During the semester, we had 4 different people (undergrad and grad students) digitizing 5 or 6 different audio collections (cassette tape and reel-to-reel), which in the end were destined for two different archives (the institutional repository here on campus, and a digital archive in Australia). Nothing was quite finished at the end of the semester, but I figured I’d be back the week following graduation to pick up the pieces and sort all the files and metadata out.
A month later, I’m finally getting back into the lab. And with that month gap, I feel like I’ve lost track of SO much that I would’ve remembered if I’d been able to get back right away*. Still, so far today I’ve managed to evaluate what still needs to be digitized (two boxes of cassettes), get some stray files and metadata to the repository, make a list of what needs to be sent to Australia, and catch a few more things hiding in emails that need to be dealt with.
The main threat to my sanity right now is my urge to take to multitasking to extremes. It’s okay to be digitizing a cassette on one computer while I pick through a spreadsheet on another, but if I start making lists, uploading files, sending emails, and – oops – blogging all at once, I start forgetting what I’m in the middle of and getting distracted by things that should maybe wait.
Overall, there’s still a lot to do, but it feels much more manageable than it did two hours ago.
*No, it wasn’t laziness, though I wish it had been! It was family in town, a book chapter to help Frans finish, and a friend who broke her shoulder and needed surgery plus someone to take care of her.
