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Week 12

Takeaways  After a week away from the museum I have a few takeaways to share.  The first thing I would like to share is that it is important to always go into things with an open mind. Before this opportunity I was a little hesitant on putting myself out there. I then realized that if I did not go into it with an open mind, I would waste my time at the museum. Going to the museum and sticking to the open mind game plan really helped me absorb as much information as possible and help the guests as best as I could.  The second takeaway from my time at the museum was that listening to all the elders of the community. I was not who was quick to judge and assume someone’s intentions but this opportunity really changed my perspective on my judgement. One time I was expecting someone to come in and enjoy the museum but they had become overwhelmed by the death of one of their friends and a bird diving in the water was what triggered it. That little thing helped me learn to receiv...
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Week 11 Post

 Final week       My final week has come to a close at the Sanford Museum. My last week was very relaxed but still full of projects to finish up. I finished what I could of the directories and put it on an SSD so that the other Museum staff could access it. I also kept helping with the folding of news letters and worked with a few guests.  Great Guest Encounter My final day saw a measly 5 guests at the Sanford Museum but they were all great. One of the Guests was an older woman who brought her two grandsons. She was once a worked of the Sanford Student Museum and  wanted to know if we had received any of the items they had. I asked Savannah since she had known about the Student Museum and when she came out she said they had a few items but most of them were in the country museum. We did get out a Butter churner that is now used to spin raffle tickets. When the woman saw this she became emotional at the fact that it was something that she used to love d...
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Week 10 Blog

Background work  This week was a very self fulfilling week for me. Thursday was full of maintenance work while Friday was more formal event planning and executing.  Thursday was a very slow day in terms of guests. When I left, only one guest had arrived and it was to deliver some flash drives with information about the event that we had on Friday. Right after the guest left we had the maintenance crew come in to help us with replacing lightbulbs on the high ceiling. I helped out by holding the ladder, which was quite wobbly. After they helped us with the bulbs, we started to replace other bulbs ourselves. The bulbs that we ordered arrived damaged and only half of the bulbs were intact. Casey Wolf, a docent, was willing to put on gloves and deal with the installation of the bulbs herself. The curator, Brigitte, and myself helped out with the bulbs and eventually, the task was completed.  After that bulb task was completed we had to play “museum Tetris” in the research room...
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Week 9 blog

Expanding on my knowledge  This blog will also have some of my experiences from week 8 which was more busy than I would have expected. This may have been because there was a July 4th event in Downtown Sanford and people came in to enjoy the air conditioning as well.  It’s quite interesting how so many people do not know how much they enjoy history. They come in with the thought of wanting to cool off but end up being interested in Sanford and its history.   Last week I was able to help with the Sanford historical association paper by folding them and slotting them in envelopes and as well as the newspaper stand. It was very nice to do that simple task because I felt fulfilled in sending out the envelopes because it is for people who are invested in Sanford history and its preservation. I also continued to help the children who came in to do the library quests. This week I was mainly doing simple directory work and learning from a co worker who specializes in the organizat...
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Week 7 blog

 Assisting on projects This week has been filled with some great projects. One of my colleagues was working on digitizing some business directories for the old Sanford air base. This air base was significant to Sanford and America because it trained a lot of World War II pilots. The project was started a few months before I arrived at the museum. I helped with piecing together some missing details and labeling the binder to be stored correctly. I have also been digitizing other directories to help speed up the museums digitization of records.  County events  Besides that, I have been keeping up with the Seminole County summer activities at the museum. We recently ran out of the pamphlets for the kids to fill out. I had to print out the pamphlets and fold them so that the kids would be able to continue their activities. We had a few of them come in this week and I helped one of them understand the puzzle. This week has been quite calm but still busy with projects.  Mi...
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Week 6 Blog

Starting Busy Season       This week has seen an increase in the amount of guests that come in to the Sanford Museum. Last week there was also a good amount of people who showed up but this week we began to have official tours of the museum. There were multiple groups of guests that expressed interest in coming in and having the Curator or the Assistant Curator give them, a guided and detailed tour of the museum and the rich and complex history of Henry Sanford and the city he funded.  The first tour was one for Seminole County Public Schools. They brought a few kids from different age groups that came in and learned about what the Sanford Museum has to offer. Brigitte, the curator, did the first tour and explained things in great detail. I joined her and shadowed her throughout the tour to see how she explained the museum to the guests and what information she included that was not explicitly shown. Her style was fun as well as informative. She also did a great...
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Week 5 Blog

 Maintaining the pace  This second week of my time at the Sanford Museum has been relatively similar to last week. Maintaining the pace has been the most important thing for me as I sometimes tend to either go too fast on something and miss details, or go too slow because I am worried about covering every detail. I have done a pretty good job at maintaining a consistent pace when digitizing the Sanford directories as well as helping with some other projects when called on. I have around 7 pages to digitize and I have gotten through 2. Although I am going slower than I would like, my curator and other employees have reassured me that it takes time and their main concern is that it gets done with accuracy and in a clear manner.   Customer Service Since I am at the front desk I deal with plenty of guests who have questions or are interested in buying some Sanford Museum merchandise. On Friday we had a few people who were interested in buying some T-Shirts and other muse...
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