The Wonder of 35mm Slides

Before I start, I just want to tell you, Martha, that you have a great reputation at Harvard. I have gotten told by a great number of people how great you are and how instrumental you were in setting up the system of cataloging visual materials that I am working with.

I finally got a chance to dive in head first into the 35mm slides this past week. I am working right now with 35mm slides of Iran. I have to assess the state of their cataloging, figure out who the slide was donated by, and then recommending or declining them for digitization based on this status. Many of these slides have been cataloged in VIA but have not been digitized, so I am helping close this gap.

I love working with 35mm slides. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I just love their size and the tactility of them. I haven't since I was in undergrad and scanned them for the art history department, but I am really enjoying working with them. I am getting a light pad to use in the next week or so to make it easier to see the slides. 

I get to work with VIA and SharedShelf during my work, which I am enjoying. I have never gotten to see the back end of SharedShelf before, so I am really enjoying seeing how it works, knowing what kind of fields are required and offered by the system, and learning how to navigate it. I am also enjoying working with VIA, since I have never done so before. 

I cannot wait to dive deeper into this project and see what else I get to do to help with their visual resources.