Well, I have been keeping busy lately!

I'm working on scanning some family photographs from my husband's grandmother's house.

I am also still working on transcribing oral histories from Davies Manor Plantation.

My newest project will be digitizing genealogical records for my family's Scottish clan society with my great-aunt, who is our family genealogist and a volunteer for the society. Expect updates soon!

I worked as a temporary employee at the Tennessee State Museum during the Emancipation Proclamation event. The museum expected 20,000 visitors over the course of a week. 30,000 showed up to experience this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. While at the museum, I worked behind the scenes stuffing ticket envelopes, crowd control, tearing tickets, at the ticket exchange, and retail in the museum bookstore. I had such a great time providing customer service and sharing in the excitement of museum guests.

On Monday, which also happened to be the last day of the exhibit, my husband took some of his students to see Lincoln and out to lunch as part of his school's mentoring program. I was able to secure some extra tickets and, with parental permission, Jordan brought his three mentees to see the proclamation. While the kids enjoyed seeing the proclamation (and certainly will appreciate it in the future, as they look back on the experience), they had a blast running around the museum and seeing all of the exhibits, especially Tennessee's own mummy! None of them had been to the museum before, so I was happy to be a part of bringing these new audience members to the museum.

I also went to Louisville with some friends and colleagues this weekend, where we caught up on life and discussed public history while drinking, eating, and visiting museums! Look for a blog post in the next few days on our trip.

Thanks for reading! I hope to continue providing meaningful content in this forum. Look for more posts soon!

The experiences and views in this blog are mine only, and do not reflect the views or experiences of the Tennessee State Museum or its permanent staff.

The tragic suicide of Aaron Swartz has reverberations that are felt throughout society. The blog post linked below was shared over SAA's Archives & Archivists listserv this morning. Take a read and reflect on the meaning of democracy in the digital age. This quote particularly touched me:

"Aaron has left us –academics, librarians, archivists, information architects and citizens all – with a daunting legacy. We might argue that he did more in his 26 years to advocate for the principles we hold dear – such those enshrined in the ALA’s “principles for a networked world” or the CLA’s “Statement on Intellectual Freedom” than we have ever dared to undertake or even imagine possible. His life and works challenge all of us to consider to what degree we are serious about breaking down the walls which separate knowledge from the people who might use it to do great things. These walls are built of ignorance, of greed, of cowardice, of the desire to control who may and who may not know."

http://bibliocracy-now.tumblr.com/post/40476460831/the-last-days-of-aaron-swartz