Final Blog Post, and here's to a Great Summer!

"Wow" is the word that comes to mind as I write my final blog post. I am excited and sad at the same time; it's bittersweet. I can't believe how quickly these ten weeks have flown by. I'm excited about my accomplishment. Returning to school to earn my graduate degree has been challenging but fun and so rewarding. Balancing taking a class, completing my practicum, and working full-time amidst demanding deadlines was tough. However, coming home each night to complete my hours was the highlight of my day! I couldn't wait to go home and dig into my projects. Researching, figuring things out, and completing the projects to the best of my ability was fun and interesting!

I thank Dr. Kuon and the TFC team for allowing me to complete my practicum remotely. I wish I could have been onsite more, but the projects Annette and Ailie put together for me worked out perfectly! Ailie provided enough instruction and guidance, allowing me to complete the work independently. Ailie and I were happy to work with each other as fellow MSLS students and could bring a level of informational organization standards into the TFC. So, I was excited that as I was writing my first finding aid, I could incorporate the learning from my INFO 5240 coursework and understanding DAC’s to build upon the TFC finding aids. It was equally rewarding for me that Ailie adopted the template I created to pass on to other students to develop their finding aids.

A major focus for the team has been incorporating the Neiman Marcus Scrapbook metadata from the UNT Digital Library into the TFC Neiman Marcus Collection metadata and vice versa. This project was one of my favorites. My task was to link at least 50 images by cross-referencing the digital photos from the UNT Digital Library to the corresponding collection pieces on the TFC Collection site.

To begin with, I needed to familiarize myself with the UNT Metadata program. I had the opportunity to connect with Hannah Tarver, the Supervisor of Digital Projects at the UNT Digital Projects Lab. We had a Zoom meeting, during which she provided a tutorial on navigating the program to understand the existing metadata for the images. Because I learn best through hands-on experience, I was eager to dive in and put into practice everything she had shown me.

I'm grateful for the online guidebook that helped me comprehend various fields and the required information for each. My responsibility was to incorporate the garment's description from the TFC metadata into the digital library description and to supplement it with any additional garment details if necessary. I added metadata to the "Relations" field, adding the accession number and article number found in the TFC collection. Drawing from my INFO5371 coursework on archivists' contribution transparency, I added what I called "leaving breadcrumbs," ensuring that the additional information I added was indicated. In the Notes field, I included a non-view note to inform other archivists that additional information had been added after Hannah's input, keeping the information transparent.

I was excited to exceed expectations by completing over 180 cross-references by the end of my practicum, surpassing the initial goal of 50. The TFC team was very pleased with the outcome, and I was proud to have contributed to this important project.

One project that we didn't make much progress on was researching controlled vocabulary in the costume and apparel world. We wanted to consider alternative ways people might search for information that isn't covered by current subject headings or may be outdated. Additionally, many terms and phrases used in costume and apparel studies aren't well-documented. This project will require substantial time and research to bring together fully. During my last week, I delved into a research study conducted by Arden Kirkland, a digital librarian, who developed "Costume Core," a profile for cataloging historic clothing artifacts, with support from a grant from the Visual Resources Association Foundation. She created a "tool kit" application profile that expands on existing metadata standards to create a specification for cataloging and encoding historical clothing. This could be a valuable starting point for this project.

The Collection Development Policy project was my first completed project, which became very relevant to my summer semester. I was asked to research several museums and repositories to understand the information used to create their policies. I looked into nine repositories and found it fascinating to see how each had unique policies based on their scope and community. The information I learned will hopefully help TFC create a CDP, but it will also guide me in making one for our corporate archive. Additionally, this research was very helpful for my summer class, where I learned about archival appraisal. As a final project, I created a research poster defining and providing examples of Collection Development Policies and Collection Management Policies. Ironically, my first practicum project turned out to be the necessary research that aligned with my archival class and made my whole summer come full circle.

I truly enjoyed all the responsibilities that were part of my projects. I learned from each one and will take this knowledge with me to share with my colleague at our corporate archive to create a better user experience. If there was an opportunity at TFC or a similar organization, I would really enjoy doing the work that I worked on this summer. My projects reminded me why I chose this field of study. I am not sure if there were anything I would change. Like most places, adding more resources to help with processing will make the archives more accessible to students and researchers. I wish I could have completed more during my time there, but as Ailie reminded me, an archivist's work is never done.

I am pursuing an MSLS degree to gain skills to create a more effective archive at my corporate job. Although I am not currently a full-time archivist, this could become a possibility in the future. It was important for me to acquire the necessary knowledge in information organization, archival practices, and how these concepts relate to managing a collection of garments. This opportunity at the TFC has provided me with all of that and more, and I am extremely excited to have been a part of the team and to contribute meaningfully. I would like to express my gratitude to Annette and especially Ailie for their support and guidance, and I hope to have the chance to work with them again in the future. Thank you!

Below is a brief summary of the above, as well as a few remaining links to research from my final week. Also, below are the 120 required and documented hours.