Bureau of Public Discussion and Some Lee Hamilton

This week I finished going through the boxes from the Bureau of Public Discussion.  Today I finished typing up a rough container list based on where things are now.  I then stared at this for a little bit.  This collection is larger than my last two and it's taking me a bit longer to wrap my head around what the best series would be.  It's also from five different accessions with files that will need to be put together.  Additionally I believe that things are not in there original order since even files that should be in alphabetical or chronological order are all over the place.  After taking a lunch break and re-examining what I had in front of me I made some decisions.  There will clearly be administrative files, correspondence, one for the conferences and seminars, and probably a publications one.  The administrative files will have the personnel records and other working documents.  The publications will likely contain the reading courses and possibly the Package Library Briefs.  This is where I may do some rethinking tomorrow.  There is also a lot of other information about the Package Library service in the other series I have thought about.  If I find that there is evidence that this was it's own office it may merit it's own series.  That will take some digging tomorrow. 

While checking one folder to make sure that it belonged in the conferences/seminars series I discovered a photograph.  I instinctively made note of this so that it could be pulled and placed in the photograph collection.  Then on the back it said "Lee Hamilton."  Lee Hamilton was a congressman from Indiana and he had apparently been a speaker at this conference on U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Southeast Asia in 1965.

It was like two worlds intersected.  In my job at the archives I work for Kate, the Political Papers Archivist.  It really hasn't been difficult separating the job and internship because I am doing very different things for two different people.  But today the met for a bit.  In my job I have been doing item level description of some of Lee Hamilton's papers in EAD.  Gaining EAD experience has been great and by doing item level description (so that it can be fully digitized) I have learned a lot.  Part of what I like about working in archives is all the new things that you learn that you never even thought you'd need to know.  Since I've been learning so much about Lee Hamilton (and feeling like I'm getting to know him) it was exciting to make a connection to him in another collection.  And Kate was excited because she didn't have that photograph of him, so now she can have a scan for her records.  It made my day, so I felt like I should write about it! 

To wrap up, I'm glad that I'm getting experience with this collection that is a bit bigger.  It is causing me to think more about the best way to arrange it.