Digitizing and good conversations.

I didn’t make it to the museum week before last, as the entire house was down with a summer cold.  It wasn’t too bad in the whole scheme of things, just enough to make everyone cranky and I didn’t want to spread the germs.

This past Friday I was working on my digitizing/cataloging project, and getting some great insight from some of the interns at the museum.   One of the women there had just finished the internship/student job program that I want to get, which she kept until she finished her degree this spring.  Another intern will be starting a similar program in the fall.  The programs are offered by the National Archives and are reputed to be pretty invaluable training.  The woman I spoke with was pretty emphatic about how comprehensive the hands-on training she got was.  Paid work, valuable training, reputable organization – sounds like a winner to me.  Of course, everyone else knows that too so they are pretty competitive programs, and I’ve heard it can take a good six months to get in even after you’re accepted. I think that the skills I’ve been developing over the last 7 months or so will make me more competitive, even in terms of an internship or student job.

Next week Jen and I will be sitting down with the finding aid to go over the details, finish fleshing it out, and talking about what could have been better.  From there I’m hoping to start another manuscript collection from scratch.  I really like processing them from beginning to end.