Day Two at ZAPP 10-28-09

I arrived about 15 minutes early today so I could take some pictures into include into the blog in my previous entry. At 1pm I met with Nora, discussed scheduling issues, and concluded that the one hour break between my shifts at ZAPP and Vera was a bit of a stretch - I showed up at Vera about 5 to 10 minutes late the week. We decided that my new schedule at ZAPP would now be from 12pm to 3pm giving me an ample 2 hour transit time. Fleeting visions of the occasional siesta seized my mind. In addition to this change, we discussed what hours and on what days I would be working at Vera. In my prior email communications with Dustin, we have so far agreed on Wednesdays from 5pm to 8pm and Thursdays from 2pm to 5pm. This however, only fulfills 6 out of the 10 hour requirement for Vera. Nora and I figured the remaining 4 hours could be fulfilled through off-site research and blog preparation - which I have already been doing.

This subject naturally carried us into discussion about the blog itself. We considered various issues such as format and structure, audience, and taking note of how long the process takes. Personally, I favor the narrative format in which you are now reading this. However, Nora made the point that certain people may need to acquire information rather quickly, so I suggested that lest I have to relinquish this format, I would include a brief summary at the end of each entry. Phew, who'd have thought I could ramble almost endlessly and still appear efficient and organized! This discussion of the blog reminded me of the Wiki. Wikis are completely foreign to me, I have never used one before this project and have been uncertain of the extent to which I should use it. We established that it functions more as a central resource for specific and formal data as opposed to being a direct communication device.

Nora and I concluded our discussion at about 2:00pm when she left me with a few tasks to complete for the time remaining. First, I acquired a timesheet from Kate Lebo, the volunteer coordinator for the Hugo House, and then began reading the volunteer manual which outlined the whole process for day to day operations and maintenance at the Zine Library. In midst of this process, I suggested to Nora the possibility of putting it into PDF format and having it sent to new volunteers and interns via email for easy reference. This left me with very little time for zine reading and shelf maintenance before Emily, a departing intern, came in around 3:30pm and acquainted me with the Mark Campos Zine collection.

This is Emily pictured here reading the zine that Brian the nice fellow who works the ZAPP front desk, had just made moments before. Emily was most enthusiastic and made for very pleasant company and so I felt like i would be in good hands at ZAPP and would have an exciting project ahead of me. Or perhaps it was just because she was about to leave for Florence, Italy to work as a librarian in about a week! I will assume the reason was both. So, I will be spending most of my time with the Mark Campos collection and through it re-acquainting myself with the cataloging process. Emily showed me the ZAPP Cataloging and Preservation wiki which goes into very thorough and easily navigable detail on how to catalog a Zine. She also gave me her email address in case I had any questions.

In the remaining 20 or so minutes I gave myself to eat before leaving for Vera, I took a few pictures. At the meeting/work table, Brian is pictured at the far left and Rainey, another one of the interns, is at the center. I forget the name of the fellow pictured in the far right.






















Summary:
*Took Pictures today
1:00pm - Meeting with Nora
*Schedule
- adjusted Wednesdays at ZAPP to 12pm-3pm
- discussed option of off-site research
*Blog And Wiki
- Blog will contain personal narrative with photos and a summary
- things to consider: audience, what type of info to post, and structure
- Wiki primarily to share specific data not a direct communications device.
- keep track of how long blogging takes.
*Disaster Preparedness
- I will eventually put one together for Vera
- Rainey is making one for ZAPP - she would be a good person to ask questions about this.
2:00pm - In the Archives
*Read the Volunteer/Intern instruction manual
* Met with Emily regarding cataloging the Mark Campos Collection