Marie Lascu, Spring 2011

Marie Lascu, City College Archives, Spring 2011, IMLS

I have conducted an item level inventory of the City College Archive’s unprocessed audiovisual collection under the supervision of Professor Sydney Van Nort (Chief, Division of Archives and Special Collections). I also interacted with a full-time student worker, Samuel Sanchez, who aids Professor Van Nort with multiple tasks. My inventory was conducted with a simple excel spreadsheet. It became clear early on that I would not be able to capture all of the metadata I wanted because many of the items were either poorly labeled or not at all. Much of the material was already separated into multiple archival boxes, though not necessarily by format.

I went through each box as they were arranged on the shelves, numbering them sequentially, starting simply with 1 and so on. There were also several materials loosely shelved, including a small film collection, more than half of which is in the throes of vinegar syndrome. My inventory will aid my supervisor in organizing the audiovisual materials in a more navigable fashion. As much of the material at this time appears to be good for deaccessioning, the task of providing more information for unlabeled items will ultimately be less daunting. I will also provide an informal final report of the content I have inventoried.