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This is my fifth and final post for the public history blog regarding my internship at the Virginia Room at the Roanoke Public Library. As I am finishing up the last of my hours here, I wanted to describe the function of the Virginia Room as a public research facility and archive. My career field will be in library science which is often very closely tied to archival work as well. I think it was very important for me to get the experience of an archive while also being surrounded by a public library. It was a significantly different experience compared to the library and archive facility at Roanoke College. Often, the people that come in for research help are not students working on a paper, but community members in search of the house history or genealogical information. They often have no prior experience with the archives’ resources and have to be helped quite a bit. One of the most important things I learned from observing the conversation between the archivist and the community member is to always have patience. Not everyone picks up on the microfilm machine right away while others can figure it out pretty much on their own. Getting frustrated with a patron because they do not have as much knowledge of the facility as you do is not a constructive way to help them at all. From observing these interactions, it appears that the archivist, or librarian, needs to address each and every question to each and every patron as if they are showing someone how to use a resource or technology for the very first time. It’s never safe to assume someone knows how to do even the most basic research searches because may of the people coming into the Virginia Room for help are from impoverished areas of the city. The individuals who work in this research facility deserve significant credit in what they do each day and how they are able to assist so many different patrons in the ways they need it without getting frustrated or bored. Interpersonal communication and relation skills are just as important in this setting as are archival abilities.

 

P.S. I apologize for the lack of photo on this blog, I was not able to take a picture of this kind of interaction in the Virginia Room.

So far, I have been able to catalog 4,346 photographs of houses in the Roanoke Valley. It is really cool being able to see this project start out at only 100 or so done and seeing it at over four thousand cataloged at this point. This project is very unique to the local area and will be utilized by many in the future. The Virginia Room boasts many displays and artifacts that are important to the local history and the people that have lived here throughout the past few hundred years. My favorite display is the one pictured below titled “Obsolete Technology.” It has several pieces of older equipment for entertainment purposes and explains how each one was used and when. Unfortunately, these pieces of history have become simple trinkets over the years due to the advent of the technological age and more ‘modern’ products.

The camera on the top-left shelf is something I remember my grandfather having when I was a child, which was only about 15 years ago. However, over that somewhat short period of time a camera has evolved into something that can fit into the palm of your hand. While the older camera in the display probably works and is usable, it is still considered obsolete because there is no longer a demand for it. The technology market has somehow been able to create demand for new products while simultaneously replacing other items altogether. Thank goodness for places such as the Virginia Room, because otherwise we wouldn’t have these ‘obsolete’ things that marked major milestones in American technological history.

I also included a picture of an archived street sign. It is a really interesting piece of local history that the Virginia Room keeps on regular display.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Currently, I am spending all of my time cataloging the house photos for the Roanoke Valley project. However, there are many other aspects of the Virginia Room that I could potentially get involved in. This research facility offers a wide variety of materials to utilize as well as technology that can assist research efforts and access to archives and I would really like to learn more about that process. The Virginia Room has extended stacks of reference materials, archived books, maps, and microform that can all be accessed by community members at any time. One particular material the room has are the variety of maps and architectural prints. I have yet to learn about the archiving of maps and it is a process that I am very eager to understand and experience. I have the most experience with cataloging in my time at Fintel Library and it is something that I could potentially turn into a full-time career.

Cataloging different kinds of items for community use can be a challenging task due to the different rules set in place by the Library of Congress, but I actually enjoy having to problem-solve how to catalog specific things. For example, we received a series of musical scores that were too thin to place in the general collection. Music scores get disorganized very quickly due to the fact that they are often less than a half an inch think. I was able to create a cataloging system for the scores using white envelope labels and school folders in order to organize them properly and make sure they were accessible to the students in the music department. I am hoping in the next month or so to also utilize my talents in this regard at the Virginia Room with cataloging projects and general archive work. Hopefully I can get involved in more projects soon!

At this point in the project of cataloging homes in the Roanoke Valley, I am about half way through the collection of photographs. It is very exciting to see everything go from 5 big boxes full of photos to only 2 and a half right now. It is projected that the cataloging process will be completed by mid-April which means I will be involved in the process of making them public to the rest of the library and community.

Since I have gone through over 3,000 photos so far, I have come across several problems that have to be addressed throughout the cataloging process. Most of the issues deal with street names and city quadrants. For example, there is a street in Roanoke that has the same name as a street in Salem and in Vinton. The only difference is the end of the street name (i.e. road, lane, street, etc.). When cataloging homes like this, it is extremely important to keep everything as organized as possible and file them in the correct order. Another problem I face very often is the similarity in street names all over the Roanoke Valley. The ‘W’ section of the cataloged items takes up almost an entire box  because there are so many streets that start with that letter. For example: there are about 25 different street in the Roanoke area whose street name all start with ‘water’ or ‘wood’. This can get very confusing when you are trying to type them into Google Maps and are trying to view the correct home. A smaller issue I also run into is paper cuts and rogue staples that prick my hands. Otherwise, the project is relatively danger-free.

I have also included a photo of my work space at the Virginia Room.