Preparation

I sincerely hope everyone had a restful holiday break. I did not do much traveling, but upon my return I am feeling renewed and energized. Over the course of this week I have tweaked and rewritten elements of the front matter for the finding aid. It is virtually finished, but as long as there is time left in the fellowship, I will continually return to it and make sure to correct any errors or make adjustments as I see fit. At this point, as has been the case for at least the past few weeks now, the only major task left is my presentation. 

I have a confession to make on the topic of presentations. While I do not fear public speaking, I usually refrain from using PowerPoint. I do not care for it very much, and I do not believe I have sat through any PowerPoint presentation in which I was not incredibly bored. I certainly see its value in some situations, but all too often I see it used as a crutch. Indeed, there is a clear value in using PowerPoint for my own presentation, which I hesitantly began creating yesterday. I want my audience to see many of the materials I have worked with, and I cannot haul over and lay out the entire extent of the collection. So, I plan to fill the slideshow primarily with images.  

I am excited to share my experiences with the collection, as well as a few highlights of the collection, with the library staff and other guests. I have not scheduled a date quite yet, but I imagine it will be sometime during finals week. In the meantime, I will continue preparing for my presentation and selecting materials to showcase.