What’s that?

I thought since I seem to be making note of all the non-school related things I’m up to, I might as well post about library school stuff, too.

Since I’m taking it rather easy this semester, I’ve got more time to work on my projects, and am not stressing about school that much. My two main projects are as follows:

• Oral history: I’m interviewing the owners and founder of Webs in Northampton, MA. I have yet to actually meet any of them in person, and have had very little contact with them, and so I’m getting a little nervous about this project. I hope it comes together well. Thus far I’ve been contenting myself with doing a little reading on weaving, which is the craft for which Webs was founded. I will go to the Archives tomorrow afternoon to do a little research on the founder, who happens to be a Simmons alum, to boot. That should be pretty fun.
• Preservation management: I haven’t really begun research for my final paper, yet. My topic, though, is craft-related, and so, I really should get on it. I want to look into the special preservation needs of textiles in an archival setting. Sounds neat, eh? I rememeber at UMassD Archives we had a scale model of some textiles machine. It was wicked cool. And we also had some garments in one or two of the collections. I specifically remember a christening gown, which was really neat. So, yeah, that’s what I’m aiming for.

I didn’t anticipate being able to incorporate so many of my personal interests in library school projects. It’s rather fun, and keeps things interesting. I also pick topics with an eye towards what might be professionally relevant. I think I’ve done a fairly good job at integrating my personality into my assignments, while making them appropriate for library and archival science audiences. This semester is flying by. I rather wish it would slow down just a little bit, but once I get my first interview done for Oral History, I think I’ll start feeling a little less nervous about that class.