I have finally completed the extensive task of conducting my first solo survey (WHOOOOO!). My overall feelings and impressions of conducting a survey left me conflicted and struggling to find balance.Â
During the survey, I was struggling with the desire be very meticulous with each box and move quickly through the collection. Nonetheless, there were many occasions where I got caught up in reading letters Jackson wrote and received from colleagues, relatives, and friends. There will always be a need to find the perfect balance between being detailed and efficient.
As an archivist, there are core values and ethics that every archivist needs to be aware of. During processing an archivist must be thorough and aware of protecting the rights, personal, and confidential information of those individuals and organizations mentioned within a collection. While going through the collection I did uncover legal material which contained the names of the individuals involved. As a result, these names may need to be protected. I will attempt to follow up on this topic later down the line.
Another issue I discovered with conducting the survey was when I came across box 9. According to the container list, box 9 was supposed to contain correspondences from May 2003 to July 2004. However, the box contained material from an entirely different collection, the Craven Playbill Collection. I did not panic and I was hopeful I would find the letters within another box. Sadly, I have yet to find them and the case of the missing letters remains a mystery.