UCLA!!! I love it!

I love the city. Love the people. Love the bus! I LOVE LA!!!! LA I LOVE YOU! Do you hear me? HIRE ME LA!!!

The week has been long and fast paced but I feel at home. At times I am not sure if I am walking on a street in Los Angeles or a street in Mexico City. I love being able to buy fruit from vendors with the good old chili powder and lime on top. OH! Yeah! Grand central market is my favorite! MOCA, LACMA, and The Getty will be visited soon! Yes! Look at this amazing burger. You can find your own at La Mamma Burgers in the central market in downtown Los Angeles.

Amazing burger!

Alright, now the week has been filled with excitement. I got to take a tour of UCLA with Genie Guerard my supervisor. I met the staff at Special Collections, made a soccer (futbol) friend, and also got to go to the Campbell’s Book Collecting Competition hosted by UCLA Libraries. The competition is a great way to inspire young people to continue to love and collect books.  I would love to compete! But can’t.  I am not an UCLA student. PHD here I come!

My project, the digitization of the Howard Holtzman Collection on Isadora Duncan, will be the matter of discussion on this blog. The plan for this summer is to allow me to be part of the entire digitization process. The first step, which I am working at the moment, is to prepare the collection for “shooting”. I do not think that is the technical term for it; it is however, the term I gave it. Since I am in Los Angeles, capital of movie making, I like to think that I am the makeup artist preparing the celebrity for her close up. My duty is to ensure is that the cameramen/camerawoman know what and who to shoot with their camera.

ACTION!

In order to ensure the correct artifacts are shot I have created a spreadsheet using Microsoft Excel. This spreadsheet follows the physical order of the collection and it tells the cameramen/ camerawoman what to shoot.  I would like to take a moment and express my deep thanks to Betty Murphy, librarian at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, for teaching me Excel. Thanks Betty! You have no idea how amazing the time at the Heard was and just how much I have used the skills you and Mario taught me! Thanks!

I am in the first stages of digitization. I have barely scratched the surface of what the process entails. As my time at UCLA continues I will be able to experience just what it entails to go through a digitization process of this magnitude.  I am very happy to be a part of the project. I can’t wait to see what I encounter this week.