The 5,000 records that have been added since June include pottery sherds, photographs, prints, and drawings, among other objects.

The Art and Artifact collections staff members often become so wrapped up in working with the collections management database that it becomes difficult to make time for an update on our progress. Intensive and time-consuming work continues not only on cataloguing individual objects but also on cleaning up and standardizing large volumes of data. Most notably, Classics graduate student Diane Amoroso-O’Connor is working as the Collections Information Management Intern for the 2009-2010 academic year and has joined us in our quest for better quality data. Diane’s projects so far have ranged from cataloging coins and Predynastic Egyptian objects to standardizing titles, dimensions, and geographic data across collections.

A more completely cataloged Predynastic Egyptian vase, a gift from the American Exploration Society.

History of Art graduate student Carrie Robbins, working as the Graduate Assistant in Collections, has also been busy cataloging the photography collection, while Archaeology graduate student Holly Pritchett is working with Professor Jim Wright on accessioning, cataloging, and photographing sherds excavated at Gözlükule, Tarsus, Turkey. All this, of course, is in addition to the great team of undergraduate students who continue to inventory, photograph, and catalog collections objects. This semester, those students include Laura Kelly-Bowditch, Michelle Crepeau , Kristen Grubbs, Annette Hansen, Nancy Muntz, Moira Nadal, Jessica Nelson, and Jennifer Wright.

A cataloged sherd from Tarsus, Turkey.

Examples of prints and drawings from the John N. Estabrook Collection catalogued this summer by Amy Haavik-MacKinnon and Tienfong Ho, both of whom spoke about their work with collections at the Graduate Group talk on November 17th.