I have just received word that weekly blog entries are a “go,” and it couldn’t be more welcome news. I’ve found it maddening to try and update this thing every day and the inundation of entries is surely a turn-off to anyone trying to follow this blog. I’m too invested in Tumblr to change now, but I regret not going with a different service. Anyways, once a week I will do one entry with all daily summaries from that week. Same style, less entries. I’ll post photo sets and other media separately from the summaries for those of you who could care less about how many artifacts I labeled on a given day.

Monday, June 20 (10:00-5:30)

  • Took down a t-shirt hanging from the ceiling of the museum store; it was mistakenly placed there and is actually a part of the collections; I photographed it, documented it in PastPerfect, wrapped it in acid-free tissue paper, placed it in an archival box (which I printed labels for) and put it away in storage
  • Probably the most difficult thing I’ve done to date: labeled the proton magnetometer (see picture) hanging from the ceiling in the “Art McKee and the Treasure Hunters” gallery; it looks like a big yellow missile and its location (and lack of mobility) made it extremely awkward to apply the B-72, paint and gloss to; I stood on a ladder bent at a strange angle and tried to write on it delicately without moving it (it was hanging from wires); very frustrating work, but it had to be done; then I measured it, photographed it and entered the data into PastPerfect
  • Labeled assorted objects, including a ballast stone (see picture) and CD’s; also assigned the ballast stone an accession number, catalog number, took its photo and created PastPerfect records for it
  • Discussed the Flickr account I created on Friday; talked about how best to use it and how to get people to want to use it; agreed on the idea of a community “pool” of pictures taken at the museum, but are unsure on how to “peddle” it at this point; remains “live” but the museum has yet to promote it
  • Photographed 9 books from the library and added their images to PastPerfect; also updated their records in more detail

Tuesday, June 21 (10:00-5:30)

  • Tracked down a dagger in the exhibits from its’ certificate of authenticity that was floating around the office; finally found it, noted location and associations to certificate in PastPerfect
  • Created an object record for a dagger handle on display in the “treasure room” in PastPerfect; took its photograph and updated provenance information (it was salvaged from a 1733 Spanish shipwreck!)
  • Adjusted accession records, photos, location, etc. for a C’Cat Rover on exhibit
  • Worked on blog entry #2, which is about the dagger handle I worked on earlier in the day; I’m going to tie together the handle, the Spanish treasure fleet it was recovered from and its discoverer (Art McKee), hopefully in a way that is fun and interesting for the museum’s “online visitors”; will finish this tomorrow

Wednesday, June 22 (10:00-5:30)

  • After a lot more research on a subject with surprisingly few credible sources of information, I finished my second blog entry; the museum advertised it immediately on its Facebook page and we got a decent amount of “hits” today; their blog has been inactive for a while, so they are happy with any attention at all
  • Photographed all objects currently on loan to the History of Diving Museum; catalogued and created PastPerfect records for all of them as well

Thursday, June 23 (10:00-5:30)

  • Printed out catalog records for all objects from 2009 accessions; created accession records for any objects that had no “official” accession record in PastPerfect; fixed a variety of errors and problems from previous entries in PastPerfect; completed the 2009 catalog and accession files; filed the 2009 Deeds of Gift away in the donor file cabinet
  • Removed an old photo of an unidentified man and Art McKee from the exhibit gallery; scanned it for the purpose of posting it to Facebook and asking museum visitors who the unidentified man was; McKee was a big name in the Keys for a long time and a lot of people who knew him are still here, so it’s definitely a great idea; so far the answers have been anything but conclusive, but its definitely a way of making the museum more “participatory”
  • Opened the new HOBO data loggers that just arrived!; helped install the new computer software and explore its features; decided on locations for the five data loggers: 1 in collections storage, 1 in the library, 3 in the exhibits distributed evenly; placed them in these locations temporarily

After-work activities

  • Tonight I volunteered to hold up one of the pilot whales that beached themselves back in May at the Marine Mammal Conservancy; we were giddy with joy until the humbling and sobering orientation speech, during which we were told pilot whales are the among the most intelligent and aggressive of all whales and are “1200 pound marine mammals than can kill you if they want to”; we got to pick out wetsuits (40% of the reason I wanted to go) and then very carefully, arms crossed, got in the water with the whale (it didn’t have a name and simply went by #300); 4 people held her at a time, trying to keep her level and the blowhole above the water; she was sick with pneumonia and had a major cramp in her tail, but was still extremely strong and hard to hold at times; every time someone entered the water, she got excited and started bobbing her head up and down, making adorable whale noises; the skin was rubbery and felt very fragile (we had to trim out fingernails beforehand); also, I got pooped on by it, as I was in the back behind the dorsal fin; not many people can say they’ve been pooped on by a whale, so it’s a story I will be relaying to my kids and grandkids for many years; a truly surreal and amazing experience that I will never forget

Friday, June 24 (10:00-5:30)

  • Organized a collection of library books; found their call numbers from the Library of Congress catalog (see June 28th entry); made “bookmark” labels for all of them; moved them to the library
  • Organized a collection of 23 objects that was originally only recorded as 8 objects in PastPerfect; renumbered, labeled, photographed, packaged with acid-free tissue, stored and reprinted the new PastPerfect records for all objects; this took up the majority of the day