Tuesday January 30th, 2018

I arrived at the Mississippi Baptist Historical Commission at 8:00 a.m.  I resumed the work I was doing this past Thursday digitizing Oral Histories from cassettes.  I had had trouble with two of the oral histories I digitized this past Thursday.  Mrs. Moore had reviewed what I had completed and told me the first oral history I digitized went through great but the other two could not be heard.  Therefore, I did them over again. I noticed I still could not hear the interviews clearly.  Mrs. Moore and I saw what the problem had been. I simply had to turn down the volume on the tape recorder that was hooked up to the computer.  I completed the digitization of two more oral histories before breaking for lunch at 12:47 p.m.  The second oral history that I digitized had very bad audio quality on both sides of the cassette so I notified Mrs. Moore.  I returned from lunch at 1:17 p.m.  I completed the digitization of one more oral history.  Since the Mississippi College Archives at the Leland Speed Library is, more appropriately, called the Mississippi Baptist Historical Commission, these interviews are from people associated with the history of both Mississippi Baptist History and Mississippi College itself.  I left the Mississippi Baptist Historical Commission at 4:30 p.m.

Thursday January 25th, 2018

I arrived at the Mississippi Baptist Historical Commission s at 8:05 a.m. as I was 5 minutes late because of a train.  I resumed my duties of digitizing the oral history collection that was on cassette.  The correct device had been connected to the computer so that I could record and fast forward the cassettes.  I was able to complete four of the oral history cassettes. I worked with recording and playback levels to make sure that they were suitable for storage.  These oral histories belong to the Mississippi Baptist Historical Commission. I took a break for lunch at 12:45 and returned at 1:15.  Once the oral history was recorded and saved as a file via the software, I then learned how to export it to an MP3 file.  This also required me putting in metadata that applied to the oral history cassette.  The ones I have completed so far have either the title or date or both.  The fourth oral history completed its recording to the system.  However, I still need to delete some dead air that it contains before the interview and the cuts between the two sides of the cassette. I left the Mississippi Baptist Historical Commission at 4:35 p.m.

Tuesday January 23rd, 2018

I reported to the Mississippi Baptist Historical Commission at 8:00 a.m. I started back on my digitization of the records of Good Hope Baptist Church in Newton, Mississippi.  I was following the idea of 'original order' in my mind so I accidentally digitized items from the first volume that I had already digitized.  I realized it and was able to continue at the exact spot I had left off in volume 2 on page 79.   I took a break for lunch at 12:30 p.m. and returned at 1:00 p.m. I got to page 135 in volume 2.  The software that shall be used to digitize an oral history collection on cassette tapes was installed on the computer I am using.  I was instructed on how to properly use the software on the computer in conjunction with the audio-cassettes.  I practiced with the software.  I found it to be very compliant with my needs.  One must play the audio-cassette of the oral history and record it to the software.  The trick is keeping a proper recording playback volume.  An individual can edit extra empty sound that is not needed.  However, I ran into a problem in that the first cassette tape was not rewound and the device used to play the cassettes did not have the capabilities or rewinding and fast forwarding.  It was decided that someone would bring a device for me to use that had these capabilities on Thursday.  I left the Mississippi Baptist Historical Commission at 4:00 p.m.

Thursday January 18, 2018

Today was my first day of my archival practicum at the Mississippi College Archives.  Since the staff at Mississippi College had been backtracked by the weather, it was agreed upon that I would come in at 9:00 instead of 8:00. Due to still slick streets after the bad weather, I kept my time driving to the college in order to avoid injury and arrived at 9:0 5a.m. My onsite supervisor, Ms. Heather Moore, is the Special Collections Librarian of the Leland Speed Library Mississippi College. She gave me a full tour of the Mississippi College Archives as well as the library as a whole.  It was very insightful and reinforced what I learned on my initial visit three month ago.  My first assignment of my practicum is digitizing the microfilm records of Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church in Newton, MS.  Even though I have much experience handling microfilm readers, Ms. Moore instructed me on how to handle the device as well as the given software.  I took a break for lunch in the breakroom at 1:10p.m. and returned at 1:40p.m. The microfilm records of Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church are comprised of church meeting minutes and notes.  They are all organized according to volumes.  I did have a few technical difficulties but was able to scan all of the first volume and half of the second volume.  I left the Mississippi College Archives at 4:35 p.m.

January 16, 2018

Due to inclement weather, my first day of my Archival Practicum at the Mississippi College Archives was cancelled.  Now, my first day is scheduled to be Thursday January 18, 2018.