I have just completed the fourth week of my internship with the PRINT (People, Religion, Information Networks and Travel) project. After finishing up some work from last week, I was introduced to a new skill (entering skeletal metadata) and spent most of the week practicing this specific activity. I also learned about all the protocols and safeguards I had to complete for each unique entry in order to keep the integrity and accessibility of the project intact.
After finishing up some batch work from last week on Monday, I started my Tuesday with the weekly German transcription workshop. I have noticed I have gotten progressively better at identifying patterns in the letters that can help me solve missing words and letters. Practicing with the two other members of the AFSt team who are much better at the paleography than I am has been incredibly beneficial as I am always learning from their insight. Luke and Astrid (the other team members) will often recognize things I have never seen before owing to their experience. While I am solid at identifying individual characters, I don’t know a lot of the archaic German words they seem to know almost instantly.
Tuesday afternoon was the general meeting where I received my duties for the week. Doctor Beiler and Luke decided it would be beneficial to the project to put the batch work on hold for now in order to work on the skeletal metadata. Though I had some idea on how this task would work from previous meetings and workshops, I had never truly seen someone in action doing the work. After the meeting, I stayed to watch Astrid work on the skeletal metadata, and she was kind enough to walk me through every step. She started with the spreadsheet we received from the Franckesche Stiftungen, transferring the information from the spreadsheet into the metadata section on Endnote, careful to follow the specific format that the project demands. After adding the abstract and giving it a quick read, Astrid taught me how to identify pre-made keywords that describe the letter and how to add them to Endnote.
When Wednesday came along I began working on the skeletal metadata independently. As I was not quite as familiar with the Endnote protocols compared to Astrid. I had to refer back to the protocols document at every step making sure to minimize mistakes the best I could. When I felt the protocols were unclear or I was confused, I reached out to Luke who would quickly give me a solution to my issue. I found all sorts of metadata and letters, with some of the most interesting concerning a Russian ABC book and a mother sending her son to a Halle orphanage.
Thursday marked the continuation of this work along with another transcription workshop, this time in English. I was more confident in my skeletal metadata tasks but still worked at a slow pace to ensure every step was completed correctly. As the last person to use the computer for the week, I was directly responsible for backing up all the files. Though I struggled doing this at first, the detailed instructions in the files tab of the Teams took me step by step through this process.
After backing up all the files, I had completed all of my hours for the week. Next week, I expect to work more on the skeletal metadata while continuing to improve my skills in all areas of the process.