Day 1

Daily hours: 7

Total hours: 7

I started off the first day of my senior project in the Lovejoy Library. I met with Heidi and Lori to discuss what the best plan of action was for sorting the books. The first step was to go to the back selves of the library and begin looking for which books were keepers and which ones needed to stay off the shelves. Some of the things that I looked for in the books were the terminology used, the perspectives shown, and the accuracy of information. If I wasn't sure if a book was credible I would look online for information about the author and reviews/commentary if it was available. If that still did not provide clarity or I was questioning it, there is a shelf that I put it on. This shelf will later be examined by myself, Lori, Heidi, and maybe a professional to make the final decision. 

I started creating piles of books based on topics and categories that I felt made sense. I was grouping the books from the first shelf into language, nations, and poetry. This system worked in the beginning but as I started pulling more books I realized my topics needed to be broader. I also learned that I had to push the books to the side of the wall so that people could make their way through to the bathroom. I organized my previous piles into various broader topics and added labels to remember. My original topics evolved to become: fiction novels, language, literature and poetry, primary sources, photography and arts/crafts, religion and philosophy, tales/legends, and the classic unsorted miscellaneous pile. 

I continued to work and noticed the shelves becoming clearer and the piles on the floor getting taller. After I had cleared and organized about three wholes shelves, I was feeling pretty sick of cramming into the hallway to organize. It was at this point, that Heidi asked me to start moving them over to the area that will eventually hold the Native American collection. I then began the process of moving the tall stacks of books over toward the back of the library. It took me over ten trips to bring all the books over. 

Once all the books I had sorted were in the right area, I placed them upright and added the labels I had created. The next step will be to get the books that haven't yet been cataloged in the Lovejoy Library into the database so people can search for them and check them out. Tomorrow I will continue to sort books because there are a lot more shelves in that back room to get through. Some of my takeaways from today are that the dust that gets kicked up from the older books makes me sneeze a lot. I was also blown away by the sheer volume of books that have been donated by George Emeny, knowing that there is a lot more on the shelves I have yet to uncover. I found the books that are written in Lakota and Navajo super interesting and I would love to read more about different Nation's tales and legends. Overall, day 1 was productive and it gave me a good idea of how the organization of the Native American collection in the Lovejoy Library will continue even after I graduate.