Austin's First Mayor; the Servant Girl Murders; and a High School Drill Team Sunday, Feb 26th(11-5)

On Sundays, only three staff members are required to work--it's usually me, Lupe (the librarian assistant) and then a rotating archivist. Today I got to work with Molly, our collections manager who has been at the Austin History Center and knows everything! Although the Austin History Center has been very busy lately, it was a relatively quiet Sunday. I got to know Molly better and she talked to me a little bit more about our upcoming transition to ArchivesSpace. She directed me to some youtube videos about ArchivesSpace that she thinks will be helpful to the learning process.

We did have a few patrons come in. The first patron was visiting from out of town and wanted to know whether we had a biography file and photos of his great-great-great-great grandfather, Edwin Waller, who was the first mayor of Austin. I pulled the vertical file on Waller as well as some photographs we have of him. He sat with a few family members at one of our reading tables and I could tell they were excited to view these materials. Molly also showed them a map we have displayed on the wall that came from his collection. Another patron came in seeking information about the Servant Girl murders so I pulled the vertical file we have on the topic, as well as a few books that we have in our general collection. And finally, Molly and I helped a patron who was interested in information about the Anderson High School drill team, so we pulled some relevant boxes from two separate archival collections. At the end of the day, I closed out the money drawer, re-shelved some items in the stacks and general collection areas, and straightened up the reading room before leaving.

Maria-Elena Cigarroa

Supervisor: Jennifer Hecker

General Schedule: Sundays (11-6); Thursdays (2:00-6:00); Fridays (12:30-5:30)