Going Back in Time, starting with today

So much to talk about - I'll start with today's project (s) and work backwards.

Today I was on my own. I had been left several small size projects which I could work on whenever I dropped into the Local History Room between major visits. Today I managed to free my afternoon up so I could get some of these projects behind me.

One project seemed oh so simple but I came up with question after question. I was putting a binder together of old postcards depicting Long Branch - these postcards had been purchased at local fairs/antique markets specifically for the local history room by Elsalyn Palmisano. There were two batches of cards, purchased at different times at different locations. And there were photocopies of all of the postcards - black and white, two to a page, a record keeping device.

I had asked a few days ago if I should put the postcards in the binder in the same order as the photocopies. This seemed like a good way to know if one of the cards were to disappear we would know which one was missing. Well, when I started to arrange the postcards in the binder, I discovered I preferred a different grouping. Neither sequence was related to provenance or original order so probably wasn't important. But now I'm wondering 1) do I take new photocopies of the postcards in their protective sleeves and 2) what do I do with the old photocopies and/or new photocopies - do I create another binder for the copies? Also, the original postcards are in plastic sleeves with the price tag on them. I did not remove these sleeves because I thought the price was pertinent. Is this correct?

One of my other projects today was creating external labels for the filing cabinets scattered around the library which have no identification on them to distinguish them as local history information. Why is a Word Table so difficult? Trying to get the font size and label size reasonably clear took forever.

Note to self: when I showed the librarians in reference the labels I would be adhering to the file cabinets they asked for a few more for the microfilm cabinet. I need to speak with the person who created the existing microfilm labels about how she got them to fit precisely in the slot.

Email is another task. Since I work in the library I am on the central library network. I request technical support and ask questions related to the local history room via email - I use this means of communication for the same reasons anyone would. Multiple people can be copied, you have a copy yourself if the request goes astray, etc. But this also takes a bit of time each day.

Suffice to say 4 hours just flies by