Cross-eyed and so not bushy-tailed

This post is so not going to have any flowing words or insightful meaning.  Just a quick note on what is happening next.

Late last week, Chris and Bill worked on getting another project set up that Chris is “heading”, or in charge of or whatever, and that I’m tacking myself onto until Kathy is ready with some pictures to organize.  It’s data entry from the Pyla-Koutsopetria digs in Cyprus.

Things did not get off to a good start.  The Access program was incredibly temperamental when entering data, and then it didn’t save what Chris had already started.  So he had to re-enter data (which wasn’t actually that much), and we figured out it wouldn’t save because the Access sheet was created in probably Office 2003….and it wouldn’t save unless it was 2007.  So we just converted it, and now it’s just fine.

The way the data is set up is for each “section” of the dig area, there are two or three accompanying sheets that have location, depth, soil composition, things of importance found, etc.  These sheet’s need to be entered into the Access program for a) easy storage, b) easy sharing, and c) easy reading.  Thank God a different “monkey” (Chris’s word, not mine!) grad student transcribed some of what is written, so for some parts all Chris and I have to do is copy/paste.

I came in this morning and worked for almost a solid four hours straight…and I only got 24 entries in.  24.  Out of many, many more than 24.  When I left our hidey-hole back to my GTA office, I had to hang onto the wall for guidance, my eyes were so cross-eyed.

Public history is what I want to do most, and part of public history includes data entry like this.  But just because I like public history, and just because I’m good at tedious work, doesn’t mean it’s always enjoyable.

There will be down days.

I’m going to take an aspirin.

Parents Just Don’t Understand

If anyone has been to collegehumor.com, you understand that title.  It’s a weekly post where college students and twenty-somethings from all over the nation send in their experiences with the older generation and their lack of understanding with today’s technologies.

Our online museum is not a ready as we had hoped, we are still waiting on server issues, but I spent last week putting some finishing touches on fonts, organization, etc. to make it pretty.  But it’s almost done, and when it is, it’s time to move on to another project in our public history class.

This class is much more computer oriented than my experiences at my small county museum in Grand Forks.  Sure, we are working on putting our artifact archives on a program called Past Perfect, but it’s less complicated than Omeka because it is not an online program.  It is not accessible to people browsing on the web; one can only view our items if they are sitting at our computer in the museum.

But, being raised in the ’90s, my generation was not only raised on computers, but we are much more capable of adapting to new technologies than our parents generation.  At the age of five I could find the programs I wanted on my parents very ancient Macintosh, and by the age of ten I was making signs for my mother’s daycare.  Of course, I’m not as tech savvy as a computer science major, but I was raised to know where to find what I want.

Our parents had a major generation gap with their parents who were part of the Great Depression generation, the WWII and Korean War generation.  They were separated from their children who were the “children of the revolution”.  I remember when I was younger, my mom would tell me when ever she was angry with what was happening in the US, “We sold out the revolution for a pair of running shoes”.

But now it’s my generation’s turn to have issues with our parents, and this time it’s technology.  It’s certainly not that they are incapable of learning such things, it’s just that they were not raised in an environment where they look at a computer and know exactly how to access the internet and browse the web….or how to unzip zipped files.

So this lead me to question….who are we aiming this online museum towards?  My mother, whom I’m certain would be livid if she found out I posted her age on here, is 51 years old, and she’s the tail end of the Baby Boomers, which is the largest numbered generation in the US today.  Even my older sisters generation, who were raised in the ’80s, didn’t get our training we received, and there is a fair number of them that are clueless when it comes to computers.  By creating a strictly online museum, are we limiting our audience even when our goal is to expand it?

An experiment we want to do in the class is create a sort of electronic museum where anyone can contribute something to.  This will most likely involve the students on UND’s campus.  UND, however, has a fair amount of the “older than average” students.  When we are sending out a call for, say, people to show us UND’s ugliest doors through their eyes, are we only speaking to a certain percentage?  The percentage that knows how?

Morbidly, we eventually won’t have this generation gap.  One day, my child will be a readily adaptable to technology as I am, so anything created now online will live on to generations to come.  But with every move towards making stuff more “accessible” “easier” and “quicker” with computer technologies, it seems we are quickly leaving our parent’s generation in the dust, expecting them to keep up without any help, and labeling them unintelligent when they struggle to understand.  Technology must move forward, and nothing will ever be as dramatic as replacing the horse with the automobile…but do we have to leave half of our population behind in order to move forward?

The Lost City of Grand Forks, ND

This whole blog thing is going to take some getting used to.  I’ve never kept a personal blog, let alone a semi-professional blog…but hang in there, it will get better!

The past week has been filled with the finishing touches on the online exhibit with hopes of going live early this week.  On our end, I (and Bill) finished the interview and Kathy had her own trials with writing an introduction to a collection of essays.  On the server end (right, Bill?) we’re waiting for some updates to the layout.  But it’s getting to the end of our first go at an online collection.

However, its amazing how mother nature can put a hold on everything, including working on the computer and the internet.  If this next “prolonged snow event” (the words of the NOAA) again cause UND to shut down on Monday, our ETA for the exhibit could be pushed back if the techi’s can’t get in and make our changes.

My theory on this spring in the Red River Valley and UND’s spring semester?  We are going to continue to have Monday snow storms and the University will cancel classes every Monday until the middle of March when the melt starts, and then Grand Forks will submerge into an ocean of snow melt and disappear like Atlantis.  So this semester could possibly be incredibly short.

Remember us, dear readers, when your grandchildren wander museums and listen wide-eyed to the tales of the once real but will be mythical city of Grand Forks, North Dakota that disappeared in one night and sat where there is now a giant lake on the ND/MN boarder.  At least this blog and our online exhibit will live on.

Last but not least….

My name is Sara McIntee and I am the final intern for this experimental project at the University of North Dakota.  I was born and raised in North Dakota and love everything the state has to offer, hands down.  The “prairie” is my life.  Although, North Dakota is not the flat state you think it to be.  Look at a topographical map.  Trust me.  We have hills. 

I am a MA candidate at UND with a major in history. This is my first semester as a graduate student, so I feel I am tripping my way through the month of January.

I consider myself different from the rest of the graduate students in the history department because my goals as a MA candidate are different.  I’m not looking to teach and I’m not looking to do research.  I am concentrating on Public History.

For the past few years I’ve worked at the local historical society archiving artifacts and spreading the good news of the historical world to the public in a language they speak- simple and entertaining.  While some graduate students get a high off the latest WWII book or writing a 50+ page paper, I prefer to get my kicks giving a tour and writing a artifact-acceptance receipt for a 100+ year picture of Grand Forks.  Historical interpretation is important, but I sometimes think the scholars (and grad students) of the world forget the pictures, letters, documents, and artifacts need to be cared for and who takes care of it so they can view it for years to come.  Theories and stories can only go so far- artifacts are what keep history alive.

I hope I can gain more experience with working with a team of “archivists” as in the historical society I am the only one.  I hope this blog will also reach aspiring historians all over the world- young and old, professional and amateur- and let them in on the unseen behind-the-scenes of a working museum.

And don’t be shy to comment!  We would love to answer questions or just engage in conversations about history, our museum, Pyla-Koutsopetria, North Dakota….or anything else that strikes your fancy!

Sara McIntee