Week 5: The Final Project

It’s finally here – the end, well, sort of the end. More like the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next. This course has taught me so much about books and how to think about them differently. This week we were to “finish” our final project as we will be presenting them on Tuesday and Thursday. I say “finish” in quotation marks because these projects shouldn’t really be finished. Mine isn’t at least. I could work on mine for the other 49 states, but I may hold off on that for a little bit.

My frustrations were only with WorldCat and it’s unreliableness due to the way it portrays its vast amount of information. I worked through my struggles though, hugely in part to Dr. Pauley, and completed my project for the time being. Dr. Bankhurst also reassured me about my project and I now feel a lot better about it. I know think about the questions that involve a book’s history, like, where it came from, who owned it, why was it made the way it was, etc.

If anything, I’m more interested now in books than I was to begin this class. Perhaps I’m interested in different ways, but I count that as a success.

Just like that, another class is finished, another semester is over, and I’m one step closer to graduation. Time flies when you’re digging up the stories of old books.

Click here if you want to see my project.

Week 4: Progress

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” – Frederick Douglass

Upon meeting with Dr. Pauley this past week, I was able to hone in on what I am actually trying to convey as my message to my final project. I am switching gears just a little bit. I’m still doing the project over Notes on the State of Virginia, I am just focusing my project to show the books in the different Oklahoma universities and public libraries. This collection of copies and editions that reside in Oklahoma surprised me, if I could be quite honest. I figure the book is popular amongst the historians/history professors, students, etc. who are interested in Jefferson or maybe they really want to know more about Virginia in the 18th century. Either way, I’m just glad to say I finally feel comfortable with my project.

This week is my finals week, and I’d be lying if I said I’m looking forward to my Microeconomics final on Wednesday. It’s actually stressful enough to give me heart palpitations.

Pertaining to my project, I now have a more narrowed-down list of Notes that reside in the different surrounding universities. Once I know I have a completed list (my goal for Thursday), I will then create my Google map of Oklahoma and plot the different copies at the varying locations. I will also start my timeline at this point.

The end is very near, but once I survive my finals, I can focus all of my attention on finishing this project the way I would like.

Week 3: Pre-Finals Week

It’s like I’m back in the first week, feeling the pressures of classes ending – except they are literally ending in four days. EVERYTHING is fine. Finals week is next week. EVERYTHING is still fine.

This week has not been overly productive as I haven’t been able to meet up with my librarian to talk to her about the book. She knows the history of the book and how it came to our campus. With Kelly being the only librarian, apart from her assistant, even at a small campus there is not enough of her to go around. Our schedules have clashed as the end of the semester comes to a close, but I will be setting up a time to talk with her this week.

I managed to borrow the copy of the “Notes on the State of Virginia” we have in our library – the copy I can actually take out of the library. I snapped some photos of the few differences I found between the new, 1955 edition, and the 1801 archive book we have. I can only keep the newer edition out until the end of the semester (due in 10 days), so I may have to talk to Kelly in order to keep it a few days longer if needed. USAO’s semester ends earlier than this COPLAC class does, so I’ll be battling with timing.

Update on last week’s promise: I do not have my completed list of books, but it’s still in the works.

Week 2: Internet Scavenger Hunt

The internet can be a peculiar thing of information. Seemingly infinite, but it doesn’t cooperate when you truly want it to. Last week, I ran into the wall of only finding the editions of “Notes” I had found prior to this final project. After gaining some insight and help into other ways to research this book, I was able to locate and create a list of the books found on those websites.

I have yet to thoroughly search through the records to see if they are duplicates or not. I also have some information I need to look into on my campus and talk with my librarian. That is my main goal this week – along with compiling all of this information into a readable spreadsheet of publication location and year.