Day 17: Finished, for real this time!

Posted on May 30, 2015 by mhorhota

Huzzah! WE DID IT! The Schopler collection is officially processed!

We received a lot of behind-the-scenes help from the wonderful staff at the Cummings Center. We couldn’t have done it without Rhonda Rinehart, the special collections manager,

Our group with Rhonda — even the emotion display models are happy that we have finished!

and Emily Gainer, the Special Collections Librarian.

The wall of boxes around Emily’s desk has not kept us from asking her lots of questions!

After finishing up we celebrated with some coffee at Starbucks! We also met with Dr. Ray Stanley, a human factors psychologist, who spoke with us about what it is like working in an applied psychology field.

Our group with Ray Stanley at the Starbucks (which is also our regular breakfast spot)

Next up, finalizing the FUSE content and blog posts so that we can share all of the cool stuff that we have learned. Stay tuned! The adventure isn’t over quite yet!

Day 16: We did it!! But wait! There is ONE LAST BOX. Arg!

Posted on May 29, 2015 by mhorhota

After 7 full days of sorting and organizing…

Jenn and Alissa are relieved that the piles are getting smaller!

Jenn and Alissa are pleased that the piles are getting smaller!

…plastic clipping…

So many discarded metal paperclips! (Can you find the lone “approved” plastic clip in the picture?)

…foldering, labeling, boxing up…

How did Alyssa get stuck with the task of filing all of the slides?

Poor Alyssa got stuck with the task of boxing up all of the slides!

…and entering the data into the finding aid, we thought that we had finished processing the Schopler collection!

Hooray! Look at all of that organization!!

Could it be that we have finished???

But wait…

Mary and Kieran receiving some bad news…

What is that in the corner???

Noooooo! One last box!!!

So close!!!

Day 15: Could it be? The end of sorting is in sight!

Posted on May 28, 2015 by mhorhota

After four days away from the Center we were back at sorting with a vengeance. We had three sections to finish organizing — Biography, TEACCH, and Correspondence — and we made a significant dent! Only professional correspondence remains. The rest of the collection is in folders and boxes.

Mary and Kieran started working on the finding aid,

Yes! Creating a finding aid IS as fun as Mary makes it look…

…and Dov began scanning images for our FUSE page.

There is a lot of enthusiasm today! Perhaps the progress is going to our heads…

With only three full days left at the Center it will be a sprint to the end. Do you think we will finish in time???

Day 11: Yes, we are working on a Saturday!

Posted on May 25, 2015 by mhorhota

Wow! We have already reached the half-way mark! Time is really flying by.

In the morning, a small group of us ventured out to the Countryside Conservancy Farmer’s Market in Howe Meadow. They have over 50 vendors, live music, and cooking demonstrations! It was a lovely way to start the day.

The market was bustling!

Jenn and Dr. H enjoying some delicious coffee and a non-traditional breakfast of kale salad and…

Perogies!! (Thanks to Dov for the photos and for backing up Dr. H on this fine choice...)

Perogies!! (Thanks to Dov for the photos and for supporting Dr. H on this breakfast choice)

In the afternoon several of the students headed to the CHP to conduct more research for their blog posts (Still secret! Stay tuned!) but in the evening it was time for some fun. We went up to Highland Square, a cool neighborhood in Akron with lots of little shops and restaurants.

Yum! Mary Coyle’s has been making delicious ice cream since 1937!

Day 10: More organization and a mystery solved!

Posted on May 25, 2015 by mhorhota

Day 10 brought more organization, more filing, more plastic clips, and more acid-free boxes. We also stumbled across the answer to one of the mysteries in the boxes —

Looks like my confusion over the puzzle earlier indicates that I behave like a typical child…

Another neat item we found was Temple Grandin’s business card!

We wondered if Dr. Schopler had this for research related reasons or if he purchased things for his farm from her!

We aren’t sure whether Dr. Schopler had this for research related reasons or if he purchased things for his farm from her!

The students also had the opportunity to start searching the archives for material to write about for their blog posts (which will be posted at the end of the course). I’d like to post about the cool stuff they are researching but I don’t want to steal their thunder…you’ll just have to check back in another week to see what they found.

Day 9: Organizing our piles!

Posted on May 22, 2015 by mhorhota

Now for the hard part! Today we started the process of sifting through all of the piles we created yesterday. We began with the categories we thought would be easiest (published works, conferences, teaching). Even though these categories were quite well organized to start, it still took us all day! We looked through the contents of each folder carefully, removed items that weren’t supposed to be kept in the collection (e.g. old receipts, plane tickets, things that weren’t written by Schopler or his direct associates), swapped out paper clips for plastic clips, re-filed the contents into acid-free folders, and organized the folders by date.

So many folders!

After that, the organized folders were placed into acid-free storage boxes. By the end of the day we had restored some order…

Organization makes Jenn happy!

…but there is still a lot of work to be done!

...but it also might be time for a break...

It might be time for a break…

Our best finds of the day?

Schopler’s ID card

Hmm...this seems as though it should go together...

Hmm…I really thought these pieces would go together…

And a sign of the challenges we face…

If Eric Schopler doesn't know where this goes...how are we supposed to know?

If Eric Schopler doesn’t know where this belongs…how are we supposed to know?

Day 8: Making piles!

Posted on May 21, 2015 by mhorhota

Day 8 had us sorting out the contents of the boxes onto tables that each reflected a different category (biographical information, manuscripts published by Schopler, TEACCH materials, conferences, personal correspondence, etc.).

Before…

This was more challenging than it sounds — where does a partially complete cow puzzle go? (The answer is ??? – our miscellaneous category of wonders. But where will it go next?)

By the end of the day we had organized chaos…

and after!

…and a whole bunch of empty boxes.

A sign of progress!

Psychology in the Archives

What will we find in the boxes?

Category Archives: Work in progress