Hello! I know, I know, you’d probably given me up for dead. A review of my New Year’s Resolutions fills me with shame and regret – a quick recap:
- Give up drinking for January.
Ah, well. Ahem. Moving on… - Learn to preserve food.
This actually happened! I have created pickled carrots and radishes! See here! - Finish knitting this goddamn jumper.
I still have three months! Three! *knits furiously* - Start writing this goddamn novel.
I started a different one instead. I’m calling this progress. Shuddup. - Learn French.
Nothing has happened AT ALL on this one. Tres tres mal. - Get fit.
Me and Jillian Michaels are once again in our sadistic abusive relationship. The effects are as yet to be discerned. - Let my work into my life.
This has really been happening! I attended LILAC 2014, the information literacy conference, and got fully fascinated by all things info lit. This expanded my Twitter-sphere of librarians and information professionals, and crammed my brain full of ideas for the future. - Be a good mentor.
Another check! The mentor scheme is complete, and I think we both got a lot out of the scheme. More on this later. - Pick up my trumpet.
Once again, ahem. - Write. Write write write write write!
I have been writing, but nothing that is fit to be seen, unfortunately. I have been loving writing it though, which was kind of the point!
So a mixed bag of success and failure, so far – let’s hope it’s a productive three months more.
So what on earth have I been doing all this time, I hear you cry? Well, among other things, I have been getting cracking on this family photo project. Although the bulk of the work is still to be done, there have been two significant steps forward:
- Equipment
I have acquired a photo scanner! It’s an HP Scanjet 4850, and I’d love to pretend this was the result of an extended assessment and decision-making process, but in fact, this is what I was able to obtain second hand from family. Seems to work fine though. - Software
I spent a lot of time agonising about the appropriate method to catalogue these photos. I couldn’t afford to shell out for a specialist piece of software; but the ultimate goal in all this was to share these photos with my family – a voluminous Excel spreadsheet of details with attachments was hardly going to fit the bill either. Various free tools were tried and failed to fit the bill. At this point, my colleague suggested Evernote – she was using it herself for a similar project, although she went on to describe the tool as “where I keep my life” (with a certain evangelical gleam in her eyes). Having gotten started with Evernote, I was initially and pre-emptively thrilled (“This is exactly what I need!”) and then briefly disappointed (“What the hell kind of bloody hierarchy options are these? Why is search so woundingly basic and stupid??”), and am now moving through the stages of Software Grief towards acceptance. No, it doesn’t do everything I want it to do. Yes, it does do enough to meet the purposes of 90% of the people who will use it. Yes, it’s free. Yes, it’s shareable and interactive. Yes, you CAN search quickly and reliably for all the photos in the collection of you as a gappy toddler/your gran as a stunning newlywed. It is good enough.
So I have the tools; I have the photos; what I still lack is any real strategy. I have started scanning and indexing photos on a “I like this one” basis, but I have no long term plan. I also still have no real systematic way of dealing with the fact that I have very little info on a lot of the photographs – mysterious men in uniform and ladies in Sunday hats abound. Not to mention the ephemera. Any tips from librarians/archivists/de facto family historians on ways to address these matters would be greatly appreciated. In the meantime, please see below a picture of me, looking slightly barking mad, as a child. Enjoy!
Everything is better in a Fairisle Sweater 