It’s been a long time since my last post.  My sabbatical seemed to go by so fast and the next thing I knew I was launched back into the busy world of fall term preparations.  I’ve been slowly making progress on my own with cataloguing the digital images and have mastered CONTENTdm so that I now am able to upload single and multiple objects with no problems.

A few weeks ago I found out my most recent application to the Acadia Research Fund was successful which has allowed me to hire back Cecilia Jacobs part-time while she finishes up her teachables and waits to start her BEd at Acadia in the Fall.  Cecilia will be a big help in preparing for interviews, digitizing, general metadata entry, and othe odd jobs.  I’m very grateful that she has agreed to help!  Pat Townsend and Patty Williams (Wolfville Historical Society) and me will be speaking with Enid Davison next Friday to start the second phase of oral histories.  A large portion of my recent funding will go to Cecilia for transcription purposes.

Some exciting new things have been discovered in the last few months. Pat found a letter down in one of the storage rooms that seems to indicate there was a Wolfville Book Club, in addition to the Wolfville English Club, that MKI headed up. According to the letter, dated January 4, 1940, a “group of book lovers” was formed in 1938 to “consider ways and means of securing the best books of the years at the least possible cost to each”. The letter describes a room in the Acadia Library (Emmerson at the time) which was home to the club’s collection and provided borrowing services to members.  Very interesting…Also, a tip from Pat who copied a list of medals and prizes from a 1914 Acadia Bulletin led me two more essays and a poem by MKI she wrote during her Acadia school days that I had never seen before!  Also ran into a lovely reference letter that MKI wrote Isobel (Mader) Horton in 1936 for a job in St. John.  I’m not sure if she went there or not, but it was nice to find the letter. More updates coming soon, with Cecilia’s help and the term winding down I hope to work much more on the MKI and Acadia Library digital collections as well as the library history website.