A View from the Stacks: Getting Started with the Myers Papers

The Myers Papers

This summer, Library Archives intern Sarah Osorio,  a graduate student at the University of North Carolina Chaple Hill, is doing some in-depth work with the Myers collection. Over the course of the summer, Sarah will be working to compile a overall finding aid for the collection, creating box lists and topical guides, and incorporating recent additions.  Her work will make the more accessible and will help researchers use the amazing historical documents in the collection.  Sarah is keeping a detailed journal of her work. Below you will find a few excerpts from her first week in the Library. If you'd like to keep up with her daily archival adventures, however, you can read a more in-depth journal of her experiences here:  http://saosorio.wordpress.com/



"Day 1: Week 1

Today was my first day interning at the Chrysler Museum of Art! I will be working there for the next seven weeks from 10am-4pm Tuesdays through Fridays. I left early from my home because I didn’t know how traffic was going to be in the morning, and before today I had never physically visited the museum. I gave myself over an hour to get to the museum, but it only took 25 minutes, so I sat in my car for awhile re-reading the syllabus that my site supervisor wrote for me several weeks ago .
...
After touring the museum and eating some lunch, the interns met with their supervisors. My supervisor gave the three interns a tour of the library, and I got a small glimpse of what I will be working on for the next several weeks. I am looking forward to tomorrow, when hopefully I will be delving more into the manuscripts and conversing with my supervisor on ways to enhance accessibility to the collection."

"Day 2: Week 1



Most of today was dedicated to reading a transcript about Moses Myers. The transcription that I read is given to docents training to give tours for the Myers House, which is located about half a mile from the Chrysler Museum. I thought the reading was very informative and insightful, and I really enjoyed reading about the city of Norfolk from the 1790s through the 1820s; it gives me a very different perspective from what I have seen of Norfolk in the past few years. For example, I have been down Church Street several times before, but I never knew that the origins of Church Street began during the years of the early American republic. In addition, I came across Bank Street in the reading, which as the name suggests, is home to a number of banks. I feel that I have a better background about the time period in which Moses Myers lived, and I think this background is an important basis for future decision-making about the collection that I will be making."
 
"Day 3: Week 1

I have lots of information about the collection to go through still in order to try to piece together how the collection has been processed, arranged, and described over the years. It seems that several individuals have gone through the collection to create order, but altogether there is not a one, central finding aid that can help individuals coming in to look at the collection find what they need. Right now I believe my task is very large, but I think when I sit down and work on it more closely, it will become easier and less daunting. "
 
"Day 4: Week 1
Today I continued to go through some of the administrative documents for the collection, trying to figure out the context of the Myers papers from the 1950s to the present. I looked at an itemized list in bound volumes created by ODU, and I determined that the list was not in any particular order. The list did not correspond with any of the other notebooks, so I am interested to see how the logic behind how the items were arranged in those books. I think it will be quite a challenge compiling a finding aid that includes the papers, music collection (approximately 900 pieces), and library of about 1,000 books. Still, I think going through the documentation has been helpful, and I will still need to go through more things when I get back on Monday. I know that I will need to look at the Access database, some administrative history from the library’s network drive, and perhaps other final documentation.


One thing that I thought was particularly interesting about the documentation I found is that there was a transcript of a master’s paper written by a UNC-Chapel Hill student in library science. The paper was submitted in April 1970, and the paper was about the Myers’ collection of books. The library science student created an inventory of books, creating an arrangement system where she organized the books in alphabetical order (I think it was organized by author’s last name). As the books are today, they are actually arranged by publication date. Still, it was interesting to see that a library science student from 40 years ago was able to make use of the collection for her master’s paper."

 - Sarah Osorio, 2011 Summer Libary Archives Intern

Sarah's doing great work, and we look forward to seeing how her project unfolds throughout the summer!