A quiet day... Sunday, February 5th (10am-5pm)

Today was a very quiet day in the reading room. I helped one customer access the index to the small Austin History Center art holdings. A city employee came in and asked me what information we might have that would help her with a report she was working on relating to equity, Austin neighborhoods, and flooding. I showed her how to research holdings such as City of Austin reports related to flooding and stormwaters, taught her how to research our extensive map collection, and discussed some of the vertical files we have on various Austin neighborhoods. I walked her through our website, and showed her what research she could conduct at home before her next research visit to the Austin History Center; that way, she can have a better grasp on what resources she wants us to pull. I also showed her how to access the Austin American Statesman online.I also received a r

eference email from someone doing a report on Johns Hopkins who was specifically interested in obtaining more details about correspondence in a family archival collection. I looked through the folders in the archival collection and determined that answering his question would be too time-consuming given our constraints, and directed him to the Archivists of Central Texas website in case he wanted to hire a researcher to look at the files.

I also met with Jennifer to discuss potential projects that I could work on during the period of time when the AHC will be closed for renovations. Jennifer said that I would continue handling reference email inquiries, and also will help with providing content for future social media postings. Before closing, I tidied up the reading room and closed out the cash drawer and put it in the safe.

Maria-Elena Cigarroa

Supervisor: Jennifer Hecker

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