Updates

After taking a website break for a few months, I’ve decided to abandon the book blog. If I had more time at home, I would definitely keep it up and post family scans more regularly, but I just don’t have the time! So, something had to go, and that was my least visited and least important blog.

For now, I’m going to have to abandon my scheduled posts (every Monday) and instead just post when I’ve scanned something. That may mean that I don’t post for a really long time, but I do scan things from time to time. (I have a second post for today that includes over 20 pictures I scanned on Father’s Day).

Apologies to anyone who checks regularly for updates, but since I haven’t posted in a few months, you probably stopped checking anyway. 😉

As always, I will take requests for scanned items based on what you see in the finding aids.

I think my problem is that I want to do too many things, and I just don’t have enough time in the day to do them all. Obviously, I cut way back on the number of posts and scans I make here. I began doing this daily, and went pretty well on full steam for a while there. Then I cut back to three times a week. Then I didn’t post for a month (granted, it was a crazy month) so I cut back to twice a week. Now I have a new plan, which is to post once a week. I don’t want to burn out, but I also don’t want to be lazy. So I am working on incorporating my work into my web space! I’m starting a book blog, where I will also post once a week. I’m going to have to tinker to figure out the best way to share both of these loves (history and books!), but it will likely be some sort of splash page to enter one site or the other from the main page.

Anyway. All of this is to say that the family history blog will continue with one post a week, every Monday!

…I deserve a little more time off from documents. I’m still recovering from my tooth extractions. Infection turned to dry socket and my simple procedure went from a 24-48 hour recovery to a 2-week ordeal. I’ll get back to it when I’m not so drained and pained. Check back next week!

Now that I’ve been tinkering for a week or so, I’ve gotten a few of the logistics out of the way. I have enabled Dublin Core on individual pages, letting me embed metadata that can be searched/extracted for researcher use. It is hopefully correct, and I will make every effort to be as complete as possible.

I am working on a plan for updating regularly. At this point, I am thinking of digitizing and processing one item per day, which includes scanning, adjusting, transcribing as applicable, creating metadata and generating tags. It is well worth noting that because I anticipate having (eventually) an astounding number of items digitized and uploaded, the images on this site are of lower resolution than the original scans. If you would like a full resolution scan of any particular item, post a comment or send me an email and I would be happy to oblige.

Which leads me to my next point: I have now enabled comments, but they must be approved before they are posted. Patience, grasshopper. As long as you are not spam, you will be approved.

Hopefully by the end of the week, I will have finished the finding aid and things will really get rolling. I will start advertising the site in genealogy forums and to individuals once this section is done. I want to thank a few individuals (you know who you are) for your incredible patience on this project, which has been in my mind for years but on the backburner while I was finishing school. I know you have been anxious and curious about a few items in my collection, and I am happy to finally be able to share them. I am excited for this project!

Cheers!

I’m starting to rethink joysephine.com once again. It’s had many incarnations over the past decade: A blog of silly things that didn’t matter, an online portfolio of arts and crafts projects, a blog of arts and crafts projects with tutorials, and for the last year or so, a static “coming soon” image without any content.

For the past two years, I was in school at UNC studying library science, concentrating in archives and record management. For roughly three years before that, I was finally finishing up my undergrad at Appalachian State University (’03 college drop-out, guilty as charged). With a Bachelor of Arts in History and a long background of genealogy research, I thoroughly enjoyed learning about archives for my own personal reasons, but after taking so many courses, I’m not convinced that I would want to be an archivist for a living. I thrive on helping people, and although archivists do help others, there is much more behind-the-scenes processing and fewer patrons with which to engage. When I originally decided that I wanted to go to library school back in 2009, I had public libraries in mind and although my ideas changed a little during the entire schooling process, I have returned to my original career ideas. I’m currently a library assistant (soon to be a librarian) in the public system, and I plan on being there for a long time to come.

Throughout my studies, I learned of many archivists’ tools for online collections management, description, access, and other field buzzwords. I have explored many and tinkered with a few. I consider myself far above average when it comes to technology use and understanding; however, I am also far from the IT expert that the installation of many of these tools requires. WordPress is not the most ideal platform for a project of this sort, but I am also not running a professional archive. As a hobby project, this is more of a public history and cultural heritage endeavor, giving others access to the expansive collection of genealogical materials I have built over the past ten years. WordPress may serve this function of my site just fine. However, I will try to find easy ways to incorporate important features like correct metadata and decent description to make these materials more useable and accessible for others.

The plan: Over the next few weeks, I’ll be tinkering with the site and playing with different add-ons, trying to build a webpage that will successfully showcase my collection of historical materials. I will eventually create finding aids for the physical materials that I have, allowing other genealogy researchers to know what I possess and make requests for digitization, but first I will start digitizing materials for which I have already received requests. I will continue to periodically update, including postings of photos, letters, land documents, wills, and a wide variety of ephemera and memorabilia. Although it is a tiny infant site right now, I have a vision for growth and becoming a source of information for other genealogists.

While I am working out the kinks I have disabled the ability to create an account, thus limiting robots or spam comments while I am building. If you would like for me to create an account for you before I get that up and running, or if you have any other questions, shoot me an email at joy [@] joysephine [dot] com.

I think this will be fun. Stay tuned!

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