Week 2 Update

June 16, 2023

Three accomplishments:

1. I don't feel intimidated by Excel anymore! I've never had to be familiar or comfortable with this program in order to complete a project or participate in a course, and because I was so far removed from it, I got pretty comfortable with the bliss of the ignorance. After our metadata lecture on Thursday, I grew a greater appreciation and understanding for Excel and can confidently say I would be comfortable using the program to organize data alongside guidelines and standards common to data management for archival material. 

2. Along the same lines as the first point, I feel more familiarized with computer science (CS) jargon after the metadata lecture as well. I consider this an accomplishment because as a humanities major, I thought I would be able to avoid learning CS. I couldn't have anticipated how intertwined CS would be with digital humanities, and could never have anticipated how digital humanities would be so relevant to my college experience. I am proud of myself for not shutting down out of frustration or being overwhelmed. 

3. I finished my first book of the year! It's been a while since I've read a whole book for fun.

Three obstacles to completion of my best work:

1. I'm having a really hard time finding supplemental newspaper clippings about individuals, Black churches, and other local news about areas popping up in letters of interest to me. Some are likely lost to history due to court fires occurring in the 1870s and 1880s. I have been exploring genealogy websites, cemetery records, and online databases specifically recording Black periodicals and newspapers to try and see if they have the material I am missing. 

2. The battery life on my computer is pretty short and makes the more computer-heavy days more of a challenge. I love taking physical notes, but obviously I cannot read the letters without my computer. I'll have to be better about charging it more regularly or sitting in a seat that is closer to an outlet. 

3. There wasn't too much time set aside during daily instruction this past week to actually look further into the letters that are available to use in our research, so I felt like I didn't expand on my topic that much this week. I found myself trying to do research and listen to lectures simultaneously. I'm glad we have more independent work time this upcoming week to really dive into the letters and see what our strongest primary sources for our topics are. 

Three things I've learned:

1. The lecture we had with Dr. Peterson taught me about the idea of decolonizing the terms archivists and/or researchers use in their metadata descriptions, tags, etc. The challenge with this great and necessary step, though, is that the Library of Congress already has authorized titles. These preliminary titles help keep archives consistent across institutions, but it makes it challenging to decolonize terms if the ones that are already in use are not decolonized already. There should be a review at the Library of Congress Authorities in order to see how they can go about decolonizing the titles they propose as consistent standards. 

2. I learned what "dpi" and "ppi" stand for ("dots per inch" and "pixels per inch," respectfully)! I also learned that the resolution standards are changing all the time, and that it can take upwards of 30 minutes to scan certain materials at the resolution recommended for preservation currently. 

3. I'm not silly for wanting to physically document my ideas, terms and concepts I learn, and general notes, because computers and software are progressing so rapidly that it's best practice to keep physical documentation in order to make sure my personal strides are preserved in a sustainable way (i.e. they won't be kept on a software that will become irrelevant or unusable in two years if I write them down with pen on paper).