Collins Unbound

If last week was about me figuring out what the heck I’m actually doing, this week was about me figuring out just how to do that.

I had a difficult time deciding where to start with my indexing, because while I did narrow my project to the 1960s, that’s still ten years and a lot of issues of The Trail. So, I took a step back and situated myself in the larger context of the 1960s by making a highly technical and accurate timeline.

Yeah, that clearly took me a lot of time to make…

However, it was a very useful place to start. Now that I have these dates nailed down, and in an easily referenced place, I can look for parallels or stories about the events in The Trail.

Not that the timeline came in handy when I actually started indexing; I pretty much just chose a random article on the front page of the issue from November 6, 1963 and indexed out from there. In hindsight, there was a much more natural place to start: October 2, 1963. It would have been more logical in a variety of ways; in addition to being the first issue in the 1963-1964 school year, it was the published the day after John F. Kennedy visited Tacoma and it has a lot of material on him, including descriptions of his speech and student opinions on what he said. But you live and you learn, right?

The indexing itself is going much smoother than I anticipated, and I’ve been getting through two or three issues each day! Way better than I thought. I will have to do a lot of cleaning up at the end of the summer (and figure out how to actually find Library of Congress headings for all of these), but for now this is great progress.

Perhaps the greatest (worst?) thing I learned this week is that Microsoft Excel is not infinite. Since I was a child, I have believed that Excel would just go on creating rows and columns forever and that it didn’t have any end. Well, young Jillian, behold:

I have found the last possible cell in Excel. That highlighted one in the lower right corner. It’s kind of a letdown, and young Jillian is very disappointed.

If I actually reach these limits this summer, it will mean that I’ve been a little too enthusiastic with my use of subject headings.

By Jillian Zeidner

This summer, I’ll be indexing all of the issues of The Trail from the 1960s. Even though it’s just one decade of the run of this student newspaper, that means indexing approximately 500 issues all by myself so I’m sure I’ll have my hands full. I’ll also be doing some research on how students wrote about the assassinations of public figures during the 1960s (e.g. John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Robert F. Kennedy).

Here are some photographs from my first day in the Archives & Special Collections. I spent my day getting acquainted with how things work here and doing some research on indexing methods past and present:

I picked up the indexes for The Times and The New York Times just to see examples of how newspapers have been indexed over time. The Times index looks basically like a book index with normal sized font, no surprises there. However, The New York Times index is different…much different:

Look at how tiny that font is! Above are the first of multiple pages under the heading “Government”. They packed some major text on those pages.

Here’s a close-up:

Unlike (most) book indexes, there’s a description of each location listing, which is pretty useful. However, the locations are just mixed in with the descriptions and many of the descriptions make very little sense, so all told it’s not a super user friendly index. At least it’s all online now, and much easier to use.

Side note: The New York Times index was handwritten, in the same format, from the paper’s start in 1851 until 1913. HANDWRITTEN. I’ll just have to keep that in mind if my job ever feels tedious; no matter how much I feel like complaining, at least I’m not the person who had to hand write The New York Times index.

By Jillian Zeidner

The Archives & Special Collections is pleased to welcome its second summer research fellow, Jillian Zeidner!  Jillian, a double major in history and religion, will focus her research on the Puget Sound campus in the 1960s.  Using the student newspaper, The Trail, Jillian will track student reactions to national and local events.  In addition, Jillian will assist in the creation of archival lessons drawing on the collections and compile research topics from the collections for future student projects.  Jillian will be documenting her summer in the Archives & Special Collections on our blog.  So be on the lookout for updates from Jillian every Thursday!

Image caption: Class of 1914 from A Sound Past

You’ve made it to the finish line!

The students of the Class of 2013 have contributed tremendously to the University of Puget Sound and will soon join 120 years of Puget Sound alumni.  The University graduated its first class, of four students, in 1893. From 1893 to 2013, our college has seen a lot of changes; Freshman Week has become Preludes, Passages, and Perspectives, and the hatchet has disappeared and reappeared numerous times.  Our colors may have changed (from maroon to green and then back to maroon), but our philosophy remains the same: To the Heights!

The great accomplishments of the Class of 2013 will be documented in the University of Puget Sound Archives & Special Collections, and will become an official part of campus history.

Graduates, we wish you luck with your future ventures and voyages! Your dedication and hard work will inspire generations of Puget Sound students as your scholarly achievements live on in Collins Memorial Library.

By Maya Steinborn