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.