So after paying our respects to the Queen's Birthday (perks of living in the commonwealth I suppose), I went in on Tuesday 12 June for the first day of my internship. I didn't have to arrive until 10am that morning, a mess of nerves, knowing I had to look for Beth. This would have been much easier had I known what Beth looked like or even sounded like. Instead, I just walked in and stood there, hoping I'd notice her.
Proved easier than I thought. She noticed me standing off to the side and we immediately walked up to each other. We introduced ourselves and went off to begin the orientation. She's a lovely woman and I am glad to be working for her and the rest of the State Library team. Honestly.
She took me back into the staff area and immediately gave me my swipe badge. It's on a blue lanyard--blue is for staff and red is for volunteer. This in itself is a BIG deal. She said they were going to treat me like staff while I am here--which was really flattering. I also saw my workstation for a hot second and was whisked off to meet with Kris. He is in charge of the fieldwork students--which I am technically not, since fieldwork students only stay for three weeks, not three months. He gave me my orientation of the entire building.
Most importantly, he showed me where the coffee and tea were kept. Before I left I signed some administrative papers and was given a list of all the different institutions I'll be taking field trips to about once a week. It breaks up all the work I am doing with something educational and fun. Because you know, people like me find vaults in basements heaps of fun. Most people think we're strange. Maybe lack of light gets to us over time.
Day two I came in and learned about scanning photos from the conservation group. We stopped promptly at 11am for a tea break. And then again at 3pm for more tea. I am going to leave Australia all tea-d out.
Day three I completed my training by learning how to make bibliographic records for the library's South Australiana database. Then I was left to begin my task. My LARGE task. I've been put in charge of the AD Edwardes collection of shipping photographs. They range from about 1865 to 1920 and there are 91 volumes of over 8,000 photographs. I'd venture a guess of over 9,000. I'll be lucky to get through 10 volumes. But I've made it my goal. I scan each photo and then make a bibliographic record for it.
It's time consuming work considering I am working on a Mac G4 running OS 9.2 (remember when Apple had a coloured apple logo? Yeah I see that every day in the top left corner of my screen. The program is also sometimes called OS 'Classic' that generally denotes old in age). I also get to use photoshop 7.0. All state of the art, but at least it's my own.
Working for the State Library of South Australia is better than working for any "normal" library. For starters, the State Library is NOT a public library. They do not lend out books. They must be used there. Second, they are big into family history and shipping research. Third, the State Library also acts as an archive for all unpublished works (as well as all published) having to do with South Australia. Their scope is ridiculously large and they care for everything from letters, to photographs, to maps and even oral history audio files. They are exciting to work for because they are constantly collecting.
Furthermore, like many institutions, they are in the early years of their digitisation process. I am the only person in the library that does both digitising and archiving them by making bibliographic records. It's interesting to see how well I am actually being trained from my program. Money well borrowed and spent.
Since I have been here there's been talk of jobs and making contacts and yes, Australian men--they also constant confuse me for a Canadian and I find myself only bothering to correct them half the time. One day, a Canadian warned me that if I met an Australian man, I'd marry him and never go home--of course, that's because it happened to her. I blushed and said I already had a boyfriend. She smiled and asked me where he was from. I smiled and replied, "Australia." Apparently, all hope is lost for me....
I am working on a photo album for pictures from my trip. I also promise over the next week I will post several back entries about my adventure through Oz. But, as work leaves me exhausted at the end of the day, I usually find my brain numb to the thought of updating.
Hopefully this will change with the more tea I ingest.
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