Dallas Public Library and the Texas/Dallas History & Archives

The Dallas Public Library is a system of many branches.  The Texas/Dallas History & Archives Division is located at the Central branch in downtown Dallas, TX. 

 



 

 These pictures show the building and the model of the building.  The Dallas Public Library (DPL) has 8 floors and 2 sub floors. 

The Texas/Dallas History & Archives is located on the 7th floor of the Central branch.  This is also where Fine Books are held.  The collections held here all relate to the history of Dallas and/or Texas. 

I worked on 3 manuscript collections and 1 photo collection during my internship.  I was able to work on a couple of different types of collections to gain an understanding of the types of collections this division takes in.  If the collection had a significant part in Dallas or Texas history, it is in the collection. 

The Fine Books area houses many interesting finds such as Shakespeare's First Folio which is on display.  There is also a Fourth Folio held in the vault along with many first editions of famous and popular titles.  Fine books also maintains a sheet from the Gutenberg Bible as well as many other finds.  There is also a copy of the Declaration of Independence on display on this floor of the library.

EAD

July 29

I spent my entire day today on the computer.  I worked on the J. Lawrence Jones finding guide in NoteTab.  When that was done, I worked on copying the Frank Oliver finding guide from Word into EAD.  I also made labels for the architectural boxes for the J. Lawrence Jones Collection. 

J. Lawrence Jones Collection

Frank Oliver Collection

July 30

I completed all projects I have been working on during my internship at the Dallas Public Library.  I made some small corrections in the finding guide for J. Lawrence Jones.  I also was able to finish copying the rest of the Frank Oliver collection into EAD.  I printed out both finding guides and placed the Oliver finding guide in Box 1 of the collection.  With the Jones collection I had to place the printed copy of the finding guide in the accession folder.  With the odd shape and set up of the architectural boxes, it made the most sense to place this one in the accession folder rather than with the collection itself. 

I also spent some time filing away the photo negatives I had sleeved a while back.  This completed the additions to the Dallas Times Herald project I worked on. 

July 31

This was my last day during my internship at the Dallas Public Library n the Texas/Dallas History & Archives.  I spent some time walking through the library on each floor and taking pictures.  I also walked around with my supervisor and showed him the different collections I had completed.  I then spent the last of my short time there at the reference desk. 

J Lawrence Jones and EAD

July 22

Today I spent time placing the J. Lawrence Jones collection into archival architectural boxes.  These boxes are at least three feet tall and have dividers creating nine sections inside the box.  These are labeled A1 through C3.  I worked through and organized 80% of the collection.  I also took meticulous notes on what was in each section.  This will be used to help in writing the EAD file in NoteTab.

July 23

Today I finished boxing the rest of the of the JLJ collection.  I also had to write up what was in each section of each of the four boxes.  This took some time.  I not only had to write it on the box, I had to write it on the lid of the box.  I also continued creating the J. Lawrence Jones finding guide in Word.

EAD was working so I was able to work on the Dallas Pen Women collection and prepare to file the boxes away.  I had to add to scrapbooks we had to the collection finding guide.  We had to call the techs to help us figure out why I couldn't save in NoteTab.  We realized it was my profile and I did not have the permissions to save and work.  We fixed this and I was able to keep working with EAD without any more problems.

July 25

I spent most of the day working on the computer in EAD.   I made a few small corrections to the Pen Women finding guide and made labels for the boxes.  I was then able to file the boxes away in the archive.  That collection is complete.

Dallas Pen Women

I also started typing the Frank Oliver collection into EAD.  I copied box one into EAD.  This is box one of five.  Each box has 95 folders.  Granted, it is copying and pasting, but it is tedious.  I will be working on it all next week.

I also played around with the Jones collection in EAD.  I wanted to see how it would look because there are no folders.  There are nine squares.  I think I figured out a way to get the information in the finding guide and still have it look good.  I even showed Brian, the archivist, and he said it looked better than he thought it would.  That made me happy.  I got through the first series and almost all of box one.

Dallas Pen Women and J. Lawrence Jones Collection

July 15

Today I spent the morning placing the Dallas Pen Women collection into folders.  After discussing the organization of this collection with the Archivist, I tried to keep it to the original order that was in the boxes but got approval to change some wording and break up a miscellaneous folder into other series that made more sense.  I did the same with the general folder.  These two folders were broken up into other series that made more sense for what each series in the collection contained.

I also made some corrections to the Frank Oliver finding guide.  This completed the collection.  The finding guide is ready to be converted from a Word document into a PDF document and uploaded to the web.  EAD has had some issues with this finding guide which is why it was completed in Word. Eventually it will be done in EAD.  I also filed the boxes away in the archive.

July 16

Today was spent in EAD working on the finding guide for the Dallas Pen Women Collection.  I also did some research looking for information to add to the biographical note.  This collection had five different series and is contained in a single box.

As I spent time working in EAD, I tried to work on copying the finding guide for the Oliver collection.  While everything seemed to work perfectly fine for the Dallas Pen Women, it would not save any work I did on the Oliver collection.  EAD is a finicky program.

I also started a new manuscript collection today.  I began looking at the J. Lawrence Jones collection of architectural plans.  I began writing the finding guide in EAD.  I had the accession folder with a lot of information and files on what the five boxes contained.  Lawrence Oliver's grandson had written a biography.  I used this biography as the biographical note for the finding guide.  I give credit that it was written by his grandson and that I only made small edits.  This bio had been typed on a typewriter and I found typos as I was copying it into EAD.  The only corrections I made were to a few spelling and grammatical errors.  I stopped at this point because I did not want to write in the scope and contents of the collection from the lists I had that were nearly 20 years old.  I wanted to check the boxes myself.

My favorite part of the day was when my supervisor asked if I wanted to see the "Magic Kingdom".  This is the rare books held in the vault.  I saw some amazing things.  They have several first editions of famous works as well as a first and fourth folio of Shakespeare.  One of my favorite pieces was a volume of Alice in Wonderland that had been illustrated by Salvador Dali.

July 17

I spent the entire day verifying the J. Lawrence Jones collection of architectural plans.  I had a 5 page table with the plans, address if available, and the number of plans included.  I did not feel comfortable creating a finding guide without verifying that everything on the list was still in the boxes.  I did discover that there were a few items missing and one box was a big mess of mixed up items.

Dallas Times Herald project and Dallas Pen Women

Day 15 (July 8)

Today I spent a good portion of the day sleeving negatives from the box I had begun the previous week.  I sleeved nearly the rest of the box.  There were some interesting topics and it became easier to tell which photographers were more organized when it came to their negatives.  Russ Russell gave very little information as to what the subject was in his photographs.  Russell's cutting even seemed a little careless.  I came across several sets of negatives where there seemed to be 3 or 4 negatives that did not match up with the topic written on the envelope.  On the other hand,  Robert Vasek placed his photo assignment card in the envelope with the negatives.  This provided sufficient information on the subject.

I spent an hour working at the reference desk with Brian, the archivist.  He showed me where things were when people came up to ask questions or needed something that was in the back.  By the end of the hour, I was able to help out a patron looking for the city guides while Brian answered the phone.

I also spent some time trying to research a couple of sets of negatives to see if I could figure out more information about the subject.  I had to pull the microfilm for the Dallas Times Herald.  After searching through the film up to a week after the date the photos were taken, I gave up.  Plus the scanning of the microfilm was making me dizzy.  May be I shouldn't go quite so fast through them the next time.

Day 16 (July 9)

I completed the negative sleeving as far as I could go.  There were several envelopes that had no year on them.  As the full date is part of the accession number, I could not complete these.

I spent some time making corrections to the Oliver collection.  I went back and renumbered the first two boxes because it did not feel right to have it numbered 19, 19a, 20... especially when 19 and 19a were not even similar.  I also made the necessary changes to the finding aid.

When all that was done, I started processing a new manuscript collection.  There were two boxes of paperwork from the Dallas Pen Women.  This collection is about a group of women who gathered together and shared their writing with each other.  The collection includes meeting minutes, newsletters, correspondence, autobiographies, music, poetry, and directories.  I started organizing this collection and determining the original order by taking notes of what was in each folder.

Day 17 (July 10)

Today I spent most of the day beginning to enter the photo negative sleeves into the database.  I have to enter more information than what was on the envelope, so I had to look things up online for more information about the subject.  I got through nearly half of the sleeves that had been completed out of the box.

I also spent another hour on the reference desk with Bryan, my supervisor and the assistant manager.  We briefly discussed what I had been working on and my midterm review.  Like previously, I helped find books in the back that patrons have requested and helped others with the microfilm.

I finished the day by completing my notes on the Dallas Pen Women collection.  This collection is ready for further processing and placement into folders.  I discovered that as I went through the collection, there are numerous staples and paperclips that will need to be dealt with.

Day 18 (July 11)

I spent most of the day inputting the negative sleeves into the database.  I even had to pull microfilm for three sleeves to gather more information.  This time I was more successful in discovering the photos used and information about who or what was in the photographs.  The next step is to file the negative sleeves according to the accession numbers.

Dallas Times Herald project

Day Thirteen (July 1)

Today I completed the Frank Oliver Collection.  The school sketches were interesting to file.  I placed them in order of the lesson workbooks that Oliver went through during his time at the Landon School. 

After 2 hours, I had completed adding all works into the finding guide.  Both the archivist and my supervisor were out for the day.  The manager called my supervisor, the assistant manager, and he gave her a few ideas of what I could work on next.  We searched for some boxes of items from a group in Dallas, but I found 12 large boxes to be overwhelming with no prior guidance.  I ended up working the rest of the day with the photo person.

I started a new project on the Dallas Times Herald.  I was given a box of photo negatives that needed processing.  I was shown how to place them in sleeves and how to write the accession number.  The accession number for these photos is very long, PA83-41/yyyy-mm-dd-photographer initials1/#.  The 1 is for the sleeve of negatives o a particular subject and the # is the negative number.  I worked with both 35mm and 120s.  I even came across a few slides. 

This project is a lot like putting a puzzle together.  I ended the day with an envelope of negatives about the Anadarko Indians.  I had to put three different rolls of film together in the right order before placing in negative archival sleeves. 

Day Fourteen (July 2)

I spent the entire day working on the box of negatives I had started the previous day.  I even picked up where I had left off the previous day with the Anadarko Indians.  I had a second envelope of 120 negatives to order.  I worked diligently through the envelope.  I discovered that the second photographer that I came across in my processing of this collection was a lot more organized than the first photographer.  He put more notes and information on the envelope so that it made processing easier and no extra research into the subject was needed.

I left early today to finish packing for a long low tech weekend out at the lake for the holiday.
Happy 4th of July!

Frank Oliver Collection continued...

I have spent the last few days working on the finding guide for this collection.  It has been an arduous process.  New discoveries have been made which has extended the length of this project.  I spent extra time at the library this week because I missed time last week and will miss time next week due to the 4th of July. 

Day Eight (Tuesday, June 24)
I spent most of this day working on processing and writing the finding guide for the three boxes of articles and sketches.  I was even able to complete a little bit of research in trying to figure out where some other articles fit in.  I had to renumber box 1 folders.  I then found another article that should have gone in box 1.  I was told to place the folder where it would go in the box and put an 'a' after the number to differentiate two folders with the same number.  I worked through an entire box and a half.

Day Nine (Wednesday, June 25)
I continued working on the finding guide.  Once I finished working through the second half of the second box, I sat down with my supervisor to work in EAD.  He got me started and showed me some basics of working with the program. As we were working we found an error and the program would not parse and validate the work.  We played around with it awhile and could not figure out where the problem lay.  I continued to work on the finding guide in Word.  I began working my way through the 3rd box of articles and sketches.  I found another article that belonged in box 2.  I did the same thing I did with the article in box 1 and numbered the folder and added an 'a' to the folder number.  When I get through the entire process, I will probably go back and renumber the folders in the boxes so that it is fluid.  Renumbering will also work better with EAD from my understanding of the program and what little work I was able to do in EAD. 

Day Ten (Thursday, June 26)
Today is the day I made an interesting discovery.  I began work on the 4th box.  This large box was already partially processed as another archivist had come through and removed many travel guides and maps that did not have to do with Texas.  A list of items removed was on top  of the box.  I started going through the box with the archivist and their were several Texas State Travel Guides that we are going to remove from the collection and place with travel.  As we went through the box, I found 5 large clasp envelopes at the bottom of the box.  I discovered that 3 of these envelopes had early sketches from Frank Oliver when he was taking a mail-in class on art and cartooning.  I knew after this discovery that my project just got extended. 

Day Eleven (Friday, June 27)
I spent most of the day processing and placing the maps and guides in folders and in an archival box. I also created a Word document with a list of the items that have been removed.  I organized my work and used a cart to bring it all to the front by the computer I am using.  Up to this point I had been working one box at a time and walking the box to the back and getting the next box.   I discovered that 2 of the clasp envelopes contained guides to the different regions of Texas that Oliver wrote about.  Each guide contained 18 articles on that region.  Each guide also provided a small map of where that region was located in Texas.  These helped me to figure out what articles belonged in which region.  I was able to add regions to several items in the finding guide.  I also realized that I was going to have to rework my finding guide for series due to the discovery of the Landon Assignments and Workbooks. 

Day Twelve (Saturday, June 28)
I only went in for a few hours today.  I wanted to start on the envelopes that contained Oliver's early sketch work.  I spent the three hours I was at the library going through the 1st folder of Landon Assignments and determining how they were to be grouped.  Most of them were already grouped.  I was able to place these in folders and I started box 5 of the collection.