Week 3: Short, but sweet.

Week 3 was just 3 hours, but it led to three very specific revelations.


1) I had been dabbling with entering some html in the fields due to formatting. I learned that I can use it quite extensively, beyond the basic html tags. In particular, I was able to use the blockquote tag while attempting to format the description for two glass lantern covers. This was very exciting, as we can make the Media Manager gallery pages a little more interesting and more correct when transcribing labels and other text on artifacts. However useful it may be, it does bring up a question. When thinking about the html tags being typed in with the words, I was unsure as to whether or not this would affect the search-ability of the text by inserting other characters directly before and after the actual words. I hope that this does not affect the number of access points through web and search engine crawlers. I made a note to research this a little further.


2) An artifact that I pulled did not come with a very good title or description. In fact, it was unknown what the artifact really was. It was listed as an "unknown recording device" and the only known information was the model and manufacturing company/brand. I decided to do a bit of research in order to have a more complete description. My first instinct was to Google search the model name and manufacturing name (Teleplex+Perfectograph). There weren't any successful results and I tried again by searching Perfectograph Co. I found that the company made radio Morse code devices. I returned to the artifact and realized that the tape had a series of dots and dashes punched into it. I was so excited when I finally found out the devices' purpose! After I had this further information, I did an Image Search and found similar-looking machines on other museum- and archives- related websites. Though many times in SLIS classes, we are discouraged to use Google as a single resource, the time I had led me to Google and I found an answer within minutes. With images of devices that were similar, I decided that my information was correct and filled out the description. I realized that there is a certain level of reference librarianship that goes along with this project. It's not necessarily for patrons, but for myself!


3) Since the beginning of my project, I've been doing a certain level of modification to the digital images. I mostly just removed spots on the white boards behind the artifacts, but have recently been doing more. I began adjusting the contrast and color of some images in order to match the artifact and also removing the horizon lines of the perpendicular paper sheets. As I was working with this, I began to worry that I was taking away too many aspects that made the artifact real. Without the background lines, would the viewer be able to truly view the object with accurate perspective and size? I decided to keep the horizon lines. The color/contrast adjustments I kept, due to the necessity for continuation. One file may contain 4 or 5 artifacts. I do not want the viewers to be seeing the series of images/items and come across one that does not seem to fit with the others. There is a reason that the artifacts were stored and organized in a certain way and I did not want the digitization to take the focus away from the actual object.


In my three hours, I completed three artifacts. This brings the total count up to 12. I hope that on the 16th, I can finish 8 items, resulting in 20 objects total. Once we hit 20, we will open the gallery up to the public.




In: 2:00 p.m.
Out: 5:00 p.m.
On-site hours completed today: 3
On-site hours completed total: 18.25
On-site hours left: 81.75