To start my week, I sorted through the hundreds of photos I have taken of exhibits and items, labeled the files, and organized them into folders on a USB flash drive. The sorting and organizing was quite tedious (the “scavenger hunt” for items connected to catalogue cards last week was more fun), but it will help in the future when we are trying to locate particular images for the community, visitors, or our own work in the museum.
The museum’s computer has now been fixed, so it runs much quicker and in turn allows us to be more efficient when using it. You would not have wanted to use the computer before the fix because it would freeze up after a few minutes of use (maybe you have already experienced this frustrating feeling yourself). Since the fix, Judy has pulled out 99% less hairs from her head. Thank you to the person who fixed it.
Additionally, we dismantled an older exhibit so there is room for a new exhibit. We have been tossing around ideas about what we should showcase in the new exhibit and are sure that you will appreciate what we have come up with.
Moreover, I have input the catalogue cards from 2000-2007 into Past Perfect. I am currently working on inputting 2011 which is quite a thick stack of cards (pictured on the left). Mia and Mariah are working on inputting 2008-2010 which I appreciate very much since it can be challenging to sit down for multiple hours to input a stack of cards.
If you are interested, the process of digitizing a catalogue card includes:
- entering the accession number,
- entering the source information,
- entering the received date,
- adding a catalogue record,
- determining an object name from a huge standardized lexicon (pictured on the right),
- and adding an object description.
Finally, I have been working along with Mia and Mariah on a project that will be interactive, creative, and accessible from home (I won’t say more on details yet). We are still in the early stages of the project and I am currently working on the project charter to describe the project, our objectives, scope, roles, etc. .
Stay tuned next week for Mariah’s post about her week at the museum!