In the Home Stretch

Earlier this afternoon, Caryn emailed with the needed code and some direction on how to go about making the links to the images from the EAD work. I will give it a try tomorrow when I get back to the library. It's getting very exciting. Once all that is in place and Michael and I have proofread and made our corrections to the finding aid, we'll just have to release it online.

At this point, there aren't that many to-dos left. I'm shaping my annotated bibliography, which has grown to be quite extensive. I also have to write my documentation of the process. We still need to label all the new housings for the artists' books and find them a new home other than Michael's office and Conservation. Michael asked me to copy edit his journal article, and I said I'd need to put it off until I met some of my deadlines (big projects due very soon). After I get the EAD file squared away, I should be able to give it an edit. Finally, I'll need to write an exit report with my observations, learning experiences, and recommendations.

I will sincerely miss working with the artists' books. I've come to appreciate them and know them after spending so much time with them, their images, and their descriptions. It also has been a very good experience spending Tuesdays and Thursdays with Michael this semester. He has taught me a great deal, and for that I am grateful.

I am also thankful for Teresa's help. She found all kinds of good and useful links for us in her research.

Best of all, I had the opportunity to meet many of the people who work in the Alexander Library on a daily basis and see how they do their jobs. The experience made me even more sure that I want to work in a university setting in special collections.

The Nuts and Bolts

In the past week, we have been nailing down the details with the finding aid. Other than linking from the EAD document to the images on the library server, we're in the home stretch. Caryn is still working to figure out how we can make that happen. In our work toward that goal, I contacted a new pal at Princeton who directed me to an expert on EAD there. He then emailed me some code, which we haven't yet been able to apply successfully here. I hope we'll be able to figure it out in a week or so.

In the meantime, I will be helping Michael with his journal article for the Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries on Suellen's artists' books. He's asked me to copy edit the article and provide a list of the artists' books we're using for the finding aid along with links to the images online (a lot easier done in Word than in EAD). I immediately agreed to the editing work since reading the material would help me to develop more background for the finding aid. It also is work I am accustomed to doing -- I was copy chief at Electronic Design magazine and later managing editor of three technical magazines at IEEE.

I'm also working on the annotated bibliography as well as juggling my other course work this semester. It is quickly coming to a close, and my biggest worry is not completing all my deliverables prior to starting my winter vacation and apprenticeship in January.

Another Quick Update

I'm posting about this wherever I can because it's important to those of us studying copyright law:

N.J. gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie has violated Monty Python's copyrights.

MARAC

Last week, instead of my usual time at the Alexander Library on Thursday, I attended a full-day workshop at MARAC. I also went for a few sessions and the reception on Friday. Because this blog is focused on my independent study project, I decided to put my post on MARAC up on my first-ever blog, Here and There. All that to say, I invite you to read about my experience at the conference. It's a bit lengthy, but if you like hearing about these kinds of things, it will be worth the read. Hope you enjoy it!

My Time at MARAC