Catalogued!

A couple of weeks ago at the CALLERLAB convention in Niagara Falls, NY, kent4str, cuyahogarvr and I agreed to sort & inventory all of the square dance records owned by the late Mike Jacobs.

Betsy & Roy Gotta have done incredible work helping to sort through the rest of Mike's square dance equipment and supplies, selling it on behalf of Mike's estate to pay off residual bills and establish a fund in his memory with the CALLERLAB Foundation. The records, however, were a fairly intimidating task: there was a lot of them and it would take a lot of tedious clerical work to get all of it catalogued.

Last Saturday, we went to Betsy & Roy's place in northern New Jersey to work on the project. I thought there would be about 2,000 records which we'd sort by label and then each grab a stack to enter titles & information into spreadsheets which we would later merge into a single spreadsheet. I guessed we'd get it done in a single marathon day, although I reserved the possibility of taking a chunk of Sunday to finish things if needed.

Wow, was I wrong!

There were many more records than we guessed. Not only does that translate to more typing, it means a lot more sorting.

There were more labels than we suspected. Yes, there were huge stacks of records from ESP, Rhythm Records, Windsor, Grenn and such, but I was surprised by 30+ other labels I had never heard of which had only 1-2 records represented in the collection. This too made sorting more difficult.

We had orphan records with no cue sheets. We had orphan cue sheets with no records. Many records had cue sheets from some other record and/or label. Every record needed to be checked.

Some records were in immaculate condition. Some were clearly used. Some need a wash. Others clearly used insufficient sun block. At least a dozen had a chunk bitten out. All needed a physical inspection and grading.

We worked 13 hours on Saturday and managed only to sort the lot and catalog 1,000 of the records. On Sunday, we catalogued another 500 or so. Leaving those inventoried pieces in the Gottas' basement, we brought the rest home with us for work.

Today, cuyahogarvr and I finished the inventory: 3,391 records in all. Oy!

Now we have to find some means of getting these all back to Betsy & Roy...

Catalogued!

A couple of weeks ago at the CALLERLAB convention in Niagara Falls, NY, kent4str, cuyahogarvr and I agreed to sort & inventory all of the square dance records owned by the late Mike Jacobs.

Betsy & Roy Gotta have done incredible work helping to sort through the rest of Mike's square dance equipment and supplies, selling it on behalf of Mike's estate to pay off residual bills and establish a fund in his memory with the CALLERLAB Foundation. The records, however, were a fairly intimidating task: there was a lot of them and it would take a lot of tedious clerical work to get all of it catalogued.

Last Saturday, we went to Betsy & Roy's place in northern New Jersey to work on the project. I thought there would be about 2,000 records which we'd sort by label and then each grab a stack to enter titles & information into spreadsheets which we would later merge into a single spreadsheet. I guessed we'd get it done in a single marathon day, although I reserved the possibility of taking a chunk of Sunday to finish things if needed.

Wow, was I wrong!

There were many more records than we guessed. Not only does that translate to more typing, it means a lot more sorting.

There were more labels than we suspected. Yes, there were huge stacks of records from ESP, Rhythm Records, Windsor, Grenn and such, but I was surprised by 30+ other labels I had never heard of which had only 1-2 records represented in the collection. This too made sorting more difficult.

We had orphan records with no cue sheets. We had orphan cue sheets with no records. Many records had cue sheets from some other record and/or label. Every record needed to be checked.

Some records were in immaculate condition. Some were clearly used. Some need a wash. Others clearly used insufficient sun block. At least a dozen had a chunk bitten out. All needed a physical inspection and grading.

We worked 13 hours on Saturday and managed only to sort the lot and catalog 1,000 of the records. On Sunday, we catalogued another 500 or so. Leaving those inventoried pieces in the Gottas' basement, we brought the rest home with us for work.

Today, cuyahogarvr and I finished the inventory: 3,391 records in all. Oy!

Now we have to find some means of getting these all back to Betsy & Roy...