When I started to blog,I decided that I wouldn’t try to post just for the sake of having something new up. I’d guess that this is pretty evident to anyone reading along,as I haven’t been on the blog much lately. I’ve been traveling,mostly for fun,over the past few weeks. Since my return,I’ve spent a lot of time trying to unearth my inbox and putting out fires;you know the drill.
I’ve found over the past few years that when I need a break from whatever I’m writing/working on,cooking/baking/doing something physically helps me to refocus my energy. I’m not talking about procrastination (though I’ve done my fair share of that),but rather working on something that allows me to see immediate results and doesn’t require too much mental exertion. Often I find that I come back with a fresh perspective on the issue,as well as fresh baked goods. Everyone wins!
In that spirit,I try to assign each of my students at least two projects at a time;generally a main project–refoldering/removing staples from a particular collection or something in that vein;as well as a secondary project–data entry,box lists,making preservation photocopies of newspaper clippings. The main project tends to go much more quickly,and the secondary is handy for the days when they’ve finished a box or a collection and are waiting for new instructions,or just need a break.
Without getting too far ahead of myself,I’m thinking about setting up a new secondary project that involves map encapsulation,and I’ve been concentrating on ways to do this in an organized and efficient way. I’d like to set up an encapsulation station using dual rolls of Melinex somewhat near the heat welder so that the maps don’t need to be carried across the room and can hopefully be handled less.
There are approximately 3-4,000 maps that will need to be evaluated (and possibly treated) before encapsulation,and hopefully cataloged in the process. I’m still looking for information about large-scale encapsulation projects that have gone before–so drop me a line (or a link) if you have any insight.