Archive Journey

So much work to clean it up, refile stuff and what.co-not.

We had 14 months of doing things the way we wanted (within reason). The minute we get a huge donation of $10,000 for the room, we now have to be micromanaged??

The library director is a controlling narcissist who was being SHOWN UP in THE library. NOT his library as it is paid for by the taxes.

Anyway, through out 14 months, I made a few videos. It wasn't quick to do. We did a lot of work FOR FREE. Now in April or May we have to get permission to talk to people, get permission to access the room on other days when it is not open to the public.

Permission to use the display case upstairs. We need to go to the director if we need supplies. Mind you, he is the most laziest person. Instead of being able to go down to the dollar tree, get a pencil within a day, we would have to wait a week or two. FOR A DAMN PENCIL.

We didn't rely on them for anything. Since the $10,000 donation the director treated me like crap. We needed a phone, so we used the donation money. He didn't like that, so we went to the board meeting. The board made a motion to let us use the donation money.

After this the director with the president of the board had us in the office telling us what we can and cannot do. Smells exactly like retaliation.

So we resigned on Tuesday. We heard through the grapevine that the director paid $900 for a Ramadan party for food. He made a group that supports the LIBRARY to pay for half. Sleeze ball.

Did the library have a Christmas party for Christians? Nope. Did the library have a Hanukkah party for the Jewish faith? Nope.

Only a Ramadan party because the Library Director is the First MUSLIM Library Director in the county I live in. . Apparently its HIS library. He lives in the richest town, has a $1,400 phone.

We heard that the library group that supports the library holds book sales to earn money for the library. YET the library director never helped set up. The ladies have to do EVERYTHING.

I was on the hunt for photo albums because I was not about to spent $20+ on albums at Walmart, since they had one for $10 that held 100 and I needed one that held 250.

So I found a boat load of photo albums for $1.99 each. Brand new, that held 300-500 photos.

Also found a pack of 12 legal note pads $2.99, (7) 3 Ring Binders $4.00 for 7 , and a box of 7,500 mailing address labels. $2.99.

Yesterday, I did it. I ordered the phone w/ service from a new cellular company called Visible. It is on Verizon's service, rather than T-Mobile that the library director wanted to use.

We are using some of the donation money we received earlier this year. I'm always iffy about making a huge purchase, until i get the item in my hand. Butterflies I guess...

The service comes with a hotspot built in the phone. I just hope they don't get rid of that feature like Cricket Wireless did. It was one of the perks we signed up for, only for Cricket Wireless to go away with it because they saw they can make extra money from customers for $10+ more a month.

I just worked on a huge scanning project for the 4th of July. Scanned 376 photos (compared to my other scanning projects, this was the least amount).

Anyway, i knew we have photo sleeves in the room, since the album these photos came out of, the sleeves were torn and the photos were falling out. (I decided to put the year on the back of the photos, just in case they fall out all at once).

So i bring home 41 photo sleeves because they looked 4 x 6 inches (we have like 6 packs of the size i brought home). Well they hold photos that are not 4 x 6 inches... they hold photos that are 4 x 5.25 inches. WTF?

So now we either have regular 4 x 6 inches in the room in the amazing collection of plastic, or we will have to buy MORE plastic photo sleeves. I'm debating whether or not to try and resell the plastic sleeves to try to get money for the room, to fix the previous archivist mistake.

I've been digitizing the stuff in the archive room. Jobs that would have cost the library probably over $1,000. I'm not tooting my own horn, just stating facts.

My first job was scanning 4 boxes of 8 x 10 photos. 1,200+ photos altogether. That was hard because I only was able to scan one photo at a time using a camera. That job took 2.5 months.

The second job took 5 months, with over 7,000 pieces scanned. No one in their right mind would do THAT for free.

The 3rd digitizing job was 18 albums of HS Reunions, a total of 1,435 pictures. Went easier because i didn't have to crop, and could scan 3 at a time. Took about 2 weeks, due to the at home scanner.

The library would NOT get anyone to do this for FREE. Heard through the grapevine that they were trying to get a real archivist to work in the room full time - volunteering. They never showed up.

We went into the room for our Saturday hours today. We got 2 donations, music cds of the high school's chorus concerts from 1999-2009. Amazing.

Then our second donation was 35 MM slides from the 70s. It looks like photos taken during High School during the early 70s. Should interesting to digitize.

I love looking at old photos. I'm finishing up scanning photos from HS reunions. There were / are 20 small albums (100-200 per album) I have over 900 scans in one folder.

You don't need the most expensive scanner to digitize photos. I'm soo happy with my CanonScan Lide 300 that i purched in 2025 for only $75.00. It's 2026 and i'm still learning about the features.

I placed 3 photos on the scanner

You think, doing this will create more work. 3 photos on 1 PHOTO document, you'll have to crop each photo... right? well this scanner, when scanned using AUTO option, crops each photo for you!!!

How amazing is that! each photo is the normal 4 x 6 inches.

It creates individual photos! You just need to rotate them yourself. I use the photo viewer on the computer and hit CTRL + R to rotate. Easy peasy. HAHAHA

I use the CanoScan LIDE 300 but i just saw that they do have a newer model...the 400 at best buy (it's faster...by 2 seconds, and the optical resolution is better.)

We recently held our second event... another educational lecture and movie. This time it was about the town's beginnings.

We spoke for 20-30 minutes, followed by a 46 minute movie, which is a remake of a 1 hr 20 minute made in the late 80s, early 90s. I updated it with new narration, and some better photos.

New narration means, a different person talking in a faster speed (tempo?) and worded differently when I was able. But still went by the script for facts...and keeping some original pages too.

Roughly 35 people showed up for this event, it was held on weekday night 6:30pm to 8pm.

February 21st we held our first event, which was a lecture on a Film Studio. For our first event, I would say we did OKAY.

The 20th of February we went and set everything up, chairs, displays, and even tested out the dvd player with the projector. A few hiccups that evening, but by the time we were done, everything was ready for our first event.

It could have gone better, but it COULD have been worse. Our slideshow was wonky, as i was not informed when to click the button for the next picture, and our speaker had a hoarse voice. (Forgot water).

I managed to film the entire talk...managed to "polish" the lecture, editing out the coughing, the long pauses and more.

Practice makes perfect. Right? It was our first event, and we learn from our mistake(s).

First, to have water available for the speaker...

Secondly, have two scripts...one for speaker and one for the person who works the projector/slideshow.

Within the scripts, bold where and when to include the slides. That way the projector user can follow along.

Our slideshow was all cattywampus. Flipping through pictures and what-not. It was a mess.

That's about it for "mistakes". It wasn't a disaster, but it wasn't as perfect as I hoped it would be.

One tip, our speaker learned from another event is to have a portable light, especially when you are showing a slide-show from a projector. The room has to be dark to show the pictures, therefore you need LIGHT to see your script.

We use a P-Touch system by Brother to label things in the archive room. One thing i noticed about the machine is that the label maker makes an inch (Blank) indent at the beginning and the end of the label, this way you run out of label FAST and have to Reorder.

However, I recently found a work around. Instead of wasting time, and making individual labels (hence the blank indent), you create 1 LONG label, hitting the space bar 2-3 times between each title. You'll need to use scissors to cut each title apart.

Yesterday, I finished my first huge project. I scanned the house cards that were donated to the room...not sure when. I started the project late July 2025 and Finished January 25, 2026, some minor/major hic ups along the way.

The purpose of the project, was to be able to give people the option to the information emailed to the home/property owners.

With this journey, i was able to fix cards that were coming unglued, taped up ripped cards, and change out the rusted staple. The old staples, the earliest was from 1930s. There was also old rubber bands that became hard and broke easily.

Some properties have old photos of their house, and some even had people walking. It felt like an early version of google maps. LOL. and very nostalgic feel.

I saved it all on a USB stick, but eventually going to back it up on a CD (in case the USB stick ever breaks. Believe me, they do.)

I have been using 2 apps for editing photos with. The good old "Paint" that comes with windows, and Photoscape X.

Photoscape X has a lot of it's options for free but they do have a subscription/pro options. I use this app for it's Perspective Crop when photos are not straight, it will straighten any photo that might have scanned on an angle.

I decided to invest in a scanner to scan things at home. It has helped immensely. I of course did ample research. Sure i would have liked an Epson as I like to stick with HP...but it was out of my personal budget. I bought the Canon - CanoScan LIDE 300 for $79.00 at a store called Micro Center. They are also at Best Buy for $89.99. It works with my Lenovo Yoga 2-in-1 laptop. (might not work on a MAC).

It doesn't have too many bells and whistles; it's not your top of the line electronic if you are looking for the cool things in a scanner.

It is light (perfect for travel), and easy to use. One draw back is that it is a lot smaller than the one at the archive room. I am scanning paper the size of index cards, and smaller. The one in the room will scan 7-8 cards at a time, this scanner does 3-4...and 1 piece of paper at a time. But it is FAST.

I like it because you don't need to plug it into an outlet in the wall (or extension cord). It powers up just plugging it into a 3.0 USB hub. It will NOT work with 2.0 USB HUB. Believe me i went through a lot.

At first i thought my USB hub was broken so i went to a store and bought a new one (Because Co-Pilot said it would work with a 2.0 USB port...it was wrong). Then went back to Micro Center because it had the 3.0 USB Hub for $15.99, and it was on sale for $13.99. Not much of a sale, but I was happy because I went in thinking i was paying $16-$17.00.

This scanner cost in total cost me $79.00+$13.99 altogether because i did not already have a 3.0 USB port.

My current project started in late July 2025, and I am still working on it. Given that the room is only open 2 days a week, and sometimes I go in on other days. I recently invested in a scanner for the laptop provided. It has helped immensely. Now I can bring work home. My project is digitizing/scanning old realtor cards/photos from the 30s, to the 70s. I've learned that they were staple crazy. Why does a card need 3 -4 staples to staple 2 pieces of paper?

The staples from the 30s-40s are of course RUSTED, as well as paper clips, and rubber bands are tough and get stuck to the cards. By doing this project I put new staples so that no one gets hurt, as well as fix cards that are either ripped, or the paper has come unglued.

By scanning the boxes of cards, i can easily email the house owner the history of their home, as well as print copies from the room.

Update: 01.19.2026

I'm learning a lot from this project. When a property/house is "in Chancery" it means it is involved in a court dispute and cannot be sold until it gets worked out.