Thursday, July 24, 2008 

The highlight of the day was listening to three Czech LPs that we had salvaged. The covers are wrinkled, tattered, stained, and still have a distinct odor about them. The records have a slight “scent” to them, too, probably from the paper label. CR Gazette Reporter, Alicia Ebaugh , made a special trip down to listen to the LPs. We only listened to the first cut on each of the three LPs — a polka, a Christmas Carol, and a folk song. They sounded great! One was “scratchy.” I don’t know if that was from the flood, original recording, or hard use.

I finalized a contract with the African American Museum for the CDs/DVDS and museum objects — just basic cleaning — and got it off to them. It took a lot longer to prepare than I had anticipated so I was much delayed. They wanted the contract ASAP as FEMA told them late last week that they might be able to get some reimbursement — all they needed was a contract. This week they told them that the work wouldn’t qualify, before they even got a copy of the contract. It’s been a very frustrating week for them.

I treated my staff to a lunch of home made sloppy joes. It’s been a very trying time for everyone. Although we’re moved back into the basement, we’re still missing some furniture and shelving. Some of us are helping with flood recovery activities. The rest of the library staff is anxious to get back to routine work and want/need us to be back at our desks doing our regular work and we’re not there.

I ended my day as guest lecturer for Jacqueline Snyder’s Collection Management class. We spent some time discussing the role collection managers play in disaster response.