Back at it

After a nice (but short) break from the library, I was back at it again today. After weeks of researching the two editors of the Bloomington Republican, Christine wanted me to write a page about each man. An almost impossible task. I have not only researched the men themselves, but also their families to try and see if they had any descendants living in Bloomington (as far as I could tell, neither did - although I did not get to a few great-grandchildren). This made my task even harder, because I had gotten attached to the families (both men only had surviving sons oddly enough - what daughters they had did not live past their 10th birthday). There was relevant Bloomington-related information for a few sons that I really wanted to include, and it just did not seem right to only discuss one son and not the others, so I got to them all. Magically, I ended up with exactly one page for both John F. Walker and Clement Whitaker. Believe me, no one was more surprised than me.

We finally got the City Directories back from getting unbound. Now instead of having a research shift every week, we will be getting a scanning shift. MCPL has many old City Directories that are in very rough shape, with the binding falling apart and are therefore unable to be in the stacks. Our task is to digitize them, so Christine had them completely unbound for us to scan (although if someone desperately wanted to donate a book scanner we would definitely not turn that down, and would no longer have to unbind books to scan). I may not be doing this, as Christine has encountered something she wants me to transcribe. We'll be talking about that this weekend. I am also currently transcribing another copy of the Bloomington Republican, one from September 6, 1862. We had originally thought that the only surviving copy was the one we received from the Lilly Library - the one I transcribed earlier in the semester. We discovered that we had this copy from 1862 on one of our local history microfilms. It is only three pages, whereas all other newspapers had four, so I wonder if it is missing a page - but it would only be advertisements so it is no major loss as I will not be transcribing the ads this time around.

As I begin my job hunt, I have definitely realized how spoiled I have been in my internships at MCPL. When at the main reference desk, there is always at least two other librarians on desk with you - always someone to pick up the ringing phone or to have as backup with a difficult patron. Even the Indiana Room is a luxury; local history, tons of microfilms, the separate collection along with separate librarians. *sigh* My ultimate dream job would be to work in a library similar to MCPL, and work in Adult services but also have two or three shifts in something like the Indiana Room. It is a great change of pace and a totally different atmosphere than the main reference desk. We will just have to wait and see what comes my way...