Just a quick, fun post here…
This past Thursday, the Wells Library held a game night for freshman and new students at IU as part of the school’s new student orientation week. The IU Archives was asked to help with one of the events, a Jeopardy-style contest featuring questions about the university and its history. After some diligent work, Dina came up with a solid list of over 60 questions (or, technically, answers, since it was Jeopardy) for the new students. So, I decided to share a few of them for you folks today. Ill post the answers in a later post, so, stay tuned…
1. Jordan Field used to be at this campus location.
2. Her father paid her $5 to apply to IU and in 1867, she became our first coed.
3. Now a functioning house museum, this was the home of IU’s first first family.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
First Week at the Archives:
Hello all! Thank you for stopping by my blog, part of the Indiana University Archives’ “Blogging Hoosier History” project. This project gives all library science students completing an internship at the IU archives a chance to share their experiences online.
My internship supervisor is Dina Kellams, associate archivist at Indiana University as well as the advisor for the Society of American Archivists Student Chapter here at IU. On Tuesday, I began by accompanying Dina to Goodbody Hall to the offices of the Jewish Studies Program to appraise and subsequently box up some departmental records. Although I worked on a project as an archival processor for the IU School of Journalism in the fall of 2009 and winter of 2010, I haven’t really spent time working in a traditional archival repository environment since I was an undergraduate, so it has been nice to get back into that type of workplace.
At the moment, I can’t say that I know all that much about the history of Indiana University, so I have been trying to gain some knowledge about the institution and its history when I can. Even though it isn’t absolutely essential for an intern to be an expert in IU history, it can certainly help when answering reference questions or even when processing a collection.
Speaking of reference questions, I spent part of my afternoon on Tuesday researching a particularly interesting one. An IU staff member had asked the archives when the first student induction ceremony had taken place at the university. Records up in archives suggested that the first occurrence took place in either 1933 or 1934, so I went to the 2nd floor of the East Tower to consult issues of the Indiana Daily Student from the 1930’s which are held on microfilm to find an answer. Although I have spent a lot of time around libraries, I had never before used microfilm, so it was definitely a good learning experience. For the record, my search indicated that the tradition began in 1933.
The rest of my time this week was spent starting what will be my main project this fall, which will be the processing of a collection of records donated to the archives by Ruth C. Engs, IU Professor Emeritus of Applied Health Sciences. The collection is a very interesting one, as Professor Engs spent most of her career researching drug and alcohol use as well as social movements related to health throughout history.
I am also very grateful for the fact that the Professor Engs did a very thorough job of describing the contents of the collection already. This type of communication between the donor and the archives can facilitate efficient processing that reflects the intended order of the collection. When papers arrive at an archives in disarray, creating a sense of order that would provide users with some clarity can be an unnecessary challenge for an archivist.
My internship supervisor is Dina Kellams, associate archivist at Indiana University as well as the advisor for the Society of American Archivists Student Chapter here at IU. On Tuesday, I began by accompanying Dina to Goodbody Hall to the offices of the Jewish Studies Program to appraise and subsequently box up some departmental records. Although I worked on a project as an archival processor for the IU School of Journalism in the fall of 2009 and winter of 2010, I haven’t really spent time working in a traditional archival repository environment since I was an undergraduate, so it has been nice to get back into that type of workplace.
At the moment, I can’t say that I know all that much about the history of Indiana University, so I have been trying to gain some knowledge about the institution and its history when I can. Even though it isn’t absolutely essential for an intern to be an expert in IU history, it can certainly help when answering reference questions or even when processing a collection.
Speaking of reference questions, I spent part of my afternoon on Tuesday researching a particularly interesting one. An IU staff member had asked the archives when the first student induction ceremony had taken place at the university. Records up in archives suggested that the first occurrence took place in either 1933 or 1934, so I went to the 2nd floor of the East Tower to consult issues of the Indiana Daily Student from the 1930’s which are held on microfilm to find an answer. Although I have spent a lot of time around libraries, I had never before used microfilm, so it was definitely a good learning experience. For the record, my search indicated that the tradition began in 1933.
The rest of my time this week was spent starting what will be my main project this fall, which will be the processing of a collection of records donated to the archives by Ruth C. Engs, IU Professor Emeritus of Applied Health Sciences. The collection is a very interesting one, as Professor Engs spent most of her career researching drug and alcohol use as well as social movements related to health throughout history.
I am also very grateful for the fact that the Professor Engs did a very thorough job of describing the contents of the collection already. This type of communication between the donor and the archives can facilitate efficient processing that reflects the intended order of the collection. When papers arrive at an archives in disarray, creating a sense of order that would provide users with some clarity can be an unnecessary challenge for an archivist.
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