Elizabeth Skene

It’s Sunday and I’m back to work!

We had an AMAZING time in Alexandria, probably one of the best weekends of my life. Alisha & Lila were the perfect travel partners & the trip was the ideal balance of sightseeing, relaxing and laughing. I posted some pictures on Facebook which you can see if we’re friends, otherwise I’ll be putting a lot on Flickr tonight.

I’ve also written up a description of the 4 projects I’ll be working on over the summer:

Hassan Fathy Architectural Archive

This is a collection of blue prints, photographs and other materials relating to Hassan Fathy, a renowned Egyptian architect. This project is in its beginning stages, with only a small percentage of the materials scanned and ready to be put online. I will begin creating online finding aids for the collection, using XML format. This will be great practice in using EAD [electronic archival description], a skill that will be very helpful in my future career.

Mahmoud Farag Vice Provost records
I’ve been given this unprocessed collection to sort through and describe and to then give recommendations on what to deaccession, what to migrate to other offices and what the archive should hold onto. There are 31 boxes that have very little order to them. Right now I’m going page by page, documenting what’s there. It’s pretty tedious, but being involved in the decision making process will be very rewarding and great experience.

Archive-It Collection Development
AUC has a subscription to the service Archive-It, a service that crawls webpages and holds a copy of the website at the time of each crawl.  You might have heard of the “Wayback machine,” – it’s the same thing. I’ve been tasked with developing a new collection of websites to be crawled and archived – these websites should be within the scope of AUC’s collecting policy and should provide unique and worthwhile information. The topics I’ve begun to research so far include expatriates in Eygpt, Egyptian news and politics, Egypt & the environment, development in Egypt and gender equality in Egypt.

Social Media Plan
Lastly, I am developing a social media plan to increase the visibility of the RBSCL. This will mainly involve creating a Facebook page and Twitter account for them, as well as updating and promoting the blog they already have. Because I want them to be able to continue to use these tools after I’ve left, I’ve prepared a lot of information on what these services are, how to use them, how frequently they should be updated and given samples of the times of information to post.

Well it’s back to work for me, but I’ll leave you with a photo of myself and this wonderful stack of books in Alexandria.

Cheers!

Today was another solid day at work. I learned a lot more about the projects I’ll be doing & I’m excited to get to work. Steve & Terra have really found a great balance between helping me out & letting me do things on my own [both in these projects & in general] & it’s something I really appreciate.

I’ll write up a lengthier description of the projects tomorrow, but I wanted to put up a link to some photos I took. It’s just a few of our apartment & of campus [I'll take more once classes are over & there aren't as many students around]. You can find there here, on my Flickr.

That’s all for tonight! I still need to hang up my clean laundry & get to bed early to try & beat this jetlag.

Hello hello!
I’ve successfully & safely made it to Egypt!

So far I’m having a 110% better time here than I expected [& I expected a whole lot!]

My roommate, Opal, is absolutely incredible. After meeting me at the airport & getting us home, she showed me around our neighborhood, including the best places to buy bread, oranges, most groceries & they giant [& super ridiculous] mall just a few minutes walk away.

This morning, a coworker met me outside my apartment at 9am & we took the bus to the American University in Cairo [AUC] campus. Although it’s way out in the desert, it’s a beautiful campus & I look forward to spending the summer there. The two archivists I’ll be working on projects with, Steve & Terra, are incredibly helpful & welcoming – I’m excited to work with them both.

Our apartment is 4-5 times bigger than mine back home. I have my own room, complete with two beds. There’s also Opal’s room, a bathroom, a giant kitchen, a big dinning room, a living room & two balconies. We’re on the 10th floor, so there’s a great view & a great breeze.

I’ll write a more detailed account of what I’ll be doing at AUC soon & post lots of pictures [once I get around to taking some]. Until then, I’m pretty easy to keep in contact with – gmail chat, Facebook chat & Skype [username: lizandjoel] are incredibly convenient!

I’ll leave you with a photo that I shamelessly stole from my roommate’s Facebook album that points out our street & there’s a small map of the area too. This view is if you’re walking back from the mall, across a strange [& uncharacteristically empty] space of land, which apparently has something to do with the military.

Now I should get to bed – I need to be up early for work & adjust from this jetlag!

xoxoxo

Well this is officially my last day in the States. We’re in Chicago, having an absolute blast with my amazing friend Victoria. Now she’s off to work & I have 5 hours before heading to the airport & I begin my adventure.

I feel surprisingly prepared. This is my 4th trip overseas, so things feel familiar & I’ve messed up on the little things enough before that they’re covered now [writing down the address for my visa, knowing what day i arrive, etc]. My roommate will be meeting me at the airport around 5pm, I’ll get to my place, try to sleep & then I’m off to work at 9am Sunday! Although I’m sure I’ll be incredibly tired, I’m really looking forward to my internship, so I don’t mind too much.

Also, my experience with leaving for the Peace Corps has really made this a lot easier. At that time, we were saying goodbye, expecting to not see any of our friends for over two years. This trip is just over two months, which is hardly anything. Although I’m going to miss everyone a ton & I’m bummed to miss a large part of Ypsilanti in the summer [which is AWESOME], I know I’ll be back so soon. [But leaving my husband & dog behind is pretty tough regardless].

Anyways,
time to shower & enjoy the sunshine.
My stomach is a ball of knots, but I couldn’t be happier or more excited.
I love you all so much.

See you on the other side of the ocean!!

Although this week is incredibly busy, today has been a good day.

First – our GROCS display is [finally] up & running!
Each day we’re asking a question & inviting those who are experiencing homelessness [or have] to answer. Later this week we’ll be setting up displays in a few places around town, helping their voice to be heard. The display just went up, so we haven’t gotten too many responses yet, but you can see the website & the answers so far. [Please don't answer the questions yourself, unless you're experiencing homelessness!]

Tomorrow the GROCS teams begin setting up our gallery displays. Artifacts from each project will be on display at the Digital Media Commons Gallery on North Campus – go check it out if you get a chance! Next Friday we’ll be having a gallery opening, which I’m looking forward to.

Other good news for today is that I found out I was elected to be on the student board for SI’s chapter of the Society of American Archivists! Four of us were elected out of eight and myself and good friend Purdom were lucky enough to be elected. I’m not sure who the other board members will be, but I’m excited for the opportunity to work together & plan some events!

Bad news – I wasn’t selected to attend TedxUofM. Disappointing, but no big deal.

Also – I just got an email that my internship has been approved for credit & I can officially apply & register for the 6 credits. Just three weeks to go! I’ve spent some free moments looking at pictures of Cairo online [including those from my previous trip there] & I get SO excited my stomach hurts.

Well, onto continuing to accomplish things, getting coffee & going to class.