Briefly Back On The Air - An Archival "Res Gestae"

Hello everyone. For those of you not directly involved with this project, you may be wondering why I haven't updated this blog for a while. The answer is that I've become extremely busy with the actual work and as a result talking about the work has taken a back seat. At the moment I am on vacation, but i thought since I am mostly taking it easy today to recover from jet lag, I would give you all a few updates. A lot of has changed since the day before thanksgiving. Here is the Res Gestae, Latin for "Things having been done"

*I Submitted a progress report detailing the current state of both the physical and digital archives and my recommendations for moving forward.

*I Took on new responsibilities and shifted my priorities.

*First, we have 500 dollars on the Vera budget for storage supplies and Josh generously offered 200 to get things rolling.

*I Completed a rough inventory, measuring poster sizes and counting how many we have.

*Josh and I hashed out an estimate for supplies after finally deciding to go the folder route instead of the binder route.

*The Audio side of the Archives has now become a top priority so, I have been doing research into best practices.

*I will soon be coordinating volunteers to assist me in taking a more detailed inventory of the collection and to help implement the initial reorganization of the physical and digital archives.

*The work as of late has been very Vera heavy and while I am still cataloging zines for ZAPP, a conversation will soon have to take place to make sure Nora gets what she wants for ZAPP out of this internship as well. I know that this will eventually include activities such as coordinating Zine cataloging groups.

*My general duties from this point forward (at least on the Vera side) are the follow:
1.) Determine and layout standards and best practices for organizing and preserving all historical materials at Vera.
2.) Create clear and concise instructions and initiate implementation to set an example for future interns and current staff to implement these standards on their own.

For those of you who are a part of the project, be sure to inform if I am missing anything pertinent here. I do not have notes with me and this is a very basic round-up from memory. I just wanted to give a quick update.

Vera 11/25/09

After my conversation with Josh (see details below), I decided to return briefly to the physical archives to finish up the inventory there on the file cabinets. After a while of taking rough notes on what was in each drawer I realized that a previous inventory already existed. So instead of re-listing each item I looked at the existing inventory and matched it what i saw in each drawer and simply noted any additions. I decided to take some pictures of the drawers' contents to give you an idea of what I am encountering.

First of all... I want I want! Yes, I was excited to see these posters. I am quite a fan of these guys and the best part is we are from the same town - Chicago. Returning to what I actually came here for though, I was simultaneously unexcited to see these posters. As you can see, they are curling and they catch on the drawer above whenever you pull the drawer out. This means just to look at these posters you have to damage them. :'( Make it stop make it stop! ... wait, thats my job! Ok, I'll figure it out somehow. Anyway, there are also several other mixed items stored under these posters including various press materials, photos, videos, and other posters.

Skipping ahead, here is what I found in the 2007 drawer. A massive mixture of items are overfilled into this drawer and as you can see the manilla folders are brushing up against the drawer above. This was one of those moments where I began to feel a bit frustrated with inventory. Its difficult to decide the best way to approach a situation like this. I mostly have a strong urge to just start taking everything out and redoing everything, yet I realize these materials do not belong to me and I am reluctant to make changes until there is a practical option available that everyone has agreed upon. Ultimately, its this overwhelming lack of efficacy in the moment with the realization of my limits in time, funding, and authority. Ok, just take a deep breath, this is one of those moments where one's skill in deferral of gratification is most crucial.


Moving on, I opened the 2008 drawer and this is exactly as I found it. The way things are stacked in here, gravity will eventually (and has already) take(n) its tole. Basically, these materials will end up like someone who slouches at a computer all day (not me mind you, I have impeccable posture!) for 20 years and takes on a considerable hunchback. This is what made the existing inventory so relieving: I didn't have dig through piles of mixed materials. With this, I concluded my activities for the evening.

Summary:

5:00PM - Phone meeting with Josh

*Scope of Project

-Alix is supposed to be in charge of reorganizing the network drive - not me.

-I will be focusing on the Archives portion of the network drive and communicating with Alix regularly about any ideas I may have.

>for instance, we are considering having older materials on the network drive transfered into the archives.

-Josh suggested that I develop a policy for transferring files into the archives folder.

*Progress Report

-Josh will also be available December 9th

-Rough Outline:

I. Inventory

A. Existing organization

1. Physical Archives

2. Digital Archives

B. Condition of items in physical archives

C. Suggested changes

1. Physical and Digital Arrangement

2. Digitization standards

II. Interviews

A. General Trends

B. Individual staff folder trees / general usage areas (depends on space)

C. Staff suggestions

D. Special finds

III. Database

A. Skype Conference with Kevin from N-Power

ZAPP 11/25/09

Summary:

12:00PM - In The Archives

*Cataloging

-Popery #2, An anthology of comics by various authors

-Open Your Mind, a brief flyer by Max Trafk about socio-political issues of drug activity in Colombia

1:00PM - Meeting with Nora

*Progress: Positive and Negative Aspects of the project

-(positive) Research, for instance what i've learned about digitization standards and storage options. See research.

-(negative) aspects of the inventory such as the immensity of the network drive and realizing that I had conflated the Digital Archives with the entire network drive. When really its just a part of the network drive. Wrapping my head around the digital inventory has been rather daunting.

*Research suggestions

-Check multiple sources for standards on digitization

-Look at information organization standards

>Who handles IT at Vera? - contact these people.

-Apply research for Vera to ZAPP whenever possible

>this can include scanning and metadata standards.

-research the best option for bagging Zines

*Begin coordinating a progress report meeting

-Nora is available Wednesday December 9.

2:00PM - Back In The Archives

*Cataloging

- Steven's Comics, a collection of short comics about a boy who discovers he likes to play with dolls.

-the Unloved Potato Bug #1, a collection of comics by Aerick Mackintosh about dreams, tarot, finding coffee, and a goofy high seas adventure.

ZAPP 11/19/09

This evening it was only Alison and I in the Archives: Heather emailed us earlier today to inform us that she was not feeling well and would not be cataloging this evening. Other than that, it was another usual Thursday night at ZAPP.

Summary:

6:00PM - In the Archives

*Cataloging

- Vincent #7 by Rolan Bougie and Rebecca Dart, a comic about Vincent the Panda, a living life-sized stuffed animal who goes to see a movie in which he held a leading role among other stuffed animals.

-Win Tanes Bra by Stefan Neville and Clayton Noone, a comic about homelessness in New Zealand

-Noisy Desperation by various authors, zine related comics and essays and an essay from Henry David Thoreau about the Economy

-White Buffalo Gazette edited by Larned Justin, includes comics, drawings, and an essay about Imperial Japan.

Vera 11/19/09 - Mapping the Network Drive and Interview with Nick

Today I spent a significant amount of time exploring and mapping out the network drive, which contains the digital archives. I started by going back to Shannon, the managing director, and asking her to show me all the areas she uses within it. I thought this might be a good idea to do with all the staff - I could learn what areas are used most, where the work of various staff members overlaps, and what could be done away with. I also did this with Jeffery, the program coordinator, Tristan, the booking coordinator, and finally Nick, the development director. The latter with whom I also had an interview. By now you must be wondering what I've been learning from the staff interviews. This information is strictly proprietary at the moment. I decided it would be best to collate the individual results and post a comprehensive report all in one place. This report should hopefully be done by the end of the November and will also include my final assessment on the structure of the network drive. However, I will say that I have discovered some rather surprising and very helpful information... so stay tuned.

Summary:

1:30PM - Mapping out the network drive

*Revisit with Shannon

-obtained a list of network drive usage

*Revisit with Jeffery

-obtained a list of network drive usage

2:30PM - Interview with Nick

-details forthcoming

3:ooPM - Mapping out the network drive

*Revisit with Tristan

-obtained a list of network usage

Vera Research Progress Part 3

Iconclass: a classification system designed for art and iconography. It is the most widely accepted scientific tool for the description and retrieval of subjects represented in images (works of art, book illustrations, reproductions, photographs, etc.) and is used by museums and art institutions around the world.

comments: From what it appears, this system is incredibly thorough. I am uncertain how far I should delve into this, since I don't think the materials we are working with will require this much classification. Nevertheless, it is possible perhaps to structure a simpler system based on this one. ...More to come, stay tuned.

Introduction to Art Image Access - Issues, Tools, Standards, Stategies: An online publication exploring issues in image classification available at Getty

It Begins with the Cataloguer: Subject Access to Images and the Cataloguer's Perspective

1.) Primary Search tools: creator/author and subject

- many end-users tend to search for art images using the search criteria who created the work and what is the work of or about.

- comment: I think in Vera's case, for instance, band names would be the primary search for posters rather than the artist or subject - the latter being assumed.

However, I think subject matter for event photos would be crucial for all those instances where staff would need images that depict particular activities, people, or locations.

* Question: Does Vera even keep track of the artists who make the posters? If not, should we start doing this? - The same applies to event photos.

- titles or captions—alone or in combination with the subject matter element and other elements such as date, style, or period—are frequently employed by end-users seeking subject access to visual materials. End-user systems and user interfaces need to take this into account.

2.) Structure in Cataloguing

- Classification must move from a general visual analysis of the work as a whole to a detailed evaluation of its constituent parts.

- Slow down the cataloguer's mental processes in viewing the work of art, to ensure that it is being viewed in its entirety and not selectively

- Analyze the work of art in terms of overall subject matter and select a set of primary descriptive terms or keywords

- Catalogue the main visual elements, using a systematic approach to "reading" the work of art—left to right, right to left, top to bottom

- Determine and catalogue the meanings or symbolism in the subject matter as time, money, and expertise permit

..... to be continued .....

The International Poster Collection at the Colorado State University

comments: Someone plugged this on the Archives Listserv about 8 years ago and it looks like a great resource. It looks like they have most of their posters online and if you click on a thumbnail, a larger version comes up listing all the metadata below. Love it.

Here's a link to the search tool pictured at the left.

I used it and searched by keyword "music" and look at that, result number 13 is a poster for Seattle's very own Blood Brothers.

I contacted these folks to ask about their procedures for storage an digitization here is our email exchange:

Me:

I am working as an archives intern for a non-profit all-ages music venue here in Seattle called The Vera Project. Our collection here needs a lot of work, both physically and digitally, so I've been doing a lot of research into standards and best practices and how existing archives function. Of course as a music venue, our collection consists primarily of show posters and digital photos. So naturally, the International Poster Collection housed at your archives piqued my interest. I would love to know how you both physically store your posters and digitize them for your website. Thanks, I very much look forward to hearing from you.

----

Patty Rettig, Head Archivist at CSU:

Sounds like you have a challenge ahead of you!

Here, we store our posters flat in map cases. We keep 10 posters per mylar folder, arranged face-to-face, then back-to-back. We put tissue between the face-to-face sides, to help prevent acid migration and discoloration etc. We then keep about 10 folders per drawer.

When possible, we keep the smallest posters separate from the larger posters, so we can be more efficient with the storage space. For the smaller ones, we use half-size folders and can thus get two piles next to each other in the drawer.

When we have posters larger than the drawers, we roll them and wrap the roll in tissue for storage on top of the map cases.

For the digitization of the posters, we have a photographer do digital photography and create tiff images. We create lower resolution derivatives for web access. Though it hasn't been updated recently, this page http://lib.colostate.edu/posters/digitization.html tells more about the photography process.

Good luck with your work! Let me know if we can be of any further assistance.

Vera 11/18/09

Summary:

5:00PM - Meeting with Dustin and Josh

*Research Update

- Colorado International Poster Collection

>Employes a folder and lateral map cabinet method with archival tissue dividers between each poster

>Josh suggested I take a screen shot of the online database in action and take note of the metadata fields and think about which would be most useful for Vera's purposes

*Poster Workflow

-Create a form to be filled out at the creation of a new poster containing metadata fields

-once the poster reaches the Admin Archives Intern it will have all the necessary data attached to it and ready to be entered into the electronic database.

-the form should also include copyright restrictions: there needs to be a clear definition of who has what rights for each poster. *Dustin will look into this.

*Photo Workflow

-create a donation form similar to the form for posters

-Entry into database start with a high level batch catalog of each photo in a series of photos for all the info that is common to each photograph

-after batch catalog go back and add details and tags that are specific to each individual photo

-consider including tags for print quality photos: establish a standard for print quality

*Scope of Research

-Some sources can be very pedantic and heavy with archival jargon

-Focus on Dublin Core metadata and "Content" metadata

-Examine CSU online poster system and other online examples created with Content DM

*Database Debriefing and Planning

-focus on choice of metadata fields and tags

-"Get our house in order" map out and clean up the network drive

ZAPP 11/18/09

I encountered a number of oddities today. The front door to the Hugo House was locked when I arrived and although it was only seconds before the young lady running the front desk came to open it, I found that ZAPP hadn't even been opened either. Once gaining entry and getting myself generally situated, I began looking for the Mark Campos zine collection as it was my duty to finish cataloging these - They weren't in their usual place. Right behind where i was sitting though, was a box coincidentally about the same size as the one I was looking for - if my memory serves me. It had been tagged "Kamili's Do not touch!" with a religious statuette (which looks almost like a smoking pipe) standing on top of it. I chose to ignore this attempt to ward off potential evil doers and opened the box. Sure enough, it was the Mark Campos Colleciton. So I wondered who is Kamili and why has she taken offense to my work?

So finally, after a plethora of technical issues trying to get access to the catalog on the laptop, Nora arrived and explained to me the situation. Apparently, Kamili is another intern who had been assigned to work on the Mark Campos Collection, but was away at school and had not been made privy to its disposition in her absence. It was not until 12:45 that I could actual start cataloging. Phew, what a mess.

I started with the tenth issue of a comic zine called Lovely Ugly Cruel World by Amanda Rehagen. I thought the description on her website says it pretty well its basically "a rambling rumination on death, change, and growing up, told with biting humor and sensitivity." In this issue the main character, Amelia, eventually goes to hang out in a cemetery later met by friend and vague romantic interest Francis, an aspiring writer. It is here that she decides she wants to write a zine. I thought it was a pretty cute moment. I posted an image of it below.

Summary:

12:00PM - In the Archives

*Cataloging

-Lovely Ugly Cruel World #10 by Amanda Rehagen, see description above.

-Double Woodwork by John Bagnall, a slice of life comic from the UK that focuses a lot on education.

-Media Whore by various authors published by Randie Farmelant, a feminist literature review exploring gender, sexuality, and fashion

-Retreads #9 by Steve Willis, a collection of comics about Seattle history, other random subjects, Morty the Dog, and "Willisland" - a fictional idealogy outlawing urban culture and populous cities.

-Draw or Die by Jon Chandler, two goofy comics one about a machine that perfects the creative outputs of its user, and the other about two demons making idle chatter and telling jokes

ZAPP 11/12/09

Even though technically ZAPP was open for the art walk this evening, not much of note really took place other than the usual cataloging. I think maybe only one person wandered in for it. While Nora and Owen met in the other room, Heather and I quietly cataloged, below is what I accomplished.

Summary:

6:00pm - In the Archives

* Cataloging

- Wander Chapter 1, the first part in a series of comics telling the story of a guy, prompted by strange dreams, who is about to leave his life behind to take a road-trip.

- I Am What I Am, a collection of journal entries from 2001 to 2002 chronicling the daily experiences of the writher and his thoughts on various elements of contemporary pop-culture.

-Happy Cow, a short and silly comic about the characters Norman Cow and Bill Beaver and their various interactions and adventures. This issues guess starred Hello Kitty and The Beatles.

- Playing House #1, a stick figure comic told from the perspective of a group of children. This issue in particular explores the issue of death with the passing of a great grandmother.

- Playing House #4, again, a stick figure comic where the kids start a secret society for playing cards.

Vera 11/12/09 - Research Part 2

I departed for Vera today with the intention of making some real progress on mapping out the digital archives, unfortunately this was not the case. Arriving just 20 minutes before 2pm, Shannon was at the door and she notified me that the power would be going out in 20 minutes due to some electrical issues at Seattle Center. This set me back quite a bit, but I tried to make the best of this time by heading straight over to ZAPP and making some headway into research on standards and best practices for digital imaging. What I have laid out below are my findings thus far:

Introduction to Imaging: An online publication that introduces the technology of digital imaging and creating an image library. Available at Getty

Metadata types

1.) Descriptive: content

- essential for end users

2.) Administrative: context and form

- How and why a file was created and used

3.) Structural: relationship between parts and files

- e.g. if one image depicts a section of a larger image

4.) Rights Management:

- access and usage restrictions

5.) Technical: aspects distinct from essence of file

- production, format, processing info

6.) Preservation: ensuring longevity

- e.g. compression info

Color Management and Compression

1.) Monitors

- employ an additive light mixture

- 24bits per pixel is standard but many monitors display less than this

- some institutions are using 48-bit for archival purposes

- color profiles vary immensely

2.) Printers

- employs a subtractive light mixture

3.) Choosing a color profile

- the combination of the above factors makes choosing the right color profile absolutely essential since they vary so much.

- a combination of sRGB and ICC is the said to be the most thorough.

4.) Compression

- best to have an uncompressed archival master file from which compressed images can be created and distributed.

- if possible, use a lossless compression format and include the relevant metadata

-e.g. LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch)

5.) File Format

- General Standard: Tiff - Archival, Jpeg - Distribution, Gif - Thumbnails

- Tiff: Tagged Image File Format

- Allows for arbitrary additions like custom metadata

- various versions; must consider carefully for interoperability

- PNG: Portable Network Graphics <>

- compatible with 24bit and 48bit

- lossless compression

- JPEG2000 <>

- lossless compression and for the end user to specify resolution to accommodate various bandwidths, monitors, and browsers.

- Allows for custom metadata

Scanning Issues

1.) Setup - Key factors

- controlled lighting (no natural light)

- continuous gray-tone walls, ceiling, and floor

- dust and vibration free environment

2.) Choosing a Scanner and its accompanying software

- compatible with chosen formats

- batch processing for compression, watermarks, and thumbnails

- manual override option for scanning functions: glitches are always possible

- compatible with ICC color profiles allows for proper calibation between monitor and scanner and maintains color fidelity and consistency.

- types: flatbed, drum, or digital camera attached to a copy stand

A list of metadata terms standardized by the Dublin Core Metadata Initiate (DCMI)

I provided a link to the list above, rather than unnecessarily relisting the terms, for the sake of saving time. Generally speaking, I like this list - its easy to read and navigate and provides brief descriptions of each term. The following is what the authors of Introduction to Imaging have to say about it:

"Dublin Core, developed as a core set of semantic elements for categorizing Web-based resources for easier search and retrieval, has become popular in the museumand education communities. The schema is deliberately simple, consisting of fifteen optional, repeatable data elements, designed to coexist with, and map to, other semantically and functionally richer metadata standards. Dublin Core's simplicity makes it an excellent medium of exchange, and thus a basis for interoperability."

Vera 11/11/09 - Skype Conferece with Kevin from N-Power

Summary:

5:00pm - Meeting with Dustin and Josh

*Darren White - "Technical Generalist"

- background in Unix and Linux

- Works for a local company that provides management services for digital video, images and accompanying metadata.

- Works with PBS and other broadcasters and media companies on their online video offerings. Does encoding and transcoding video and Flash and Java development.

*Questions For Kevin

- Summarize software, how can it tie in to our work?

- How user friendly is it?

- How easy is it to customize?

- Does it make sense to log data already on excel files into the database?

- What is the timeline for completing the database?

* Josh's wish-list

- Database entry shows a thumbnail of a poster with all the metadata and a link to the raw image on the network drive.

- Adaptable to online publishing

* Interview Update

-General Trends:

>Almost every document and file is digital with the exception of financial records

>Everything is kept with the exception of draft documents

>Everyone has their own system of organization which makes crossover difficult

>desire for standard vocabulary and a tagging system and standard organizational structure that everyone can agree on

- All posters are going to be Screen-Printed first then scanned digitally

>need to establish scanning standards - research and compare to Vera

- Come up with list of suggestions for common vocabulary submit to staff and compile the final choices -Alix is a good source for this

- Card Sort: we establish folder names and give cards to people with document names and ask them how they would sort them.

* Research

- Zotero: is there a way to have entries not tied to an internet and have a thumbnail with a link to the raw image on the network drive?

- Adobe Bridge: very expensive but possible to find on tech soup

6:00 PM - Conference with Kevin

*Introduction

- Kevin is a Database consultant and has worked with many different organizations including the department of education.

*N-Power

- uses the "sales force" platform which is based on CRM - a method for Custom Relations Management

- used primarily to track volunteers, donors, payment processing, fundraising, and program management.

- is customizable and flexible

- database can be tied to the network drive with records that point to the original files

- can include a system of tags

*What Kevin needs from us

- location of server

- a list of tags and metadata fields

* Kevin's timeline

- Implementation not until late December - early January

- flexible

- can provide us with a basic demo of the database

ZAPP 11/11/09

Nora and I met today to discuss my progress both at ZAPP and Vera. Admittedly, my notes from this conversation are not as good as I would have liked them to be. I did however manage to capture the following. She asked about how research for Vera could overlap with ZAPP. My trial run with Zotero is a great example of this overlap. You can read all about it in my blog entry: Vera Research Progress Part 1. Then when I told her about my research into the binder option, she told me that I ought to consider poster sizes and what I hadn't thought about, the weight of a single binder at full capacity. She even suggested that I find other places that organize posters and ask these places how they do it.

After 1pm, I got started with cataloging and completed three zines. My first was a collection of mini comics called Riffs, created by Bruce Chrislip in 1981 featuring the character "Dick Dogface" among many others. Given the comic's age, I decided that it should be included in the rare zines cabinet. Apparently, this was the first mini to occupy the rare cabinet so I had to create a box for it and struggled to rearrange the space to make room for it.

I then cataloged a zine called "Reich," which is a comic biography of Wilhelm Reich, capturing his days in medical school and studies of sexology after World War I. I thought the drawing style for this one was pretty interesting. It sort of reminded me a bit of cubism. I also liked some of the dramatic shadows.

Finally, I quickly wrapped up my cataloging duties with a zine called the Educomics Catalog, which was a collection of comics by the publisher of the catalog in addition to some of his favorite comics. I had never encountered a catalog zine before and so I was uncertain how to categorize it. I thought "anthology" would be the closest match and in fact Heather later confirmed my choice.

Summary:

12:00 PM - Meeting with Nora

*Research Progress

- possible Vera - ZAPP overlap? - Zotero, etc.

- Consider the weight of an oversized binder filled with posters

- find out what other organizations store posters and how they preserve them.

1:25 PM - In the Archives

* Cataloging

- Riffs, a vintage mini comic collection from 1981 created by Bruce Chrislip

- Reich, a comic biography of Wilhelm Reich created by Elijah Brubaker

- Educomics Catalog, a catalog of the publisher's comics and some of his favorites

Vera Research Progress Part 1

Here is my progress on research for archival solutions

Storage Options

Oversized Binders from light impressions

price: $61 each or $55 each for bulk purchases

size: 25" x 20" and 1.5" thick

comments: these look really nice, but something tells me that while most of our posters would perhaps fit into these binders, we might have some even larger than this.

Oversized Folders from light impressions

size price bulk

26" x 34"	24.80	24.80
18" x 24"	16.50	14.75
24" x 36"	22.70	20.45

comments: not really sure if this option would save us much more money over the binder option it depends on how many posters to each folder and how many folders per year.

Lateral File Cabinets from Gaylord

Various Drawer Sizes:

37" - 50" Width

26" - 38" Depth

5/8" - 2" Height

Price Range: $625 - $1115

comments: Very nice but also very expensive. I thought that it would be nice if a hybrid between this and the binders existed - i.e. if the drawers themselves were binders and could be pulled out as such. Josh noted in our meeting on 11/4/09 that we could possibly build our own out of plywood. This option could be considerably cheaper.

Software

Adobe Bridge

Price: It must be purchased as a part of a package deal with other Adobe Software

$999 for the Web Standard package

A comparison chart for all packages

Some Youtube tutorial videos:

1.) The complete list of videos

2.) Working with Metadata and Keywords

comments: This software seems fairly customizable and thorough, but it is very costly. Unfortunately, there is no free trial available for Adobe Bridge. However, I know that the University of Washington Library Computers have a plethora of Adobe products including Bridge. Also, as an alum, I still have access to these computers. I could easily go over there and give it a personal test run. I would also encourage anyone interested in this to join me... if it seems at all feasible given our timeline.

Zotero

Description from the site:

Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. It lives right where you do your work—in the web browser itself.

The image to the left is the result of my test run.

comments: First of all as you can see from the above description, this software seems to be more of an academic tool rather than an archival one. Nevertheless I played around with it for a couple of hours to see what it is capable of. I decided I would try to see how photo organization could potentially work and used photographs from my excavation in Israel - some of which are available on flickr.

So here's what I learned. The great thing is that users can access their data from any computer with a browser containing the zotero plug-in. As you can see in the image i provided, in the lower left hand side I created a new Collection in "My Library" called "photos" within this collection I created a sub-collection called "Israel & Jordan 2008" and so on. This has an appearance very similar to the way windows explorer works with its folder system.

In each sub-collection, you can add new items and zotero offers various categories. However, I do not think these categories are thorough enough - the closest thing I could find to photographs was "artwork." Once you choose a category you can enter all sorts of metadata provided in the fields at the lower right hand side of the image. I was disappointed to find that I cannot create my own metadata fields - or my own categories for that matter. So I worked with what was available. I entered all the relevant data and tags, which makes searching for related items incredibly easy - you can see the list of tags I created at the lower left hand of the image which include names, locations, objects, activities, and various times depicted in images. When searching you can either go by keyword or search by clicking on one or more of the tags.

There is one matter that I found troubling. Zotero works only as an organizational and search tool for materials contained on the internet (as far as i am able to tell)... hence the use of flickr.

However, one element which partially redeems and that is the metadata field for "Location in Archive." Even though this does not allow you to dig directly through personal hard drive for the actual images, you can still organize them online with zotero and then enter into the metadata where they can be found on your personal hard drive. The thought of having to put the photographs both on a local drive and a site like flickr though seems like a lot of extra labor.

ZAPP 11/5/09 - My first favorite zine

This evening, I was the only one on time. I arrived to find ZAPP in complete darkness. Heather showed up at about 6:15 and Alison, a cataloging volunteer, did not arrive until 7pm - only to say that she would instead be attending the Cheap Wine and Poetry event taking place below.

After updating the wiki to reflect the concerns over format and split-zines - Heather decided they ought to have two catalog entries - I resumed my cataloging duties.

This brought me to a zine called Astronaut Elementary - issue 4 to be specific - pictured at the left. On the cover is Mr. Panda, the school's Spanish teacher. This so far I would have to say is my favorite zine. How could it not be with a title like that? What kid wouldn't want to have attended Astronaut Elementary? I'd go in a heartbeat. Too awesome.

The main characters in this issue were Scab Wellington and Miyumi San (such great character names!) and the story is basically a short adventure about time travel where Miyumi travels through time and has a scuffle with Scab and is saved by Mr. Panda who turns out to be an agent from the IBW (Inter-galactic bureau of well-being).

I also couldn't help but also include a shot of the work itself. I find the artwork to be incredibly charming and adorable. I was laughing and smiling throughout.

I was also most pleased to discover that this series can be found online!

After Cataloging Heather introduced me to her new pet project: a test run with a program called Zotero - a free cataloging program. I hope to take a look at this in the coming days to see if it could be a potential option for Vera.

Summary:

6:00pm - In the Archives

*Cataloging the Mark Campos Collection

- Astronaut Elementary Issue 4 catalog #2687

> This is a humorous Sci-Fi comic that explores the issues of time travel

> My Favorite

- Patterns catalog #2688

> A collection of poems illustrated by various artists.

- Folk Issue 2 catalog #2689

> Two psychedelic Sci-Fi comics: one about hunting, the other about refueling a spaceship

- Up All Nite catalog #2690

> A collection of "slice of life" comics

7:30pm - Conversation with Heather

*Zotero

- A neat free and downloadable program that imbeds itself into your web browser and can be used for cataloging various things.

- Metadata can be easily exported to other database software

- Heather is considering doing a trial run of it to see if it would be good for ZAPP

Vera 11/5/09 Introduction to the Electronic Archives

I was pretty eager to get my space boots blown by the solar wind of the Archives - (my attempt) to stick with the outer space metaphors - so I entered Vera at about 1:00PM. The door was locked and it was darker inside than usual, but thankfully both Shannon and Vanessa were near the door and opened it for me.

Before my scheduled interview with Terri, I managed to complete the high-level inventory of the posters organized in the cardboard Utrecht folders. Additionally, I stacked them with the oldest date on the top down to the most recent on the shelf below (2009 and 2008), which sit above all the non-chronologically titled folders. This will allow Terri easy access in case she needs to add more posters to the 2009 folder.

I gave myself a bit of time before interviewing Terri to look over and print out my questions. I decided my interview with her would be a sort of testing ground for my upcoming interviews with staff.

So as we know, Terri is the Admin Archives Intern. Her general duties involve answering the phone, maintaining the front desk, assisting with various inventories (e.g. shirts), updating the wall calendar, and checking for press articles.

This last task is where the "Archives" aspect of position comes in. Basically, she goes through The Stranger and Seattle Weekly each week to find write-ups on bands and or Vera itself. She cuts the out, scans them and places them into the clear bin pictured at the left in the center of the image with the pink label. She also scans Vera Propaganda materials and places them into this bin. It is organized by year with contents ranging from 2001 to the present.

Finally, above this bin, is the shallow blue box called "Archive," in which various staff will place materials - such as propaganda - to be archived by Terri.

After this she showed me the digital archives itself - as it is organized via Windows Explorer. This may be hard to view in the blog itself so if you click the image you can view a larger version. Basically, as you can see there is not an entirely standardized system for organizing photos: it has changed over the years. This is an issue that I will try to tackle in the coming months.

After Terri showed me the various series and their sub categories, she gave me a few suggestions regarding future archival procedures. She thought it would be a good idea to have a photographer sign-in sheet for shows to more easily obtain photographs from shows and wants there to be a better definition of "Propaganda."

I then had a few thoughts on the overall structure of the interview. I found that it was easy for answers to one question to overlap into answers for other questions before I would have a chance to ask them. Furthermore, I found taking notes while Terri was answering questions to be a bit distracting and disruptive to the flow of the interview. I am now considering using my digital voice recorder for the interviews from which i will extract and organize the information recorded in each interview.

After this, I dived into the digital archives on my own for about an hour. I spent most of my time looking at the way in which the Press files have been organized over the years. Pictured to the left, are my rough notes on this so far. I intend have a formal map of this structure posted on the wiki once I have finished going through it.

Summary:

1:00pm - In the Archives

*Inventory

- Completed the general "high-level" inventory of the posters in the cardboard Utrecht folders

- The folders are arranged starting with 1999 at the top down through 2006 and on the shelf

below I placed the folders for 2008 and 2009 and the remaining miscellaneous and non-vera

folders.

3:30pm - Interview with Terri

*Walk-through

- Terri checks the Stranger and Seattle Weekly each week for any write-ups on bands playing

at Vera or about Vera itself.

- She scans all press articles and organizes them into the digital archives and places the hard

copies into a bin behind the front desk and does the same for all propaganda materials.

- For event posters she scans them and places them into the appropriate folder in physical

archives.

*Concerns

- the organization of the digital archives is not standard over the years - it has changed quite

significantly.

- there is also no standard scanning format, jpeg, pdf, and tiff are all present - the latter being

the most recent.

- need for standard vocabulary and metadata attachment - for searchability

*Thoughts: Post-Interview

- easy to get off track

- taking notes can disrupt the flow

- use a voice recorder for future interviews?

4:00pm In the Archives

*Digital Inventory

- I began to take screen shots of the file structure and notes on how the organizational

structure for press changes over the years.

- A more formal representation of the digital archives organizational structure is forthcoming.

Vera 11/4/09 - Vera Inventory a.k.a. "The Total Perspective Vortex"

I arrived exceptionally early today thanks to the new schedule, so I decided to take this opportunity to continue reading Douglas Adams' The Restaurant at the End of The Universe. Coincidentally, where I am in the book is quite relevant to what one of my tasks would be for the coming weeks, so I thought I would share an excerpt.

The Total Perspective Vortex derives its picture of the whole Universe on the principle of extrapolated matter analyses. To explain - since every piece of matter in the Universe is in some way affected by every other piece of matter in the Universe, it is in theory possible to extrapolate the whole of creation - every sun, every planet, their orbits, their composition and their economic and social history from, say, one small piece of fairy cake.

The man who invented the Total Perspective Vortex did so basically in order to annoy his wife. Trin Tragula - for that was his name - was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher or, as his wife would have it, an idiot.

And she would nag him incessantly about the utterly inordinate amount of time he spent staring out into space, or mulling over the mechanics of safety pins, or doing spectrographic analyses of pieces of fairy cake. "Have some sense of proportion!" she would say, sometimes as often as thirty-eight times in a single day. And so he built the Total Perspective Vortex - just to show her. And into one end he plugged the whole of reality as extrapolated from a piece of fairy cake, and into the other end he plugged his wife: so that when he turned it on she saw in one instant the whole infinity of creation and herself in relation to it.

To Trin Tragula's horror, the shock completely annihilated her brain; but to his satisfaction he realized that he had proved conclusively that if life is going to exist in a Universe of this size, then the one thing it cannot afford to have is a sense of proportion.

And so with this in mind, I met with both Dustin and Josh for our usual weekly meeting to discuss issues. (For more specific details, see the summary below). We discussed the scheduling and structure of the staff interview process, wiki and how Josh said to "Make the Wiki Your Brain," and the primary task of the day: taking inventory. Josh instructed that I start by getting a grasp of the "high-level" structure: basically starting at the series level - such as individual folders and sub-folders before listing their contents. It then became clear to me that he too sought the creation of a "Total Perspective Vortex" for Vera. Now let us just hope that this is not intended solely to annoy his wife and certainly hope that it will not melt hers or anyone else's brain.

When you think about it though, we can call the entirety of the Vera Archives, "The Universe" then say the digital and physical archives can be galaxy clusters with each folder or drawer representing an individual galaxy and posters, representing an event, can be individual planets, and the photographs from those events capture the locations of individual people at those events (or on those planets). Ergo, anyone approaching the Vera Archives, will have a total perspective of their place within it.

So, within the universe of the Vera Archives, I decided to dive into the galaxy cluster that is the physical archives - where I have been spending most of my time thus far. I thought this would be more fitting for the day, since Terri, the Admin Archives intern, will be personally giving me the tour of the Digital Galaxy cluster tomorrow.

When I entered the Physical Archives I found that a great deal had changed as you can see in the pictures below:

I was most certainly glad to see that Vera's pet anaconda had decided to take up residence elsewhere. Finally, some space to maneuver. So I started looking through the cardboard folders pictured on the left and quickly discovered that they were not all organized chronologically as I had previous thought. Several of them - 12 to be exact - were organized categorically. I decided I would start with these. Among these that I found most amusing were ones such as "Melissa's Calendar & Personal Thangs," "Mystery, to be filed," and one with no name whatsoever. For a complete listing please visit the inventory on the wiki. In addition to writing down the title of each folder, I briefly flipped through the contents of each to get a general sense of their condition and date range this data is also available on the wiki.

5:00 PM - Meeting with Dustin and Josh

*Interviews

- Start scheduling right away

- Dustin gave me staff contact info

- Dustin will give the staff my schedule at staff meeting on Thursday

- Send follow-up email with basic description and questions to prepare staff for interviews

- Interview at work station: how they're doing their work now.

*Wiki

-"Recording function" "Make the Wiki your brain"

- figure out folder and page structure

- for ideas, reports, analysis, and tracking progress

- possibly put blog summaries onto wiki instead? - Ask Nora.

*Inventory

- Get started right away

- possibly a searchable spreadsheet

- start with "high level stuff" - the series level, then go back and inventory individual items

- Get the "Total Perspective Vortex" / screenshot of digital archives structure from high level

through all its sub categories - (the main project)

- get a handle on existing system via windows explorer, standardize it and attach metadata

- discussed hypothetical structure and procedure for this

*Tasks for November

- Interviews

- Inventory

- Report on findings

*N-Power Database

- Get in touch

- determine structure, who has access, can we integrate the archives?

*Physical Archives

- Issue of duplicates and overfilled folders

- How many duplicates do you keep?

- monetary value?

- Future options

- oversized folders or binders

- map out ideal and low-cost models

- possibly build a cabinet system?

- binders have multi-use: good for preservation and presentation

- include findings on wiki

6:00PM - In the Archives

* Inventory

- began the high level inventory of all the Utrecht folders not organized chronologically

- includes folder name, brief description of contents, and significant condition issues

- Will be posted on the wiki and updated regularly.

ZAPP 11/4/09

I arrived today at noon, starting on the new schedule. Today was a bit of a rough start. I forgot my camera and turned in my time-sheet late. Kate Lebo, the volunteer coordinator, scowled and shook her first at me sarcastically - I promised to do better the next time. So I began cataloging zines from my assigned section: the Personal Zines M-Z. The first was titled Madonna Llama 19 published out of Port Townsend, WA in 1992. It contained a collection of articles and excerpts from various writers covering topics in environmentalism, veganism, bartering, and anarchism. It took me an exceptionally long time to complete this - I finished around 1:40 pm. However, I had a handful of disruptions along the way. I had to move around quite a bit to make way before a group came in to tour ZAPP. Hereafter though, I made decent time. I moved on to a zine called Make Up that Clogs Pores, Issue 4. This was a very tough read it frequently changed from small typing to writing, very little punctuation, and no margins. I scanned through it and it was basically a continuous conversation about music and and anarchism. I spent about 20 minutes on this one. I then moved on to one called Mama Said Knock You Out this one was written by two teenage boys basically offering their opposing opinions on various cultural issues and trends from music and movies to dating and sports. I started a fourth Zine called Maple, issue 2 written out of Pittsburgh, PA with articles about the local music scene, veganism, abortion, and religion. I did not enter this into the catalog however because it turned out to be a split zine - basically, two zines in one. I asked Nora about this and she suggested that I consult Heather about it and to add it to the questions and concerns page on the wiki.

After cataloging, Nora briefly told me about the Review Zine that ZAPP would be putting together for Elliot Bay Books in the coming weeks. The idea is to have volunteers write reviews of zines to help attract other volunteers, which I think is a great idea. Nora asked me to consider whether I ought to have these volunteers extract certain cataloging data in the process in order to reduce my cataloging time.

Summary:

12:00 PM - In the Archives

*Cataloging

-I cataloged three zines from the personal section

- Madonna Llama 19,

- Make Up that Clogs Pores

- Mama Said Knock You Out

2:45 PM - Conversation With Nora

*Split Zine issue

- note in wiki and ask Heather

*Review Zine

- use to reduce cataloging time in addition to attracting volunteers.

ZAPP 10/29/09 - First Cataloging Session with Heather

This evening I had the opportunity to catalog my first Zine in 2 years. Before this though, Heather went over the whole process with me to refresh my memory. The process has certainly come a long way since. Heather brought up the wiki page devoted to this task. The wiki was incredibly thorough and Heather showed me that it basically covered most every question that could possibly come up and included outside resources such as World Cat and Zine Wiki to check for existing Zine entries.

Nevertheless, one concern that we did encounter this evening and is not in the Cataloging Wiki, regarded the format of zines. Along with multiple zine sizes, the electronic database entry form gives two options for printing style: Offset and photocopy. Heather began looking through the Mark Campos collection to show me examples of each. Rather quickly we discovered that in some situations it was difficult to tell after both Heather and Nora examined some zines up close and at different angles to allow the light to reflect off of them. Some new categories for the format metadata came up: Screen printing and Lazer Jet Printing. For the time being, Heather and Nora agreed that we ought to place Screen printing under the offset option and Lazer Jet printing under the photocopy option and note the additional detail in the description block. Otherwise, when in doubt on the format Heather suggested I search for the publisher online if possible.

After all of this, I finally got to start cataloging a Zine titled Throwrug #18

This Zine came out of Bellingham, WA during the mid to late 1990s - this particular issue was from 1997. It was essentially a rather humorous collection of film and music reviews and comics about pop culture. It also included a seance with Kurt Cobain, which I unfortunately did not have the time to read. However, I particularly found the author's piece on being invited to his 10 year high school reunion most amusing. Altogether it took me about 45 minutes to complete this: more than twice the stated average. Phew, I am out of practice! Now I have a goal to reach: 20 minutes or better. I can do this.

Summary:

6:00 PM - In the Archives
*Cataloging walk-through with heather
- looked over the cataloging wiki
- encountered issue of format: may need to include lazer jet and screen print categories
- will put lazer jet under photocopy and screen print under offset and note it in the description
- Check publisher if listed to obtain more specific format information
7:00 PM - Begin Cataloging
*Mark Campos Collection
- cataloged Throwrug #18

Vera 10/29/09 - A Sensation of Progress

When I came in today, Dustin and I went back into the Archives for an impromptu discussion about what I had accomplished the day before and a few assessments I had made. Most importantly, I suggested that we adjust the shelves in the heel section to the height of financial records boxes allowing for the insertion of more shelves and thus a more efficient use of the space.

After Dustin left me to work, I decided to dive into the hideous mess that was the boxes of random phone and power cords. I reached in only to find many other items such has 6 or 7 different sized Net Gear and Linksys routers along with old computer mice. I set these items aside while I consolidated all the multi-line phones in the box on the left and then began the tedious process of neatly binding the phone wires. This allowed for the wires all to fit snugly into one box. I then returned to the mice and routers and decided to put all the mice into a small white bin and the routers, along with 5 extra keyboards, into the file cabinet to temporarily clear the space.

This consolidation left me with a whole new shelf to work with. So I began placing all the remaining poster folders onto this open shelf in the center. This opened up the space to the right of the shin shelf which turned out be a perfect size for one of the canopy frames. All while the random wiring remained in the small white box in the bottom of the image.

At this point I decided I was ready to seek some executive decisions on what items could be removed and or disposed of. So Shannon and I entered the archives together for a joint assessment. Altogether we disposed of all the keyboards, all the routers save one, the out of date Regence Health Insurance documents, and decided we would dispose of the old computer monitor next week. Additionally, Shannon took the a box full of both the previous and current Vera Strategic Plan manuals, decided we should move the shop vac elsewhere and suggested I tag the remaining electronic equipment and manuals for Jeffery to examine.

It was after the last 20 minutes or so with Shannon that I really felt as though we had made some real progress. The images below show the Archives as I left it today.

Summary:

2:00 PM - In The Archives
*Brief reprisal of the previous day's progress with Dustin
*Arranged a time with Terri to walk me through the electronic archiving process
*Significant Changes
- consolidated the mass of phone and power cords into one box

>Jefferey will examine these
- consolidated multi-line phones into one box
- consolidated all mice into small white bin

>Dustin will test them to see which ones work
- consolidated all computer programs and manuals into one box
- removed the shop vac
- tagged the anaconda device, mixing board, and boxes full of audio equipment manuals for
Jefferey to examine
- removed old keyboards and routers
- Shannon took the box of excess strategic plan books
- removed old Regence health insurance documents
- moved all event posters onto the Shin Shelf
- moved one of the canopy frames next to the Shin Shelf