In the Midst of Research

This week I quickly got into the methodical rhythm that is documenting archival sources. Only after thoroughly washing my hands did I flip through page after page, quickly reading newspaper articles written between 1971 and 1972 and documenting their title, the date, the newspaper the article had come from, and, when available, the author.

These articles had been cut from the original newspapers and then taped or pasted onto paper that was bound into a folder. Evidently, the paper was not acid-free, as you can see how the yellow of the newspaper has stained itself into the pages, causing some fading to the actual newspaper. At times, I also had to delicately unfold the larger scraps of newspaper that did not quite fit into the book so I could find the needed information.

Most of the articles were cut from either the Sanford Herald or the Orlando Sentinel and usually centered around government policies and local concerns. While ultimately my goal is just to read enough information so that I can create a finding aid for the articles, there were several articles that jumped out at me, catching my attention. This included discussions around stripping the mayor of some of their powers and the death of a candidate running for a city position. There were also seemingly mundane articles, including a couple related to local weddings.

This week, I also wrote another draft resolution this week. Although, while researching, I ended up having a rather odd issue. It is important to note that the site in question that I was writing about is still being used by a business. While I was double-checking the information I had for the site, I went to their website to see if it had any further details. Unfortunately, it seems like the site, which I found through Google Maps, had been tampered with and was now redirecting people to a gambling site when you clicked on the link. As this business focuses on elder care, this felt like a bad website to be attached to the business. So, rather unexpectedly, I had to take time out of my day to let the business owners know.

Other than that, writing the resolution went smoothly. While previously, I had some concerns as to whether or not I had the correct address associated with the site, I was able to get confirmation of the information from a local museum.

It only took halfway through the semester, but overall, this week I really felt familiar with what I was doing. While I had previously had experience with digital archiving work, and frankly, documenting the data is a very similar process in both cases, there is something exciting about dealing with physical documents.