The Finished Project!

And it's complete!!!

I hope you all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it!

Virginia Broderick Digital Collection

Home

All day yesterday at the WLA I had no idea how to feel. Part of me wanted to be extremely happy, another wanted to cry. Part of me could not have asked for a better last day at a place that has become home to be this summer, but I didn't, and still don't, want it to end. It was an emotional day to say the least. And fair warning, there will be a lot of rambling, but just bare with me. 

Let's start at the beginning. When I began work yesterday I was so close to being done with the Virginia Broderick digital collection that I knew I had to finish before going to home. I was so close that I could count the number of pieces that needed metadata on my hands and toes (when you begin with 283 pieces, not including the compounded items when there are usually 4 to a single heading, the prospect of 20 is absolutely amazing!) It wasn't so much that I wanted to be done, it was that I wanted it to go online. I wanted everyone else to see the collection that I have grown so fondly of. I woke up everyday excited to go to work on it, and while I know others will not have that feeling, they can at least see how beautiful the work is and how lovely of a person Virginia is. I wanted everyone else to see what I have been seeing for about a month now. To be completely honest, I also want to go on the WLA website and see my work. I want that moment of looking through the collection while thinking to myself "I did that. I created this." I want that feeling of accomplishment. And here comes the contradictions. As much as I wanted to finish this project, I knew that it was my last project of the summer and that as soon as I finished I would be done with work. I knew the second I finalized everything and submitted it to Kristin, there was no need for me to come into work anymore. The day that I have been dreading since the second I started working there. 

I have never loved a job more than I have enjoyed working at the WLA. It's hard to explain. I honestly think that I am in denial that I'm not going back Monday morning. I can say without a doubt that it has become home to me and I will try to sneak up there as much as I can this semester. I mean I won't stalk the place don't worry I'm not that crazy of a former employee which I am sure I am about to come off as, but I will pop by and say hi. Everyone at the WLA has profoundly shaped my life in a way that I never could have imagined. Beth. I almost have no words to describe how much that woman means to me. First off, she has absolutely been the best boss I could have ever asked for and I feel honored to be able to say that she was my boss. She treated me as an equal and valued my opinions after so many other bosses saw me as "just an undergraduate student" aka I had the IQ of a five year old. But more than that, she was my mentor. She taught me the most impactful life lessons I have ever gotten without even knowing it. When we would sit around and just share life stories, she taught me so many things about life and how to truly be a good person. The way she views the world, and everyone around her, is inspiring. And her happiness, it's contagious. Again, I don't know to describe it. She is by far one of the most amazing women that I have ever met, and if I grow up to be half as intelligent, amazing, and a beautiful person inside and out, I will feel as though I succeeded in life. Then comes the grad students. I don't know how I could have gotten through the summer without them. They also taught me life lessons, but different ones. For example, Kristin is one of the most intellect people I have ever met, but she would never tell you that. She walks to the beat of her own drum and makes everyone else want to follow that drum as well. She was also there to help me with anything I asked, even asking her friends on my behalf if she did not know the answer, and always made me happy the second I walked into the door. I have no doubt she will be the best interim director possible until they find a replacement. Rachel is just as amazing. I knew if I had a question about applying to grad school she would give me the best advice. Without her's and Kristin's help, I would be incredibly lost in this whole process. But the thing about Rachel is that she sees the best in everyone no matter what. The way she looks at the world is amazing. She was always happy and it's hard not to be happy around her. I always loved the days when she was working at the same time as me. And Laura. While I didn't get to spend as much time with her as the others, she was still amazing. I gave me practical advice about being a teacher, and was brutally honest with me to a point that no one else was. And getting to know her at the going away party last night was absolutely amazing. She, also, is just a fantastic person. Anyone reading this please don't think I am doing this to suck up. Frankly, I doubt any of them will read this, and my grades are already in so I have nothing to "gain" from saying all this. I'm sharing this to show how special of a place the WLA is. It's a home and no where else in the world will you find somewhere as amazing as this place. It is not just the people that makes it amazing though. Their purpose also does. They want to highlight women who changed the world. Women that I hope to share this category with someday. They work to show what women can accomplish, even when it was the social norm to not let them. And as much as I have rambled on about this place, it does nothing to actually show how amazing it is. As I read this over, it comes off as flat, when it is anything but. There are no words that can accurately show my gratitude, love, and respect I have for the third floor of Piper Hall, and the women who occupy it. 

So there is the contradiction. I wanted to be done, but I desperately wanted to stay. I hate knowing that I won't be back there first thing Monday morning. And now more contradictions. Yesterday was Beth's last day as well. It was said last night "I am so happy for you for this opportunity and so happy you are taking it, but you're breaking my heart." Exactly. I couldn't be happier for Beth to be moving to Wayne State, but I want her to stay here. I know she will do absolutely amazing there, and it's a great career move, but I wanted to see her on campus. I realize that I am being selfish, but it happens. It does help that she is moving to where my boyfriend is from so I will get to see her whenever I go back to the Detroit suburbs. Last night's going away party was amazing. Having it in Piper was perfect. So while it was incredibly sad why we were there, it was perfect. Getting to hang out with Kristin, Beth, Rachel, and Laura one last time that way was fantastic. It was absolutely perfect. So while I am so unbelievably sad to watch it end, it was the perfect ending. It was one of those nights where I had to come home, stuff my face with Chinese food with my boyfriend while he constantly told me "don't be sad that it ended. Be happy it happened." The most cliché thing he could have said, but extremely appropriate at the same time. Those women, and this internship have impacted me so profoundly that I almost don't have words for it and I so incredibly grateful. They made it not just a job. They made it home. 

Another Successful Week

There isn't much to update again. I'm still putting info into CONTENTdm for the different pictures, but it is all starting to come together!!! After all this work it is really nice to see more filled in areas than blank ones. I am on box 12 out of 30, so a little more than half to go, but I can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel!! As much as it seems tedious at times, it has been really fun to do this project. I am learning so much and get to see a whole other side to history. I can't wait to feel that feeling of accomplishment when I am done though!!

What is a Mistake?

Part of me feels as though I have accomplished a lot in the past couple of days, but then part of me feels as though I have done nothing. It's a strange feeling. I have loaded everything that I scanned onto contentDM, and am starting to fill in the necessary information. That has been difficult in itself. Fun, but difficult. The first problem is that there are only so many times you can say "This is an article written about how awesome Virginia Broderick is and her rocking art skills." I mean more professional, but you know what I mean. Second, the way that I organized everything does not match exactly with how the collection is organized, so I have been going through so many boxes and at the same time that it's kind of hard to keep track. Not a big deal at all, just a little challenging. And honestly, it's nice to have a little challenges while I do this because if not, it would be a tad monotonous. I don't want to come off as complaining, because I don't intend to at all. I just wanted to show that there are different technical difficulties that I am experiencing that I never expected. These difficulties, however, are what makes the job fun. Without sound conceited, I know I am good at the historical aspect of this internship. I get that. I want something to challenge me though. I want something that throws curveballs at me that I never expected. Having to think practically for technical things is something I have not done within this context, so I appreciate the lessons it is teaching me. Like when I was processing my collection. At the end I could look back and name exactly what I could have done better, but without making the mistakes in the first place, I would have never learned. I am a HUGE proponent of making mistakes. I love mistakes. Yeah I'm not the happiest when it happens, but in the long run, mistakes are my best friend. I have made my fair share of mistakes at the WLA, but I also want to make mistakes. Not dire ones that is going to cause serious problems, but mistakes that I can look back and say "Well if I would have done blank, it would have saved time..." or something like that. Was it the best idea to upload all the pictures at once, and then go back through the entire collection, for the third time, to find who the creator is and the dimensions for specific pieces? Maybe. But I'm learning. I won't sit here and say I know everything, because I am far from it. But I do know enough to love my mistakes and grow from them. The WLA has been absolutely amazing for that. I cannot thank Beth, Kristen, and Rachel enough for giving me the room to figure things out on my own, but being there to help the second I ask. I am learning because of this internship in new and exciting ways, and that is the most important thing I could have ever asked for. Every day I realize more and more that this is the best internship that I could have ever asked for and am ridiculously grateful for it.

It's Picture Time!

So I am still scanning, but I'm almost done!! Only 4 or 5 more boxes to go! I finally remembered to send myself some of the pictures to put on here too! This is only a tiny tiny part of what will be in the digital collection, and everything is either just as impressive or better than these! Not as good as in person, but still ridiculously impressive. I'm so glad I finally get to show the amazing work that I have been in awe of for weeks!

I clearly have a biased towards her flowers, but I think that just shows how wide of a range she can do. It is all absolutely amazing and I'm so happy that I have had this chance to to get to work with such an amazing collection!!

Photo Credit: Women and Leadership Archives, Loyola University Chicago.

This image is issued by the Women and Leadership Archives, Loyola University Chicago. Use of the image requires written permission from the Director of the Women and Leadership Archives. It may not be sold or redistributed, copied or distributed as a photograph, electronic file, or any other media. The image should not be significantly altered through conventional or electronic means. Images altered beyond standard cropping and resizing require further negotiation with the Director. The user is responsible for all issues of copyright. 

Which One is Going to Take More Time?

So this week I began scanning everything!! It's really not as hard as I thought it would be. Once you have the settings the way you want, it becomes pretty standard on what to do: put a photo in, preview it, scan it, take the photo out, repeat. I generally work while listening to my iPod, and after a while I realized I was loading and scanning pictures to the rhythm of whatever song I was listening to, so I've made a game of which genre can make me go faster. The winner right now is between swing music and rap, which makes logically sense to me.

I was also trained on how to use Content DM, our program that takes the material that we uploaded onto it and put it on our digital collections website, which is also not as bad as I thought it would be. However, now I have to make the decision of whether to scan the pictures as a whole, and then load them onto Content DM, or do it one at a time. There are pros and cons to both. If I do it as a whole, then I can get into that rhythm and work faster. Also, I can look at the collection as a whole and then decide which object to upload. But to load them onto Content DM I need information that I can only get if I am still holding the object, like the dimensions or who the original creator is. So it's either slow the rhythm and potentially waste time by uploading material that I will later decide not to include, or scan everything and then have to go back through the collection again to get the information as I upload the material to CDM. I haven't decided on which one I want to do, but I have till Monday to decide and I'm sure either way will fine. It's just a matter of which one will take the least amount of time.

Besides that, I have nothing really to report. I can't wait to do a little bit more so that I can put some pictures on here of what I have been doing, though!

Did not see that one coming...

Another week at the WLA done! And I'm finished going through all 41 boxes of the Virginia Broderick collection and deciding which pieces I want to put online!!! I am so excited to start that process next week! The later boxes are full of copies of her work, whether through pictures, scans, publication covers, or sketches, and it was so incredibly cool to see those!! The sketches are absolutely remarkable! I am constantly amazed at her talent! It was getting to the point where I was writing on the excel sheet of what to include "Just put the whole folder in". They are that good! I have which folders and boxes to focus on, but my plan is to just go through each folder while scanning and decide which ones I want on the spot. They are so well done that I could pick any random piece to put online and it would still be incredibly impressive. Beth had mentioned that she thought it would be a 200 item collection. I have 297 on the excel sheet and a good portion is "whole folder" or a couple "whole box" entries. I feel like I will be doing a lot of scanning in the upcoming weeks!

But then I ran into a problem. We have a bunch of her actual work, and its beautiful! I thought the photos of the paintings were good, and I was blown away with the actual paintings. I was so excited going through the "oversized" boxes that were completely full with them, and pick the ones to go online. I know I talk about how incredible they are a lot, but they truly are. And seeing the actual painting, with the most magnificent colors and technique, it was a good day at work to say the least. So in the middle of looking through them and being extremely excited, I realized the problem. They are actual pieces of art, so they are huge. They won't fit in our scanner. It was a moment of utter defeat. It's upsetting that that happened, but at the same time, I doubt they would have come up as well on the computer as they do in real life so the smaller copies are just as good. Plus, this online collection is only a sample of what we have, so not everything needs to go into it. It was just kind of a let down. But what we can scan are going to still be absolutely amazing and I'm still so excited to put them up!! This is just a little speed bump but everything will still turn out great! I am still beyond excited to get started on this leg of the project. If everyone wants to see the amazing work, they just have to make a visit to the WLA now and see everything we have to offer!!

So... you're like really popular?

Going through the Virginia Broderick papers has yet to stop impressing me. I am always pleasantly surprised to open a folder and find absolutely breath taking works of art there. She had an very unique and amazing talent and looking through her sketches and final products it becomes very apparent. I can't wait to put pictures of all of it online so people can see how amazing she is! Today I found a folder that contain her "early artwork" from 1934, and while it is of ordinary things, like a plant, they are absolutely incredible! I am having so much fun everyday just looking through her work, and reading the fan mail that she gets from people telling her how much she inspires them. It is an incredibly cool collection to work with. If there was a higher honor than being called a hip lady, she deserves it.

The most impressive part of the collection that I have gotten to so far is the number of requests for art work she gets. There are at least 30 folders, all from different churches or companies, telling her how they are inspired by her work and would love her create something for them. The incredible part of it, besides the sheer number of requests, is the amount of creative freedom they give to Virginia. They tell her the dimensions that they want, and what they would like the picture to be of, and that's it. They let her choose how to portray the picture, and in what manner, whether a painting or some other medium. It shows how much the churches and companies trusted her as an artist and her talents to portray what they wanted. It really struck me how many people wanted her to create a work of art for them, but also the kind replies that she gave them back. From her letters, it seems like she was truly honored to do the work for them and very humbled by the entire experience. And while it struck me that that many people wanted work from her, I realized those are the letters that got saved, not all of projects she took on. From the photographs of her work, and the number of covers she designed is in the hundreds. And even that does not cover all the work that she did. The number of private designs that she did for friends, or herself, is an extraordinary amount as well. On top of everything, Virginia received so many requests to have her work be a part of a gallery, exhibit, or auction. Today really proved how she may not be the biggest celebrity in the world, she was incredible sought out in her own area of expertise. And she was totally cool about everything. She was incredibly humble and cool about it. This collection has had an impact on me in a way that I never thought would happen. She is a hip lady is quickly becoming an understatement.

Why Letters are Important

The more and more I look through Virginia's boxes the more and more I realize how cool of a women she is. Her art is absolutely beautiful!! It's strange to see pictures of her working on a piece of art that I have either seen or has been the inspiration for work that I have seen in churches. There are so many pictures of her work and the different stages that they went through. I am constantly impressed by her art, and I have been finding it harder and harder to select pieces to put the digital collection. Not because there isn't enough, but because I'm beyond impressed with everything and want to include it all. I can't wait to start putting pictures online so that other people can see the absolutely amazing pieces that I have been looking through.

While the pictures are extremely cool, I have started looking through the boxes that contains her different correspondences. They are very interesting and make Virginia an actual person. Realistically I know that she used to be a living, breathing, human being, but there is some disconnect when you are looking through boxes. Its hard to describe. You can look through photos all you want, but they are just photos. You don't know anything about the person behind them by just looking through brief moments of their life. Yeah I got how much she loved her husband, and a little bit of a sense of their relationship through the pictures. Yeah I saw how absolutely beyond words talented she is through her pictures. I saw the pride she took in her work. But I didn't know anything about her. Looking through her letters I am starting to see that though. I see how much she cared for everyone around her. I see the countless letters from her friends thanking Virginia for just randomly giving them a piece of work. The number of times I saw something along the lines of "I was surprised by a large mail package on my front steps this morning, and once I opened it I found one of your paintings. That was extremely kind of you to send that to me as a surprise!" And she never asked anything in return for those pieces. I see the letters from complete strangers telling her how her work inspired them and the kind words she sent back to them. I see the letters from priests thanking her for the art work that she did for their parishes and how they have inspired it's members. I see the love letters between her and her husband. A couple actually brought tears to my eyes too. They had a love that I thought only existed in Nicholas Sparks novels. I see the letter from a class of 2nd graders thanking her for the donation of a statue she gave to their church. I see the numerous ways that she touched people's lives. These letters have humanized her in such a profound way to me. I mean, grant it, I feel extremely creepy sometimes reading them, don't get me wrong, but they have added a whole other dimension to Virginia. I think these letters will help me create the story of her life in such a unique  way. As I am going through them, however, I feel as though I have to create some rules that I have to follow for which letters can go into the digital collection or not. The main one is to not put anything in that, if it was mine, I wouldn't want anyone else reading. Her letters with her husband are off limits then. They are absolutely beautiful, but I feel as though I am cheapening them in a way by putting their private thoughts and feelings on the internet. Also, any letter that speaks intimately about someone's family is out. I don't need to put letters that discuss personal events or problems of a family on the internet. I wouldn't want someone doing that to me after I'm dead, so I refuse to do it to her. Even with the letters that I take out, there is such a rich story to be told. Yet again, I cannot wait to go into work in the morning and continue exploring.

She's a Hip Lady

It has been a very interesting week at the WLA! I began working on the digital exhibit for Virginia Broderick and it is super interesting! There isn't much to say about it so far, however. I began by looking through the collections that are already online, and those are really cool! If you haven't looked through them yet, you really should. I especially loved looking through the old pictures from Mundelein College! It is really cool/weird seeing the different ways that the building has changed over the years. I had no idea that it used to have dorms, a pool, and a library there as well as classrooms. I always feel like it is way to small to hold all that, but apparently not. I love looking through all the different pictures, and seeing all the different students featured in them. It kind of strange knowing that they went to school in the same classrooms that I do, but years ago, and experiencing kind of the same thing by being college students, but during a totally different time with different concerns and trends. I have always loved looking at pictures and trying to understand the context that those people were living in. It was a very interesting and fulfilling assignment.

After looking through the pictures I began looking through the Virginia Broderick collection. I am not very far along in it, but she is a real hip lady. Her art is so flipping cool!! Nothing like what I was expecting. The one thing that struck me so far was how vibrant and colorful the artwork is. Most the religious work that I have seen has been done in more dull colors, so it was pretty solid to see work done in eye catching brights. The pictures of her and her husband in the collection are the most precious things ever too. They were such an adorable couple, and you can see how much they cared for each other through the pictures. I have only gone through 1 of the 41 boxes so far so I still have so much to see and explore, but it was a great start! I really enjoy getting to see all these different things and feel as though I have an understanding of her and her life before deciding what goes into the digital collections. My aspirations of getting to show her story are starting to come together and I really really enjoy this project so far. Once again, I came home thinking about how much I love this internship. Pretty solid.

There Are No Words for this Feeling

DONE!!! I finished my first collection today!! I cannot even explain the feeling of accomplishment when I put those two boxes onto the shelves in the archives. Amazing! It was great to feel like I have made a contribution to the archives. Also, it was amazing to know that I was able to start a process and be able to complete it on my own. It was absolutely wonderful. I know that I learned a lot through processing this collection, and gained a deeper understanding of how history is made through it. I feel as though everything that I read and know about different historical events have a more complex meaning to me now. That is something that as a history nerd, I find to be the most rewarding aspect of this. Again, it's hard to describe it, and honestly I don't think I have words for it.

The completion of this project means that I get to start a new one, though. Today I began researching our digital collections, because I will be making my own exhibit for Virginia Broderick, who I can already tell is a real hip lady. I will take her art, and try to organize it on our website to tell her story. I have high aspirations for this one. I want everyone who looks through her art to see her. To see her story. To see how she came to be one of the most revered religious artists in the world. I'm sitting here writing this and getting side tracked by thinking of all the different possibilities that I have with this project, and all the new things that I am going to learn. This is one of the many times that I have been truly excited to go to work, and considering I have to wake up early for it on a regular basis, that's saying a lot. Very few people know how this feels, so it's hard to describe. Without being a huge cliché, I feel as though I am in a position where there are so many opportunities to explore, discover, and learn. Now I just have to choose a path. And it's all relating to history. I love this internship.

What in the world was I thinking?

That is what I seemed to be saying to myself throughout the day. What in the world was I thinking when I first started going through the collection? Today I finished making the pathfinder/finding aid, and all that is left to do is to go through it one more time to make sure that everything make sense. It is a great feeling of accomplishment to get one more step done and being that much closer to the final product.

But creating this pathfinder has given me an opportunity that I did not even think about. Because it is my first collection, I can see my own progress. I can see the way I went through everything, and how my decision process of what is important or not evolved. The first couple of folder just kind of had everything thrown into it, in no order, with no system, and stuff was put together that apparently made sense at the time, but now I got nothing. And I saved everything. I was/am afraid to throw out stuff, but the first couple of folders had material in there that is beyond irrelevant, aka a post-it saying "call me" stuck to a blank piece of paper. Then came the folders were I was more confident in what I was doing, but still didn't realize that I should probably put documents into any type of order. Some folders had half the documents within it in chronological order, and then the rest just... there. By the end of the day I was sure that the day I worked on that section I had a brain fart. Going through those folders again was interesting though. It gave me a second chance to go through the material, organize it, and take out material that I can now tell is irrelevant. I essentially got to process the same material twice, see what I have learned, and see how my methods and confidence have progressed. Then going through the final section, it was a lot more streamlined and made sense. That was a relief.

Today was a good learning experience. I don't know if I have accurately put into words how I felt today, however. It was helpful to get a second look through this collection and see how my skills have grown and developed. It gave me more confidence in what I am doing, and allowed me to see where I started from and where I am today. It was an interesting/weird/helpful/cool day.

The Pathfinder Less Travelled

Just as I had hoped, today was full of new and exciting things! After processing a collection, the next part is to create a pathfinder that helps identify what is in the collection and where specifically it is located. It was actually really fun to create one! A little overwhelming at first when I had to look at the collection as a whole and decide exactly how I wanted to organize it, but eventually once I got the general trends I had in my head out onto paper, it was making more sense. The only reason that it was a little difficult was because my collection is an addendum, so someone had already come up with an organization system. And while their's made sense, it was different from mine so their organization was not as applicable as I thought it would be at first. Regardless, it was fun to look at the larger picture and really feel like I was forming a coherent thing.

As much as I felt like there were more exciting and new things for me in store for today, I feel the same way for tomorrow. I really enjoy feeling like I am doing productive work as well as learning something completely new. Until becoming a history major, I had no idea what an archivist was. Intuitively, I think I always knew there had to be a position like this, but it was not until I really began looking at the different aspects of history that I truly understood what an archives is. History is written by the victors, and that has never made as much sense to me as it does now. Through Historical Methods I was able to really see the different aspects of history, whether gendered, social, cultural, environmental, etc. Before college I never really gave it a thought as to who decides what people learn or remember from an event. Now that seems like all I can see. I read things and immediately think of the context that they are writing in. I can see how a rich white guy will write about a historical event, and how it is completely and wholly different from what a woman, or slave, or minority would see in it. By looking different types of history, I saw the many different influences that history is subjugated to. Working at the WLA is no different. I bring just as much bias to this as anyone else. Some material is going to be important no matter what, I can hardly imagine throwing the original charter out as irrelevant, but some falls into a grey area. With my background, and my view of the organization, I can see something as extremely important, while someone else could see it as the most pointless aspect of the whole collection. This is one of the reasons why I love studying history. You can spend your entire life looking at the same event, and learn something completely new everyday about it. There is an infinite capacity to learn, and explore. And I get to do that three days a week and consider it "work."

Step 1: Check!

Last Wednesday and Thursday were really great days at the WLA! It was almost like karma was making up for all the difficult decisions that I had to make one Monday, which was really appreciated. I focused on the very last part of my collection and all of the documents within it was specific to the primary organization. It was a little tedious at points, but it was also extremely easy to understand what was relevant and worth keeping. It was a great feeling after the uncertainty that I had on Monday.

Another great part of last week was that I finished processing the collection. It was a great feeling of accomplishment! It is nice knowing that tomorrow I am not going back to the same box to do the same thing that I have been doing, but instead get to learn new things! Don't get me wrong, I really really enjoy looking through the boxes. I really enjoy making those decisions to decide if I believe something is important enough to keep or not, as much as it seems like I complain about it. I really enjoy that aspect of everything, and can't wait to do it again when the time comes. But I am also looking forward to learning the other aspects that are involved in processing a collection. I'm extremely excited to learn more about what it means to be an archivist. I'm very optimistic about what is coming this week and I can't wait to start!!

This is Totally Relevant?

I have to say, week two is off to a good start. One of the things that I love about this internship is that it challenges me, and it lived up to that today. It might have been the lack of sleep, but today was a little rough. Not in a bad way, by any means. There just weren't as clear cut of decisions, and left me at many points wondering if I had made the right decision.

The challenge in the collection that I have is that it is an organization that is extremely involved in other companies. While it is great for this organization, it's hard for me to determine if something is considered historically relevant or not. For example, they are a part of a larger association of charities within Illinois, and have included the agendas for their annual meeting into their collection. The problem with this is that it poses contradictions to deciding if something is relevant or not. On the one hand, these agendas are public record and if someone is looking for them, they would probably look at the records of the larger association. But my organization is deeply involved in the association so it reflects what they believe is important, and has a direct influence on the organization. Because of this, I have generally decided that these notes are important to the collection. But once I made this choice, it raised the other issue of what is considered relevant within that context. Are the financial reports for the association important? Are the emails between member important? Are the different campaigns they were involved in important? It was difficult at times to look at each aspect of the collection and weigh its importance individually. A number of times I would put something in the discard pile and wonder if I had made the right decision immediately afterwards. And then went digging through the pile to get something that I saw as irrelevant 5 minutes before, but now because of a new document, saw as extremely important.

While this is a difficult process at times, I am ok doing it. The different struggles I am having, I choose to look at them as the new ways that I am learning. While I may not be completely confident in all my decisions, I feel as though I am on the right track. And every time I was truly unsure, I was surrounded by intelligent people that were willing to help me make decisions and knew what they were doing. It was great knowing that there was someone there that had experience when I had gotten to the point of just staring at a piece of paper for a minute, and helped me make the right decision.

While it was difficult, it was a good day. I walked away knowing that I was learning, helping contribute to the archives, and being a part of the historical process. That's realistically what I want at the end of the day.

My First Big Girl Job

When people ask me how I would describe myself, one of the things that comes to mind is how huge of a history nerd I am. I feel as though I need to make that perfectly clear before someone begins reading my blog, because there will be a lot of history nerding out. I'm sorry in advance. But when I say nerd, I truly mean it. I am that kid that will stay home on Friday nights reading history textbooks. I constantly watch the History Channel. I live for debates on why the USSR no longer exists, or what would have happened if the South won. Ask any of my friends and they absolutely dread once I begin explaining what the historical significance of something is, and make it last a good 20 minutes. This being said, it is clear why my internship at the Women and Leadership Archives in Piper Hall is such a match for me. I am surrounded by other history nerds, and I get to do something that I feel is making a contribution. I always ask myself why something is considered historically relevant, and with this internship I get to be a part of the process. This is a dream come true for me.

Last week was my first week of work, and it was absolutely amazing. This is my first "big girl" job and I'm not going to lie, I was terrified. I had no idea what I had gotten myself into. What do I wear on the first day? What if I don't know enough history? What if I accidently exclude the most important important part of the collection? What if I mess up, basically? I was clearly way more nervous than I ever needed to be. When I got to Piper we talked with Beth, who no joke is one of the sweetest women I have ever met. She gave us a more in depth tour of the archives and explained what we were supposed to do. She gave each of us a project and just let us go, which was absolutely amazing. I did not feel the stress of having someone watch every decision that I made but let me figure things out on my own. Beth, along with two graduate students, were more than willing to answer questions and checked in on us. It was a great balance of getting to discover everything on my own, but knowing that someone was there that would make sure I did not screw up too badly. I was still nervous, none-the-less.

My collection that I am working on is about a Christian center that works for justice, and it is very cool to see what they have done. To see outlines of meetings that detail what they truly care about, and the different projects that they started to help better their community, or an entirely different community in Central America, is extremely cool. It is weird because they are still an operating company, so I know that what I am looking at is only a few years old. It does not have that "old time" feeling to them yet. Then I found notes from the 1970s, which are so cool! It shows what was happening in their community, their thought process towards social problems, and how they planned to fix them. It really gave a clear view into the society that they were trying to better. It is almost hard to put into words what it feels like looking at something like that. I begin thinking of everything that I know was happening at the same time, and allow the new information to fit into that working picture. I told you there would be some history nerding out. I feel like even after one box of information, I have not seen enough. I feel as though there is so much for me to go through and discover. Thank goodness I have a completely full box waiting for me on Monday morning. It's hard to explain, but it feels incomplete. It might be because the box that I just processed was mostly that organization involvement in a third party charity, and not really about my center specifically, but we will see what happens on Monday. At points it was challenging to make the judgement call on whether something is relevant or not, but I feel like it is getting easier. It is definitely taking longer than I had thought it would, though. That could be because I'm looking at all the things that I find very cool and trying to learn about them.

It was a great first week of work. I am actually looking forward to Monday when I can dive back into everything. I'm still a little nervous about everything, but after spending time with everyone else in the WLA, I feel a lot better about it. It is a comfortable and easy going environment, and I think that that makes a world of difference. I really don't want this to come off as completely sucking up to the WLA, either. I mean everything that I say and would not write it if I did not believe it 100%. I'm not going to write if something is bad, because frankly that would be between me and the WLA, but this place has already made such a great impression on me that I am sure I made the right choice for where my first big girl job would be.