (assuming I wouldn't finish by the end of the day). I've scanned a chunk of them, but sadly, I'll have to leave the rest of the pile to the next intern. It will actually be a perfect little project to get the new intern used to Feynman and doing individual photos from archives. I will probably use the photos while training the new intern.

I also updated the info binder to ensure the new intern isn't completely in the dark with an old set of instructions.

Thank you all! It was a very pleasant summer working here in the digital cavedom. Fortunately, we won't have to say goodbye as I will still be working in the same building once school starts again!

August 21, 2013 - "Feynman: The Great Explainer"

Today, I worked solely on scanning/editing the 1931 Wallulah.

I stepped out at about 10:15a to rehearse music for convocation on Friday. I returned at 11:30a.

I also had a conversation with Sara about the yearbook and how the cost of one could be significantly reduced if copies were published digitally rather than physically. It definitely sounds like something worth looking into.

Also, I have decided to rename the scanner. "Matt" is my roommates name, and I used it as a temporary/fail-safe name because I couldn't think of a better one. At the very least it was funny, but I have decided on a new one. From henceforth the Plustek Opticbook Scanner shall be known as "Feynman" after Richard Feynman, a hobbyist physicist who managed to explain to physicists how particles behave using diagrams. He was a more impressive educator than physicist and broke down immensely complicated mathematical and scientific phenomena to much more simple understandings that more people could grasp.

Tomorrow, in the morning, Shanel is going to steal me for a little bit of time, so I won't be working on digitizing right away.

August 20, 2013 - "Drobo's Revenge"

Today, I worked primarily on the 1930 Wallulah and managed to finish scanning and editing it.

There was some work going on at my computer to attempt to update Drobo software, as it had been giving the mac users some trouble. I'm not sure if the attempt was successful, but if not, I suppose we'll be at it tomorrow.

Sara wanted me to try a software that came with the scanner that showed promise to make the scanning workflow a little bit more efficient. I gave the software a test run (with plenty of mistakes) and found that it could potentially reduce workflow a little bit by deskewing and cropping images, but there were two problems: photoshop would still be needed for certain editing processes because it is faster and the other program lacks certain editing options, and sometimes deskewing, rotating, and cropping images sometimes went pretty badly, and after a few bad scans, I gave up and went back to the older software.

I also did a short project from Rose Marie containing two postcards and a photograph (I forgot what the term for it was).

Tomorrow, I'll continue with the 1931 Wallulah.

August 19, 2013 - "Fateful Dusk"

Today, I started the day fruitless-ly toiling with Photoshop CS6 on the student terminals on the first floor to see if I could process TIFs to JPGs. It's really difficult because the image processor doesn't let you change the dpi, and trying to make a batch resulted in the program saving the files as TIFs instead of JPGs. Rather than trying to figure this out, I abandoned the project to scan the 1930 Wallulah.

I received the 1913 Wallulah from Sara to rescan some pages that needed to be changed. I also got started on the loose negatives and photos from the VMS/Paulus collections. I couldn't find the photos because I don't believe they were actually ever scanned, so I scanned them to the VMS collection, housed them, and put them in their proper place up in the archives.

After this I continued working on the 1930 Walluluah. Tomorrow I need to add metadata for the VMS photos I scanned, edit one scan from the 1913 that I forgot to edit, and continue with the 1930.

August 15, 2013 - "Bold, Brave, Boron"

Today, I continued working on the 1929 Wallulah and finished it. Thus, I have finally finished with the 1920s and we can consider the last two decades (with the exception of jpeg, review, etc) tackled. I also started the 1930s, so hopefully I can make some headway into that before I leave.

I also received and finished a scanning project from Mary of various Willamette History materials as well as a photo from the political display.

Next week, I will start getting the loose photos/negatives from the Paulus Collection back in their rightful place. I'll also work on the Wallulah, and possibly the letter scanning project Mary had.

August, 14, 2013 - "Cleaning Pizza"

Today was clean up day, and in the midst of scanning the 1929 Wallulah, I was informed of this and aided in the clean up of the digital cavedom.

Following this, I was given a stack of papers to be scanned and OCR'ed for Mary.

The rest of the day was spent on the 1929 Wallulah, and tomorrow, in addition to this, I will be converting other Wallulahs to JPEGs on computers throughout the library, starting a letter scanning project from Mary, and hopefully finishing finding photos in the Paulus collection.

August 13, 2013 - "Wild Yeast"

Today, I finished scanning and editing the 1928 Wallulah. It can now be converted to jpg for review. I still don't quite know how I would convert them, because I would end up not being able to use my computer for a while when the files are undergoing conversion. Granted, it's not super necessary because the next intern could always review them as I work on scanning more.

I also started the 1929 Wallulah, and tomorrow, I will continue with this.

August 12, 2013 - "twelve"

Today, I worked mostly on the Wallulah. I began by finishing editing the 1927 Wallulah, and then I began scanning and editing the 1928 Wallulah. Sadly, the book is ever so slightly larger than the scanner, so I have been more careful when scanning to ensure I don't crop out important bits of the yearbook.

I also printed out the Vernor Martin Sackett spreadsheet to turn in to archives. Thankfully, this wasn't too difficult, or paper hungry.

Tomorrow, I'll continue with the 1928 Wallulah. Hopefully, I'll make it through the 20s by the end of the week!

August 8, 2013 - "Frursday"

Today, I spent the first half of the morning scanning and editing the Wallulah. I noticed that I am quite a bit faster editing on the computer in the digital cavedom. I think the slow processing power on the computers outside end up taking more of a toll than I thought on time.

The second half I spent mostly scanning and editing various sports photos for hall of fame-ers that I believe the athletics dept wants. That went fairly well, though it was hard to gaussian blur out a lot of the dot prints without making the images incredibly blurry.

Next week, I'll finish editing the 1927 Wallulah (I've already scanned it all), and work on the next Wallulah or potentially any new projects. I don't know how I'll convert things to .jpg for review, because I don't have elements. I could do some batch stuff in photoshop, but I don't want to lock up my computer!

August 7, 2013 - "Severly Impaired Deer"

Today, I spent the majority of the day rehousing photos from the Vernor Martin Sackett Collection. I had to redo one of the binders in which the negatives were a little exposed at the top, but while doing it, I noticed that there were several negatives that weren't scanned and placed in the same spot as a similar photo (I assume that they were thought to be duplicates; they weren't). I also scanned, edited, meta-data-ed, and housed these folks as well.

The remainder of the day I spent on the 1927 Wallulah.

Tomorrow, I'll continue with the Wallulah, but I will be given a large scanning project by Mary that may consume a lot of my day(s).

August 6, 2013 - "Montoco"

Today, I worked on scanning and editing the 1927 Wallulah, and instead of going to a computer around the library, I decided to use the one in the digital cavedom with photoshop CS3.

I also received the necessary housing materials to house the rest of the VMS collection! I've done most of it, but there is a box with negatives housed in polypropylene sheets that are a little too small, so I'm going to redo them tomorrow and finish labeling the rest. I will do that tomorrow.

Finally, Bill got up and running the new computer, and I will also soon have two monitors up and running for photoshop/youtube glory! Also, doing things while the Epson scanner Gregor is running should be easier.

Aside from the VMS collection, tomorrow, I will work on the 1927 Wallulah more.

August 5, 2013 - "Tunneling"

Today I scanned/edited the 1926 Wallulah, but didn't have time to edit the very last 10 pages. I will do that tomorrow.

I also reviewed the 1925 Wallulah for errors.

Here's the latest of my cat space related drawings (there are two others that I haven't posted, so it's right in the middle of the story)

August 1, 2013 - "Cat Spaceship"

Today, I began working on the scanning and editing portion of the 1926 Wallulah and made pretty reasonable progress. I will continue this next week, where I will most likely finish (scanning that is).

July 31, 2013 - "Periwinkle Pickle"

Today, I continued scanning and editing the 1925 Wallulah, and finished it such that it's ready for review. The JPGs are currently being made on Sara's computer.

I found a way to maintain my sanity whilst editing photos. I decided to put on youtube videos in another window as I edited pages in photoshop. It worked excellently. I will probably keep that method up, because it doesn't seem to significantly affect my speed or quality in editing.

I also did a short quick scan of Packwood and Hatfield in front of the Washington Mall.

Tomorrow, I'll review the 1925 Wallulah and begin the 1926.

July 30, 2013 - "Matt"

Today, I started scanning/editing the 1925 Wallulah. I actually did this for the whole day.

Tomorrow, I will continue with the 1925 Wallulah. If you have anything you need scanned (and I mean anything), please bring it my way so I have a little bit more to write about.

July 29, 2013 - "Hey, Bail Hay Bale"

Today, I continued scanning and editing the 1924 Wallulah, and finished it. I'm pretty glad as the book was leaving a white residue on the scanner that I would have to clean before scanning.

I also reviewed both the 1923 and 1924 Wallulah for errors, and then began converting the 1923 jpgs to pdf format.

Later in the afternoon, I worked on a request to scan some photos of Bob Packwood's campaign for Shanel's display.

Tomorrow, I will begin scanning the 1925 Wallulah and finishing the jpg to pdf conversions for both 1923 and 1924.

July 25, 2013 - "Wallulow"

Today, I focused only on scanning and editing the 1924 Wallulah. It's taking me considerably longer to edit these photos for a few reasons. The color is such that I can't use autotone. There are a lot of little rips and blemishes that I spend some time editing out. It's also really hard to deskew because the border lines aren't very straight.

Next week, I'll continue with this Wallulah and hopefully review the 1923 Wallulah.

Camping was fun. We went tubing and I caught several newts.

July 24, 2013 - "In tents"

Today, I worked solely on the Wallulah project. I wrapped up the pdfs for the 1922 Wallulah. I also finished scanning/editing the 1923 Wallulah, and converted the TIFs to JPGs for review. Then, I worked on the next Wallulah the rest of the day.

Tomorrow, I will continue with that Wallulah.

I'm going camping overnight. It should be a lot of fun! I'll be in at the same time tomorrow, though I may smell like charred timber and lake.

July 23, 2013 - "Dang that Dream"

Today, I began with finishing the Packwood photos I was given yesterday. I rescanned two of them because I noticed a little dust that was on the scanner that showed up on the images.

Mary then had me scan and edit several photos of Hatfield in his campaign. There was one with a black smudge that I managed to edit out, which was fun.

After that, I primarily worked on the Wallulah. I started with reviewing the 1922 Wallulah, and once I finished, I moved to scanning/editing the 1923 Wallulah for the rest of the day. I finished the day by working on creating the PDF for the 1922 Wallulah.

Tomorrow, it looks like I'll be primarily working on the 1923 Wallulah.

July 22, 2013 - "It's Boot Season"

Today, I spent most of the day working on the Wallulah project. I started by finishing the redo of the tif -> jpg -> pdf process for all of the yearbooks with odd dimensions.

Following this, I was given the collegian published following the Kennedy assassination to scan and name accordingly. I may have skimmed the articles.

Then, I wrapped up the scanning/editing portion of the 1922 Wallulah and started on the 1923 Wallulah (while converting the tifs to jpgs on Sara's computer).

At the end of the day, I was given some Paulus campaign materials to scan for Shanel's political display, and when I finished that, I was given a few photos of Packwood and other various politicians to scan for both archives and Shanel. It was the end of the day, so I managed to scan and name them, but I have yet to edit them, convert to jpg, and place under the proper directory.

Tomorrow, I'll start with finishing the political scans before reviewing the 1922 Wallulah for errors and then continuing with the 1923 Wallulah.

July 18, 2013 - "Variations and Fugue"

I began the day scanning and editing the 1922 Wallulah, but very soon into the morning I received a couple of small projects from Mary including a Christmas card and a Collegian article.

I also spent some time revising the instructions for a new scanner on google docs, and it now includes updated info on the Epson Scanner as well as instructions for using the Plustek Opticbook 4800 (I now have the name memorized..) in both Book Pavilion and Presto! ImageFolio softwares. I'm sure what I've written will need some edits, but I read through them and the instructions appear to be fairly complete.

I also received a mini project from Shanel that took maybe twenty minutes. The rest of the time was spent scanning and editing as well as making new JPGs for the Wallulahs. The ones I made previously were 1200x1500 and squashed the images noticeably. Now, I'm going through and deciding what height would be the best (eg 1200x1800 or 1200x1750) and applying it for all the images from that yearbook. I'm also recreating the PDFs as well to correct the squish.

Next week, I'll continue JPG and PDF correction and continue scanning/editing the 1922 Wallulah. I earned the title "King of Special Projects" today, so hopefully there will be a few when I come back on Monday.

July 17, 2013 - "Pulp Faction"

Today, I continued with the Wallulah project. I finished the 1921 Wallulah and made significant progress on the 1922 Wallulah.

I received several project from Mary and Rose Marie today in response to my plea for novelty. I received one scanning project involving the Alumnus from Mary, a baseball scanning project from the Wallulah and Collegian from both Rose Marie and Mary, and at the end of the day I received a 'quirky history' project from Mary.

I haven't quite wrapped up the quirky history, so I'll continue with that tomorrow and then continue on the Wallulah.

Edit: Just kidding. I finished the quirky history project.

July 16, 2013 - "Quantum Electra"

Today, I worked only on the Wallulah. I checked the 1918 Wallulah for errors, and fixed any I found. Then, I converted it to PDF and jpg formats and such.

Then, I worked solely on the Wallulah 1921. I've scanned all the pages, and edited all but 74 of them.

Tomorrow, I'll finish those, check them, and then start on the next one. Feel free to bring a project to break the monotony (in fact, it would be very welcome!)

July 15, 2013 - "Political Turmoil"

Today, I began by finishing the project Shanel gave me last week in which I scanned various archival materials relating to Oregon political campaigns to a high quality .jpg format. Of the ones I scanned, I had to rescan one to achieve a higher resolution.

Following this I continued working on the 1918 Wallulah. I managed to scan and edit the entirety of it by the end of the day and am currently working on making jpg's of it as well as form a large PDF of the Wallulah from 1916.

Tomorrow, I'll review the 1918 and begin working on the 1921 Wallulah. I need clean gloves!

July 11, 2013 - "Brontosaur Castle"

This morning, I spent the majority of time working on file conversion for scanned and double-checked Wallulahs. I added several columns to the Wallulah list: jpg made, cover thumbnail, and pdf to keep track of what files existed. Then, I looked through files to see which ones I could convert to jpg, pdf, etc.

I also have been scanning the 1918 Wallulah, though I have to be careful as it is pretty delicate.

At around 2, I went with Shanel to grab the archive material she wanted to scan. She discussed with me what she wanted, and I spent the rest of the day scanning/editing.

Next week, I'll continue with the political scanning. It shouldn't take incredibly long, as I finished a good chunk of it today. Then, back to Wallulah.

July 10, 2013 - "Vengeance Has a Name"

Today, I continued working on the greater Wallulah project.

I finished scanning and editing the 1917 (labeled 1918) Wallulah, and then I later checked over it. I also checked over the 1912 (labeled 1913) Wallulah as well as the 1919 (labeled 1920) Wallulah.

I had to go to archives to pick up some of the yearbooks (as they weren't on the shelves), and thus, Mary had me walk through the periodicals and see which years weren't on the shelf. She was surprised by the number not present.

On the digital front, I've made JPGs for every Wallulah I've edited, and I just started pdf creation for the 1912 Wallulah. I've created the large multiple page pdf, ocr'd it, and optimized it for space. It's surprising what happens to the quality. Now, I just need to separate them into individual sheets. I'll do that tomorrow.

Other than that, tomorrow I'll continue with scanning/editing, checking over scans, creating jpgs and pdfs, and anything else that someone wants to throw at me! I know Shanel has stuff in mind for her political display, so I may get a few bumper stickers to scan.

July 9, 2013 - "The Return"

Today, I received email instructions about further processing of the Wallulah. I spent the first hour or so of my shift working figuring out converting the TIFs to the appropriately sized JPG. I did this with two of the Wallulahs. Towards the end of the day, I also tried converting them to PDFs in adobe, but this didn't work out as planned because of the way the files were named. I will need to find a way to change the file names before converting them all.

Sandwiched between the beginning and end was my ever exciting Wallulah project. I finally finished scanning and editing the 1912 (labeled 1913) Wallulah, and then scanned and edited 120 pages out of the 1917 (labeled 1918) Wallulah. Unfortunately, in this Wallulah, the margins are incredibly narrow, and I found it really difficult to keep the decorative border uncropped. Though, I did discover a faster way to scan during this Wallulah. So it has so far had both it's wins and woes.

 Tomorrow, I will continue with the Wallulah. If I ever figure out how to change those pesky names, I will do the convert to PDFs as well. Otherwise, I'll just keep scanning.

June 3, 2013 - "Island Retreat"

Today, I reviewed the scans I took for the 1920 Wallulah. I spent a good deal editing some of the white space that I didn't find satisfactory, but didn't have any problems with missed pages, moire, skew, etc.

Then, I got to work on scanning the 1912 Wallulah. It's a little bit tough scanning it however, because it doesn't press down flat and subsequently, scans have a little dark space towards the crease. If this is a serious issue, please let me know so I can maybe try to edit it.

Other than that, the clock has been ticking slower as my vacation nears. While I'm incredibly excited to go to an island on the Columbia, I will refrain from drinking the water or eating the fish as it is downstream of the Portland Harbor superfund site.

July 2, 2013 - "Suede Uprisings"

Today, I continued working on the greater Wallulah project.

I've finished scanning and editing the 1920 Wallulah. I'll probably look over this Wallulah and the last one I scanned to see about things I could fix and such.

I started adding reviews to my routine. I started with the 1911 Wallulah bounded in red suede. It's residue covered my gloves, so I'm glad I didn't get any on my clothes. I also corrected errors like skipped/incorrect pages and skewed images.

Finally, I started working on scanning the 1912 Wallulah. It's a very large copy and thus must be copied on the Epson scanner. In spite of this, I've managed to scan and edit about forty pages today.

When I come back tomorrow, I'll continue with scanning, editing, and reviewing. I will be here from 8-12, so if there are any quick projects that need attention, please bring them to my attention!

July 1, 2013 - "Scorcher"

Today, I started with working on the Wallulah scanning project. I've scanned and edited another 60 pages, and am getting a better grip on touching up the corners to get rid of page/scanner breaks (because the margins are so narrow, it's very prominent and hard to avoid. Touching up gives me a little more room on the margins)

I then finished the Collegian page count project whilst discovering a multitude of interesting articles.

Previously, I had found an article about the Library's new ILS 'Millenium' that was ground breaking as it made obsolete the card catalog system. Shanel asked me to search for it, so I spent a couple minutes looking for it, and am currently looking for it in the few minutes before my shift ends.

Finally, I scanned several letters of Jason Lee and sent them Rose Marie's way. I was very conservative with my edits and preferred white space to cropping out paper.

Tomorrow, I'll continue with the Wallulah. If there are any projects, feel free to 'break the monotony'

June 27, 2013 - "Mad Dash"

Today, I continued working on the Stowell Diary edits and have finished. I returned the diary to Archives, and I assume that I will get it back again to rescan/edit some of the pages.

I also worked more on the collegian page counting project. I believe I only have a couple more years left. This project has been surprisingly interesting, but admittedly, somewhat distracting as I find myself skimming the articles sometimes.

When I come back on Monday, I will continue on the Collegian project and hopefully finish. I will also continue with the 1920 Wallulah.

June 26, 2013 - "Collegian Allegiance"

Today I continued working on editing the Stowell Diary and scanning the 1920 Wallulah. I've completed another 25 pages on the Stowell Diary and scanned 30 pages (I believe) of the Wallulah and edited 50.

I was also presented with another project to 'break the monotony'. Mary told me I could go through the Collegian from 1986/87 through 1999 and collect page numbers on each of the issues. I've set up a spreadsheet that includes identifying info of the paper (date, volume, number, school year) as well as it's corresponding page count.

Tomorrow, I will continue these three projects. Hopefully I can finish Stowell sometime tomorrow.

June 25, 2013 - "The Return"

Today, I focused on two projects: Editing the Stowell Diary and Scanning/Editing the 1920 Wallulah.

I've completed another 30 pages of the Stowell Diary. At this rate, I'll look to be completely finished by the end of the week.

With the Wallulah, I've scanned 80 pages today and edited 60. I've discovered a way to neatly hide the page crease I make when scanning. This will let me keep the page sizes close to roughly the same size when editing without leaving an odd crease or white space on the scan.

Tomorrow, I will continue with these two projects. I realized today that I skipped the 1913 Wallulah, which I will retrieve from archives once I finish this Wallulah.

June 24, 2013 - "Lunar Treachery"

Today, I started with wrapping up editing the 1919 (labeled 1920) Wallulah. I came across several odd photos with a large black line on the photo that looks like missing data or something. I will need to rescan these images and edit them. Hopefully, we can find out what causes that soon.

I also scanned and edited a couple of the chemawa photos in TIFF formats for archives. I'll return them to archives tomorrow morning.

I was given back the Stowell journal to do two things: 1.) replace "and"s and "etc" with "&" and "&c" respectively where appropriate 2.) Review the transcripts for accuracy (especially because I can read her handwriting so much better now). I've completed review of 30 pages.

Finally, I started on the 1920 (labeled 1921) Wallulah, scanning 60 pages and editing 30. Tomorrow, I will continue on this in addition to the Stowell diary review.

June 20, 2013 - "Native Redemption"

Today, I continued scanning and editing the Wallulah 1919 (labeled 1920) and nearly finished it. I just need to edit the last 35 files or so, and I can move on to the next one.

I also took on the Chemawa project scanning to .jpg's, and as of two minutes ago, I finished the photos. They're in drobo -> archives -> Chemawa for anyone that wants to review them. I left the notes in the books so I could redo anything that needs to be redone.

Next week I'll continue with the Wallulah and any loose ends of the Chemawa.

June 19, 2013 - "Janette Stowell: Scanned it so well"

Today, I successfully wrapped up the Stowell diary by finishing the last of the transcriptions. I assumed they should be reviewed for both accuracy's sake as well as filling in the couple words I missed (there aren't too many of them, maybe one per page or less)

I also continued on the Wallulah project and scanned 80 pages today and edited 68. Again, it's still hard to align them perfectly, but I've gotten sequentially better the more I've done it.

Aside from this, I enjoyed gelato and cookies for Joni's birthday.

June 18, 2013 - "Hard Rain"

Today, I continued with the Stowell Diary transcription. I've made it up through 95 and double checked up through 90, leaving a little over 20 pages left to transcribe.

I also continued scanning the Wallulahs at 300 dpi. I've found it difficult to precisely align the photo however, because the photos and background aren't aligned themselves. I did my best however to align them and adjust the levels accordingly. Edit: I did 60 pages today. And I managed to do that even after making a time-costly mistake (forgetting to descreen the first batch of 30).

I also finished the small project to scan and print the two photos for Doreen. It's on drobo under "Doreen Prints", and she will contact Sara soon to get them off drobo and to her. It took a little longer than I expected it to, because I had to take them out of the casing and print them twice (second time to adjust the levels a little bit better).

Tomorrow, if I'm lucky (and strong-willed) I should be able to wrap up the Stowell Diary and continue with scanning the Wallulah.

June 17, 2013 - "Goodbye, Blue Mondays"

Today I continued transcribing the Stowell diaries and have since transcribed up to page 80 and double checked up to page 70. This leaves a little less than forty pages left to transcribe (it'll probably take two days to finish completely).

I also continued scanning and editing the diary and am now finished with the entirety of scanning and editing the diary.

At the end of the shift, I scanned and edited the first few pages of the Wallulah labeled 1920. We used 300 dpi instead of 600. Sara will review the photos to see if 300 is an acceptable resolution for scanning.

June 13, 2013 - "Commence Transcripts"

Today, I started with a quick scanning project for Shanel in which I scanned two Bob Packwood bumper stickers. I put them onto drobo under a file I made named "Packwood"

Next, I took to transcribing more of the Stowell diary. By the end of the day, I've transcribed up to page 60 and double checked up to page 50. I will work more on transcribing when I get back next week.

Also, I scanned and edited up to page 70 on the diary, so I could conceivably finish when I come back next Monday (though I might space out scanning with transcribing so I don't lose my marbles).

If there are any other scanning projects going on, I might take those up as well to space out transcribing the diary. I'll see what's available. The Wallulah might be a good idea, and it would be much easier considering how fast the new scanner is.

June 12, 2013 - "Scanner Royale"

Today, I started work by transcribing several pages of the Stowell journal. I've written and double checked up through page 31 now.

Later, I spent time setting up the new scanner. It didn't work on the mac super well, so I had to move the PC. Given the nature of installing anything on XP, this took some time, sweat, and a few tears.

When I finished, I scanned the 1948 Puritan, and edited them in Photoshop on an outside computer. It didn't take too long, because the scanner is pretty fast.

Then, I scanned two photos from the Wallulah that Professor Nolley needed. I did minimal editing and sent them via gmail.

Finally, I scanned the Stowell journal up through page 31 (including covers and backpages), and edited through page 21.

Tomorrow, I will continue scanning and editing the Stowell journal, and transcribe when I'm at my brightest.

June 11, 2013 - "Permaknots"

Today, I worked primarily on transcribing the diary of Mrs. Stowell. I've so far digitized up to page 23 (I'm working on 24) and double checked what I've written up to page 19. There's perhaps 120 pages total, so I'm in good shape for now.

I also did a quick scanning project for the flood of 1894, in which I scanned three photos and added headlines to them. Rose Marie is apparently sending them to a historical society.

Next, I edited some of the photos on condm, including the photos we received more info about (in the emails forwarded to me by Sara) as well as faculty photos without faculty in the subject. I searched "faculty" in both the title and description and edited all the photos I found.

June 10, 2013 - "Sacked it", Sackett

Today, I wrapped up embedding metadata on all of the V.M.S. collection and editing of metadata. Aside from housing the various negatives, the collection is finished and ready to be published online. I expect, however, to receive questions about the collection and potential errors I could have made.

I was also introduced to three new projects to fill the hole in my heart left by Vernor Martin Sackett.

The first was scanning of the The Puritan. I won't be able to do this until we receive the new scanner however.

The second was an introduction to contentdm and how to edit things on the Willamette Archives website. The project I received was going through the website, finding faculty folders without "faculty" in the subject, and editing it so it does read "faculty".

 The third project was the old Stowell diary. While I can't yet scan it, I can start transcribing it. I put each individual page in it's own .txt file (labeled Stowell_diary_001, Stowell_diary_002, etc) and place question marks and parenthesis around any word I am uncertain about OR can't read.

The second two projects are the ones I will start with tomorrow.

June 6, 2013 - "Standard Deviation 2: This time, we're confident"

Today, I added metadata for all of the photographs in Box 2 and the few in Box 4 that were without accompanying information. I also edited and added metadata in Photoshop to the photos from Box 4. I didn't finish, but I made good headway.

I also revised the rook bible spreadsheet to include the number of copies of each booklet. This only took about 30 minutes.

Later, I continued scanning and finished the entirety of scanning the V.M.S. collection. Now, only creating and adding metadata to the photos remain! I anticipate that I will be finished with the collection sometime next week (excluding housing the negatives). Some of the loose photographs look familiar, so I'm going to spend a little time to see if there would be any info from the rest of the collection that will help me determine what they are.

June 5, 2013 - "Steel Reckonings"

Today, I continued scanning loose negatives and putting them into temporary housing until more sheets come in. I finished the loose negatives from Military and People, leaving two more folders to go.

In terms of metadata, I finished finalizing and adding metadata to Box 3, meaning that it is ready for publishing. I also worked on metadata from Box 4 and 5, filling in metadata in which there isn't any accompanying info sheet. I've finished the preliminary metadata for the loose negatives, and I would imagine I won't be adding a whole lot more given the lack of info.

Finally, Rose Marie sent me an email at the end of my shift asking for information about subjects in the first box. I sent back info about 4 of the most important people from that album (Both Vernor and Sheldon Sackett, Mary Notson, and Sadie Pratt), and tomorrow, I will send her more information about other people (say athletes and such). I will also hopefully finish scanning the entirety of the V.M.S. collection (woo!)

June 4, 2013 - "The Great Arctic Expanse"

Today, I continued adding metadata to the V.M.S. collection in Box 3 (VMS_332 - VMS_554) in Photoshop until I received a collection of WU's student Handbooks since the late 1800s. Because this collection is going to be outsourced for scanning, I was asked to measure each of the books and get a count of the pages that would be scanned (which is actually fairly easy thanks to page numbers). I continued this until lunch, and I continued for a little over an hour when I came back.

When I finished, I decided to find a computer on the second floor to continue with metadata addition/final metadata edits. I managed to get close to the 500s, so I imagine that Box 3 will be ready for publishing tomorrow.

Tomorrow, after finishing Box 3, I should continue with metadata editing for Box 4 and 5, and if I can, I'll scan more of the VMS collection. I may keep the negatives in temporary housing until the polypropylene sheets arrive.

June 3, 2013 - "Creamatorium!"

Today, I finished scanning and adding most of the metadata for the fourth album of the V.M.S. collection. I didn't quite finish housing them. I put them in polypropylene sheets that would work for now until I get sheets that suit the negatives better.

I also finished a quick scanning/metadata for a telegraph sent to a Willamette president to tell him that he was hired.

Finally, in the last hour of work, I finished embedding metadata on twenty photos from Box 3 in photoshop.

Tomorrow, I could either scan and put metadata on the loose negatives though I may hold off until I get more polypropylene sheets. I will also working on cleaning up and embedding metadata for Box 3 and other boxes.

May 30, 2013 - "Dawn Forever"

When I came in today, Sara was working on the dying computer trying to set up something I could scan with. We did manage to set up the alternate computer to the scanner and drobo, and I used my H: drive to transfer photos to a terminal outside so I could edit them in photoshop (later I learned this wasn't necessary, because I found out how to connect to drobo from a school computer).

I finished scanning the rest of album three (only one more + misc stuff to go!), and I've put metadata on most of the photos. Next week, I should continue refining the metadata for that album and move to the fourth album for scanning.

This next album does have some rather large photos I've noticed, and I am not sure that I have enough 5x7 polypropylene sheets to house them. I'll do my best but it might be a good idea to buy more of them (as well as 4x6s).

May 29, 2013 - "Speaking of Glory"

Today, because the computer connected to drobo was still down, I worked on formatting the spreadsheet for the athletics photo collection. I finished it by lunch though I'm certain when digitization takes place, a lot of lines will be added/deleted.

Sara connected drobo to the other computer in the room after lunch, and I worked on metadata addition to the VMS collection because I couldn't scan. I first added metadata to the 40 or so images I scanned before the main computer crashed. When I finished this, I worked on adding metadata to the third book.

I seem to have the third book completed, but I may want to double check the names on the spreadsheet with what he wrote if I want to be thorough. It seems like my biggest progress tomorrow will come if I can scan images, but if I can't I can try adding metadata to book 2 (which will be tough because there was no supplemental information accompanying it).

*Edit: When I say Book 3, I'm referring to the third binder housing VMS_332-553

May 28, 2013 - "Birthday Surprise"

Today, I finished the first book of the Vernor Martin Sackett collection for publishing. I continued work scanning and editing photos from album 3 of the collection and finished about 39 or so (I learned about batch scanning which saves a lot of time).

I wasn't able to add metadata for these guys or anything else from the Sackett collection because the computer that attached to the drobo drive crashed. I then messed around with the tagging features in Picasa for a little while until Sara sent me a document that I could work on for the rest of the day (Athletics photos)

Sadly, I did not have access to the document until about 3:30 (I discovered this at 3:45), so my work was limited to the first page. I spent the off time working behind the circ desk polishing plastic displays with car wax.

Tomorrow, I imagine I will either need to continue with the Sackett collection, but if the computer is still down, I'll continue with the athletics photo project.

And now I'm off to Boon's Treasury for my birthday. It should be a fun evening!

May 24, 2013 - "Slam Dunkers"

Today, I continued working on the Sackett collection. I started with the second book, in which I finished putting them in order and labeling them accordingly. Sadly, VMS_322, 323, 324, and 327 seem to be missing, and I found two negatives that were scanned backwards.

Once I finished, I continued working on the metadata for book 1. I am almost entirely finished with the first book metadata, but there are a few spots where I will need Rose Marie's assistance with handwriting (I think there are approximately 4 or 5 lines I can't read entirely).

With that being finished, I took to putting metadata on the photos in Photoshop. I found that I can make a batch for the metadata that repeats (e.g. Source: Vernor Martin Sackett '22), and this saved a little time. I will continue putting metadata on the photos when I come back on Monday.

May 23, 2013 - "Trifecta"

Today, I started with the Sackett Collection. After a few scans in that collection, Rose Marie had me do scans with metadata for photographs for the Helen Pearce Collection, which didn't take too long. I continued scanning and adding tentative metadata until lunch.

Upon returning, I was going to continue with adding metadata. I asked Sara what kind of information I should include for the 'title' section of the spreadsheet, and she advised that I add a description section so I could include as much of the given Sackett album information sheet as possible.

However, before I could continue, I noticed that none of the second book had even tentative metadata (like file name), so I went to check on the album and discovered that none of it was ordered. Thus, I spent the rest of the day organizing it with labels, and I will continue this project tomorrow.

May 22, 2013 - "The Sequel"

Today, I continued work on the Sackett Collection.

I didn't know where to start, so I decided to input metadata for the negatives of the first book. I found the 1922 Wallulah that helped me immensely, and I filled in some blanks and corrected some errors from reading handwriting.

The second half of the shift, I took to scanning. I started with the photographs that were left in book 2 and I transferred them to book 4 with new labels (except the ones where the negatives were already scanned). I then continued on the negatives from the 3rd album. One tricky thing is that the descriptions only begin at sleeve 10, and thus, I have many negatives from sleeves 01-09 that have no descriptions associated with them. I've also put the file information into the spreadsheet and wrote a note to remind myself which negatives were in which sleeve.

May 21, 2013 - "Point Insertion"

Today marked my first day as a digitization assistant.

I arrived before Sara did, and she provided me with a link to learn about and download Google Refine, a tool aimed towards easily managing messy data into tables. When she arrived, we visited the archives office, and I was assigned a photograph to digitize (but was sadly already digitized). Then, Sara had me take some time to figure out Google Refine, so I could organize the Senior Theses of the Art History department into neat tables without having to do a lot of copy and pasting. I couldn't figure out how to use Google Refine to organize this particular set of data easily, so I had to use excel and organize manually, but Refine still helped me delete redundant information once I had it neatly organized into tables.

Then, I began a short project of 27 photographs dubbed the "Helen Pearce Collection". I scanned, edited, and added metadata to every photograph, though there is still some metadata that needs to be added.

With regard to metadata, I had some formatting questions as well as how I should input the data into the File Info for photographs. For example, where do I put dates? For the 27 photos, I titled the source "Helen Pearce Collection circa 1935-1955", but I'm not sure if this is correct. I also am curious what kind of descriptors I should use other than the name of the building(s).

Tomorrow, I need to wrap up the Helen Pearce Collection and get started on either the Vernor Sackett collection or whatever other project comes my way.

May 2--Bronte's Last Post

Today was my last day working in the archives. I updated the VMS document with the information that Sean and the other assistant may need to know.

If any more questions come up, feel free to email me with questions.

I've had a great time working here. Can't wait to come back in the spring:)

April 24

Sean came in today and I introduced him to the Sackett Collection and we did the training for the computer. I think it went really well and I trust Sean to do a good job on the collection.

In regard to Sara's question, the highlights are photos that do not have metadata yet in the set that I did and the set ended with VMS 031. I also still need to finish some editing on that set of photos that was already done when I got here, but that should be done by next week and we can start putting photos online then.

April 22

Today I finished checking the info for the last set of photos I did and re-edited a few more photos.

I also updated the VMS Photos Document with some of my instructions and tips for the new student who will be taking over after me.

April 15-18

I didn't have much to say about this week so I decided to only do one blog for the week.

The second binder is finished. It contains Sackett albums 1 and 2. The information is on the spreadsheet. Next week I will check the information and make sure it lines up with the photos. After that I will keep working on the metadata.

I forgot about the information about Sackett that I think was left with the bulletins. That was my fault and I'll try to find that again next week as well. 

From there, I think I will start working on preparing for the next assistant. I want the transition to be smoother than when I took the job. I'll update the Assistant Folder with things that I have learned along the way so the new assistant will be up to date.

April 11

Today I continued working on Book 3. I am pretty sure I can have it done by the end of the semester so that the new person can have a clear starting point.

April 10

I did some scanning for Rose Marie and for Veronica today. After that I kept working on the Sackett collection. The third album has been put into negative sheets and I have started labeling the photos. I am hoping that I can finish scanning and labeling by the end of the semester, so the new person really only has to catch up with meta-data.

April 4

I did some scanning for the Pearl Harbor Team project today.

I started Book 3 today and also began entering metadata for the photos. I think I will just alternate between those two projects between just doing one can be mind-numbing.

Sara and I also talked about me training the new assistant when they get hired. This way we can keep some consistency with the collection and make sure it will be done well.

April 3

I finished scanning Book 1 today and then started labeling the two binders. I forgot that the person before me had numbered the negatives kind of weird so I had to work around that a little. After I'm done labeling, I will start working on filling in the metadata.

April 1

Most of today was spent working on a scanning project for Mary, so I didn't make a lot of progress on the Sackett collection.

 I did put the first binder of photos into one of the new archival binders, which I am very excited about! I also figured out the labels and did a test print of them. They are sitting on top of the new archival binder to be approved. Let me know if we want to change the font or make it smaller.

On Wednesday I am going to basically play catch up on the photos. Now that we have a system in place, I will label the photos and start adding metadata. My goal is to have these two binders scanned and labeled with all the information put into the computer before the semester is over. That way, the student assistant who comes in after me can have a clear place to start.

See you on Wednesday!

March 21

I continued working on the Sackett Collection today. I am almost done scanning Book 1, but I still need to finish entering the information from the indexes.

March 20

Today I kept working on Book 1. I have about 50 more scans to do and then I need to identify some more people and places. I have all the info that Sackett left us on the spreadsheet. I'm thinking I can have Book 1 finished within the next week or so.

I'm glad we're doing the binder system. We also figured out today how we want to label the negatives. We decided to use archive stickers, which I think will work out really nicely.

March 18

I'm still working on Book 1 for the Sackett Collection. I have run into a small problem though. Some of the negatives do not fit the negative trays I have, so I can't get a good scan of them. Do we have any more scanning trays? Is there another way I could scan them to get a better picture?

I spent the rest of the time putting the rest of the negatives from Book 1 into their binder and working on filling out the information on the computer.

It's looking like each book will get it's own binder, which I think will work out nicely. That also means that we will need more binders. I will also scan the index of each book to go along with it.

I also have a question about labeling the negatives, but I can ask Sara on Wednesday or Thursday. 

March 14

I started scanning negatives today from the first book. I got through about 20 of them. Although the photos are scanned, edited, and have some information about them in the spreadsheet, I have not put metadata in yet. I want to wait and see if I can get more information about people before I do that. The negatives are going in sleeves and then in binders. It's an easier process, at least for me, than folders. And if anyone has to look up a negative, it will be a lot less difficult process than trying to look through folders. The negatives from Book One are going into the black binder for now.

March 13

I continued working on the Sackett Collection today. My main focus was getting more information from from the index list. His handwriting is really hard to decipher. The yearbooks are also hard to work with because underclassmen only have their last names in the yearbook so those names have been difficult to track down. I think my plan now is to start scanning new photos from the collection. I'm not totally sure where to start though because I don't know where the photos 231 and on came from. Tomorrow I will figure that out and start scanning more photos.

March 11

I was working on the Sackett photos, but I was getting confused about negatives and matching them with the photos, so I just decided to sleeve the negatives. So now, all the negatives from the "House Film Index" box are sleeved and put into a binder which is also so much easier to look at and deal with in this process. I'm really hoping that we can use this method from now on with big collections like this. I think it makes the collection a lot more organized.

Tomorrow and Thursday I will keep working the Sackett collection. One of the things that is slowing me down is Sackett's handwriting, but I am getting better at reading it with practice.

March 7

The campus photos project is now finished until the next batch of photos. The 1917 Wallulah is also finished.

Today I started the Verner Martin Sackett Collection. Sackett graduated from Willamette in 1922. This project was sort of started in the early 1990s. Some negatives have been scanned and maybe some other photos but I'm not totally sure yet. Right now, I am working on labeling the negatives that have been scanned using the old yearbooks. This is definitely going to be a long process, but hopefully I can get it organized enough and to a point where someone could easily pick it up after me.

March 6

Today I actually finished Box 18 and the photos are ready to be uploaded to CONTENTdm if they need to be. I am also almost done with the 1916/1917 Wallulah and should have that done by tomorrow!

March 4

I went home over the weekend and was reading a copy of the Willamette Scene, the alumni magazine, when I saw a photo that I had just entered into the archiving process. It was a really great find because I had no identifies on it. I also had mistakenly labeled it as a May Day Celebration, when in reality it was a photo from Willamette's first military ball. It was a super cool find. I'm thinking that we should start submitting photos from the campus photos collection that we haven't been able to identify to the Willamette Scene to see if we can get some names or dates on photos.

Today I finished Box 18. Now I just have to start inputting the photos into CONTENTdm.

February 28

Today I kept working on the campus photos project. Box 18 should be done by Monday.

Also, Sara told me I have been approved to work more hours, so my new schedule (the times are just a tentative, basically I come in for about 2.5 hours at a time or a total of 7.5 hours per week) is:
Monday 2:30-5:00pm
Wednesday 2:30-5:00pm
Thursday 1:00-3:30pm

February 25

Today I continued working on Box 18 of the campus photos collection. Not much to report, except that it is a slow process.

February 20/February 21

I forgot to write update the blog yesterday so I will be writing for both today and yesterday today. I am still working on Box 18. Although there may not be a lot of folders, there are envelopes of pictures inside the folders which will make the process much longer than originally anticipated. For the past few weeks I have been writing that I think the Campus Photos Project is almost done, but I am beginning to realize that the process will never be finished because we can always add to the collection, which is bittersweet.

Sarah also gave me Paulus photos to work on, and I think I have those done, but I want to make sure that I don't run into anymore before I give them back.

Overall, it has been a productive week. I am hoping to add just a few more hours each week so I can get through some of this material more quickly than I am now.

February 14

So the campus photos project is not finished. But that is totally okay because I got to look at some really cool photos of Willamette students protesting the Gulf War. To get more information, I looked up the Collegians from that time (which were in microfilm form so I was able to learn that today too) and found out when the protests and vigils were.

February 13

I continued working on the 1916/1917 Wallulah and I am almost done with it.

February 12

I missed last week because I was sick, so I'm coming in for some extra hours this week to make up for the lost time. With the campus photos project basically done, I went back to scanning. I am still working on the 1916/1917 Wallulah.

January 31

The campus photos project is getting closer to the end! Today I finished updating information from Box 17 to CONTENTdm. There were some photos I had trouble with, but I think it can be resolved next week (I could not find WP 2457, 2459, 2555, 2556, and 2557 in the program). Also, WP 2608 needs to be deleted from CONTENTdm because it is a copy.

Janurary 30

The campus photos project is still going on. Today I fixed the photos for Sara to re-approve. I spent the rest of my time on the new Box 17. The photos are all put into sleeves and folders that are labeled and numbered. I started updating the information on CONTENTdm. Is there a way to edit more than one photo at a time if I am going to edit the same info? Because just doing one at a time feels really inefficient.

There are just a few photos that Sara will need to look at. They are the ones from a spreadsheet with specific instructions. I pulled them and noted what needed to be changed or fixed or noted, so now Sara will need to look at those and see what she wants to do with them. The folders are marked with sticky notes with my notes about them.

January 24

I think the Campus Photos project is almost done. I've been saving my notes on it for now so that we can have them all in one place. Here are a few details that need to be answered/fixed before this phase is done though:

1. From the sheet of photos that were not in the digital collection and needed to be pulled an scanned, only two were in the boxes. I don't know if this means they are on display somewhere or if they just aren't there. Are there any other places where the hard copy of the photos could be?

2. a) From the sheet of photos that needed names put into CONTENTdm, I accidentally uploaded two of the photos before they were finished and I can't access them anymore. I think Sara will need to "approve" them so I can go back and edit them.(WP 1035 and WP 1292)
    b) I could not put in the names from the first photo on that list because I couldn't read the names. (WP 1023)

3. WP 0563 had "professors" mistakenly written instead of "architects." I changed it on the excel spreadsheet but I could not on CONTENTdm because of the editing/approving issue again. That one will either need to be fixed by Sara or by me if she can "approve" it so I have access to edit it again.

4. There is also the issue of another box of photos that I found sitting with the other WU Campus Photos boxes. The photos in them do not match the descriptions of the photos I talked about above. I'm pretty sure they are WP 2448-WP 2610 (WP 2611 is also highlighted but I remember that photo and I am fairly certain that it is in Box 16) that were highlighted in yellow on the excel spreadsheet. I labeled the photos with their WP numbers. They still need to be organized, put into folders/archive preserve plastic and stamped. I don't know what to label the box though, because the photos are in the middle of Boxes 15 and 16.

January 23

Today I continued putting the names into the system for a lot of photos. Rose Marie and I also figured out a problem with some names on a different photo that Sara was wondering about, so hopefully that should be taken care of by tomorrow. I am almost done with filling in the names, but I bet I have at least another few hours of work left for it.

January 17

Today I worked on some miscellaneous items from the campus photograph collection like finding missing photos and putting names into the online system. I still have probably another couple hours worth of work on that.

January 16

Today was my first day back after winter break. I'm really excited to get back to work here.

Today I worked on a photo project for Mary and then scanned Walullahs. I am almost done with the 1916 one!