Historical Archive Work Begins

I've finally started my most-looked-forward-to project in Library School - working in a historical archive. I will complete 120 hours of various tasks and desk hours at the San Antonio Public Library Texana/Genealogy dept. I have to keep a journal of the expereince for school, so I thought I'd blog about it at the same time. So, here's how my first 4 hours on the job turned out:

My project involves producing a shelf list for the archival collection of antique books donated to the library in the 1920’s by Mr. Keach – I’ll have to find out more about this man who amassed such an interesting collection. As most of the books are from the 1700’s and 1800’s, they are not available to the public except through request. The collection is kept in The Vault, the cryptic name for the climate-controlled room behind the desk where the delicate material is kept. Consisting of around 600 volumes (that's a random guess), the Keach collection runs the gamut from anthropological studies of ancient cultures to a manual for conducting Anglican church services, from art studies to Indian fairy tales and curiously contains a sizeable Chaucer section.

I started with a copy of the existing list someone had typed out on a typewriter who-knows-how-long-ago that was organized by the authors’ last names. The department needed a shelf list organized by Dewey call number (of course the existing list didn’t have call numbers on it). So starting with the very first book on the very top shelf, I recorded its call number (thankfully written on a catalog card tucked into each book – at least I don’t have to assign Dewey numbers!), checked the publication info. against the list, wiped the black smear of dust of the top of the pages, and checked it for damage. Repeat 150 times with many breaks to wash hands and cough your head off.
I’ll go back to later and create archival boxes for the damaged books to be kept in.

I had a ball! Here are the highlights of the day:

· Oldest book: 1616
· Neatest inscription: Sam W. Pennypacker, Mar 19, 1877. What a name!
· Best series title: Library of Old Authors. I’m not making it up!
· Best book title: Phallicism: Celestial and Terrestrial
· Neatest book: The Oyster: Where, How and When to Find, Breed, Cook and EAT IT! It was a little tiny blue book from the 1800’s (forgot to write down the date) with goofy illustrations of oysters with womanly legs.