Old Vault Letters - Elaine Patton, 8/29/2013

Finally back (from a scheduled break and then unexpected scheduling conflicts from my librarian job). Today involved reviewing the last few Old Vault letters previously decoded and assembled, in a couple of cases, by Michelle:

• MSS0113-b01f15-06
• MSS0113-b01f19-03
• MSS0113-b01f20-05
• MSS0113-b01f21-02

I was able to add in a few words here and there, made much more straightforward by the work already done by Michelle & Cecilia to get the oddballs in the right order to be legible. Other difficulties remained, i.e. that letter with random(?) slashes after many of the words and at the ends of lines. Same letter also had very expansive, spidery writing. I also learned the term "chirography" from the letter to Eliza Fannin, a good counterpart to the better-used 'typography.' Good stuff.

Shab, sheet music project, 8/29/2013

Today I completed cataloging almost 40 cards in the sheet music drawer 3.  Some of the cards mentioned in last week's blog post - the Italian multiple composition music pieces - will need a new field added to the spreadsheet according to Cecilia.  Otherwise, I didn't face too many obstacles in particular.  I noticed some typos on the cards and I need to re-review what the AACR2 parenthesis rule is.  There's also slight uncertainty whether something belongs in the instrumentation or note field. 

Herrera Metadata Project, Laney Dwyer 8/29/2013

Today I was introduced to and trained on the Herrera Metadata Project.  I completed Box 1, folder 5 and started on folder 6.  I didn't really encounter any problems, but I did notice one duplicate in folder 5.

Herrera Metadata Project, Michelle Godfrey - August 28, 2013

Today, I continued working with MSS160-b4-f02. The folder still has several items left to complete. There were no major problems, but I will need to revise the duplicate titles by adding their corresponding creation dates.

Shab, sheet music project - 8/22/2013

Today I completed about 18 of the cards in drawer 3 of the sheet music cataloging project.  Nothing particularly new from last week; however, I will need to reflect somewhat on how to catalog cards that have multiple and unpublished pieces of music and compositions on the same card, as well as deal with some Italian names and titles next time. 

Herrera Metadata Project, Michelle Godfrey - August 21, 2013

Started working with the Herrera Metadata Project today. I began with MSS160-b4-f02. This folder contains 42 items and I completed just 8 of them. The process will go faster with more time and experience. I only found one item difficult to complete because it was written in Spanish.

Shab, sheet music project, 8/15/2013

I entered 24 cards of information into the sheet music project for drawer 3.  I may need to refresh my knowledge of AACR and AACR2 rules. 

HADA collections and themes, Michelle Godfrey - August 14, 2013

Today I reviewed the collections in the Houston Area Digital Archives to locate items that could be featured under the themes of baseball, politics, and Latino heritage. I found about twenty items for each of the collection theme groups and some of them can be in both Latino heritage and Politics. I listed those on the Latino spreadsheet and included a notation. 

Old Vault Letters, Michelle Godfrey - August 7, 2013

This week I completed two more items from The Old Vault Letters, MSS0133-b01f20 and -b01f21.

The first letter was a bit difficult to get through because the writer added a slash (/) at the end of many words for no apparent reason. This would occur both mid sentence and at the end of a line. 

and extensive/ acquaintance/, in/ the selection/

The second letter got a little messy at the end of page one. It appears that some of the writing was added at a different time because the ink was not as dark as the main part of the letter. 

Also, the writing seemed to be crammed into that section as if it had originally been left blank and filled in later.