Ice Day Activities! Thursday, February 2nd (2-6pm)

The Austin History Center was closed today due to the ice storm and extended power outages across the city. We received an early morning text to not come into the Center. Because I didn't know what the day would bring and whether I might lose power, I worked from home in the morning. I decided to spend my time becoming more familiar with the Austin History Center's website. I first conducted practice searches of our general collection, which contains books, city reports, biography files and house-building files. For example, I looked to see what resources the AHC has on the Hyde Park neighborhood in Austin. I also conducted a search on the Mexican American Cultural Center. I found various materials on both subjects.

Next, I browsed through the Archives and Manuscripts section of the website and conducted exercises on searching through the various collections. For example, I searched the Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) in this section of the website, which collocated a number of different archival collections that contained items relating to the MACC. Each collection had a link to TARO (Texas Archival Resources Online), where the finding aids are located. I browsed through the finding aids to see how they were organized. I also looked at the Pease, Niles, & Graham Family Papers because this was the AHC's first archival collection and it is the one most frequently requested. I familiarized myself with this collection. Finally, I practiced searching for digital photographs that the Austin History Center has uploaded to the Portal to Texas History. These exercises will certainly help me, not only find materials faster for our researchers, but also teach customers how to find what they are looking for.

Maria-Elena Cigarroa

Supervisor: Jennifer Hecker

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