I am currently interning at the Roanoke Public Library, specifically the Virginia Room research center. Here I am cataloging thousands of historic photos of Roanoke area homes for the budding niche of House History in the Roanoke Valley. This cataloging process consists of many steps using excel spreadsheets and Google Maps. First, I type the street address into Maps and determine if the house number matches the photo and the house Google Maps pulls up. The photos do not match; I virtually walk around the street until I find the right one. I then enter in the street name, city quadrant or town, house number, and date that the photo was taken. After all of the photos are cataloged in this way, my supervisor and I will work to organize them in binders for public access. So far we have cataloged over 3,500 photos and still have about the same amount left before they are finished.
Some of the issues I have run into with this project involved poor quality photos and the inability to look at the film. Sometimes the house photos also have film stapled to them, but sometimes it is just an index card with the film. We have no way of looking at the film other than holding it up to the light. Obviously, this is not the most efficient system.