spring 2012 MLS internship

I had the opportunity to spend a few hours working independently using the EAD creation tool on Toby's computer. Below for now is a generic screenshot of XmetaL -- I will supply an image of my finding-aid-in-progress soon. The software creates my finding aid in XML format without the slightest knowledge of XML on my part: I simply type information into fields, it's like electronically filling out an form. Quite convenient.
The real challenge in creating the finding aid is not using this simple interface, but the physical organizing of the collection. As I work with XmetaL on the description of contents, I am continually making decisions about how to meaningfully arrange my materials into folders, how to label the folders, and what is the most helpful information I can provide about their contents.

XmetaL also has a browser view of how the finding aid will eventually display on the library web page. Periodically, I switch to this view as a tangible, visual reminder of the ultimate purpose of my work -- enabling future researchers to discover the materials in this archive.

Toby set me up on her computer which has XmetaL installed, an Encoded Archival Description (EAD) creation tool customized for Yale. I worked on both the catalog record and I got started on the finding aid. They are imperfect, but I can take full credit for them!

Below is my new catalog record in staff view

I wrote a blog entry on the Historical Library website about the John J. Cushing Collection, featured as a recent acquisition. The image is of one of my favorite stories the doctor tells of attending a woman in labor despite the family's objections to his homeopathic training and bachelor status. He (more precisely, his patient) successfully delivers an 11 pound baby, to everyone's amazement.

I have also begun my next project by verifying the newly acquired collection against the dealer's inventory and description. This mainly involved counting items in folders and checking their condition. I also got a sneak peak into the content, of course, and it promises to be interesting. This one is a variety of materials, about half of it makes up a fairly complete set of correspondence between two Yale educated brothers, both physicians in New Jersey.

Handed over the JR Paul books to Melissa!

Met again with Toby Appel over the Cushing letters. She had successfully located genealogical information on the Cushing family in the Cushing Genealogy of 1905 on Archive.org.

I arranged the letters into enough folders to fill a small archive box. Toby kindly emailed me her “cheat sheet” for archival records; I added 6XX fields to the preliminary bib for this collection. I searched LC authorities to use valid headings wherever possible; for the genre heading, I searched the Art & Architecture Thesaurus.