Conundrums

One of my most persistent questions is how to create an organization and classification system for these slides once they have been scanned and are on the computer. Many of the slides were not imported in chronological order, and many of the slides were mixed up over the last 60 years. My grandfather has written on some of the slides, giving the year and/or event it portrays, but many of them are unmarked.

With the trip to the Philippines, there are four different types of materials:

1. Postcards (front & back)
2. Pictures
3. Newspaper clippings
4. Spiral notebooks, used for grandpa's daily journals

Given these four formats, having a naming system is also problematic. As I don't know the specific dates for most of the pictures but rather I do know the general month, I have a few different options. The postcards are all dated and many of them have visible postmarks. In the case of a postcard, the naming system is relatively easy.

PC19890914KLB.jpg

In short, it's a postcard (PC) dated Sept 14th, 1989 and sent from Kalibo.

If I'm unsure about the date of a slide it would look like this:

SL19570000AK.jpg

Similarly, it's a slide (SL) dated 1957 with no further dates and it is in Arkansas. Here's where the trouble begins. For the Philippines project, the regions and cities are more important than simply stating 'Western Visayas'. These slides should be classified with Kalibo, General Santos City, Koronadal, and so on. For the family pictures taken stateside, I will be adding the states to the filename and both city and state in the notes. It's helpful that the Philippines and the stateside pictures don't overlap, otherwise I'd be in a pickle. However this still troubles me. I feel that if I'm going to create a system for their filenames it should be universal, which means finding codes for each geographical area.

I'm unfamiliar with any classification system that isn't MARC/AACR3, so I'm hesitant to dedicate a significant amount of time to cataloging every slide when there may be a better one out there for this project. In the meantime I am adding the years and notes on the physical slide to the iPhoto info area and beginning a database of people mentioned and locations in which they appeared.

Essentially I'm troubled by my inexperience. I'm reminded of the advice given to me by some of the archivists at the Meetup I attend: "Just do it. You'll learn more from doing it than anything else. Just do it." Therefore I am here in Kansas, Nikeing it up.

Back: Craig, Jeanine, Bruce
Front: Bill, Sherryl, Marjorie