Loading...
Microfilm Progress Report_June 2020 (Hannah Schmitt)MICROFILM PROGRESS REPORT Hannah Schmitt, Ci ty Clerk’s Office WHITE ROLL FILES The Microfilm files are divided into two groups—White and Yellow. For the most part, these files contain the exact same information. I worked mainly with the White microfilm files because the images are clearer, making the files easier to read and decipher. The files in the White microfilm folder are templated at minimum with the year(s) the Council meetings take place, and files that are completed have a placement of ‘Council Record – Finished.’ This way, even if a file has not had text added to each image, at least the files can be searched through by year. All files with the placement of ‘Council Record – Finished’ include text with each image of the Council Record. I was able to complete years 1848 through 1878 with this method. This text is usually the most important information from the image. Some examples of such information include street names, names of persons discussed by the Council, projects taken up by the city, Railroad business, and the type of Council business being discussed, such as Resolutions and Ordinances. All of this text is searchable within Laserfiche, so if any research needs to be done regarding City business during years 1848-1878, it can be found in the White microfilm files named W Roll_02 Part 1 to W Roll_13 Part 2. The White microfilm files also include Deed records, written indexes of each Council Record book, the book of Ordinances, and the revised book of Ordinances. These files do not include much text, however each file does have the year either in the file name, Year, or Placement metadata in Laserfiche. The Placement metadata also includes details for the Index files, as well as the Ordinance files and Revised Ordinance files. The Index files (W Roll_22 - _25 Index) include handwritten indexes of all handwritten Council Records. These files are without text because much of the data from the index pages is already covered under the Council Record pages. The same is true for the Ordinance (W Roll_26_Ord 1852) and Revised Ordinance (W Roll_27_RevOrd 1861). Much of this information is included in the Council Records already templated for these respective years. However, these files do include the title of the Ordinances as given by the Council. The specifics of each Ordinance have not been typed out, but if a key word is included in the Ordinance title or name, it is searchable in these files. Files left to complete in this folder include W Roll_13 Part 3, with the beginning pages in progress, through W Roll_20 Part 2. These files encompass years 1878 to 1890. If this project were to be picked up again, I would recommend going through these files and continuing to add text to each image. The Council Record files are the most informative, so to have these files complete would be a great resource for the City. YELLOW ROLL FILES The Yellow Roll files include much of the same information as the White Roll files up until the year 1890. In fact, the scans are identical, but often times the images are fuzzier and the writing is too light to decipher any of the handwritten text from the Council Record. Only two of these files are completed—Y Roll_01 Part 1 and Y Roll_01 Part 2. These files include the earliest Council Records dating back to the first Council Meeting in 1837. These files were the first two files I began working on, so the corresponding text with each image is much more detailed, sometimes even including every word written in the record. After these two files were completed, I began working on the White Roll files, and realized that the files matched exactly, and were just different scans of the same Council Record, so I abandoned the Yellow Roll files and favored the easier to read files in the White folder. However, all the Yellow Roll files are templated with a similar metadata of Year and Placement, with the year(s) each record encompasses included and the number of the Council Record book in the Placement. The records for 1890 and onwards include a typed and printed Council Record, which was able to be OCR’d with a degree of accuracy. The OCR’d files include Y Roll_11 Part 01 through Y Roll_35 Part 06, with the Council Record Book No. included in the placement through Y Roll_30 Part 01. Many of these OCR’d f iles are included in the City Clerk’s Laserfiche record already, but at least the majority of these scans have been OCR’d and can add to the information available in Laserfiche for these years. The last two files in the Yellow Roll folder include Sewer Records. These files are handwritten and cannot be OCR’d, and include very valuable information, like sketches of sewer lines and neighborhoods that could be very valuable information for the City. I would recommend prioritizing these files as well if the Microfilm Project were to continue at some point. METHODOLOGY AND LESSONS My main goal when tackling this project was to include as much information from each microfilm image as possible in the searchable text of Laserfiche, while also trying to work as fast as possible. Because of this, I tried to only include the most important key words and facts from the Council Record. After discussing the project with Kevin, we decided this information would mainly consist of details like dates, street names, names of persons and businesses, Council business like Resolutions and Ordinances, and details of City projects, with words like “culvert” and “railroad,” just to name a couple. There were also many street improvement projects, subdivisions and additions, places, lot numbers, and contracts and deeds mentioned in the Record that I tried to include as many details as possible for. Each page of each file completed at the very least includes the date of the Council Meeting, as well as all Councilmen involved in the mee ting. Here is an example of the structure that I found worked best for me. I would have the image of the Council Record on one side, and the text box on the other. As I read, I would type out key facts and words from the meeting. Most of the time, these key details were names, and usually only initials. I did not include any punctuation with the initials, mostly because the Recorders that handwrote this record did not either. If the microfilms were to be revisited by someone in the future, I would recommend finishing the White Roll Council Record files and including information similar to what I included for the finished files. Additionally, I would look at the Sewer Records in the Yellow microfilm folder and add text to those as well. A piece of advice I would give is to take the time to decipher the Recorder’s handwriting before you set out to type what is written. It is so much easier and efficient once you are familiar with the writing style! And hopefully, as I noticed as I moved through the years, the writing looks more and more like present day writing as you get closer to today. CONCLUSION Overall, I am honored to have worked with such incredible pieces of City history so closely. After working on this project for nearly two years, efficiency became more and more difficult because I became more invested in including as much detail as possible. Reading through the Council Record was fascinating, especially given that I was reading through it chronologically. It was almost as if I was documenting the story of Dubuque, and not just the Council Record. It became difficult for me to leave any detail out of the text. Although the project is left unfinished, I am very proud of the amount of Council history that I was able to make searchable in Laserfiche, and I hope that it is able to benefit the City in the future. There is much to learn about the present from the past, and I am glad that anyone who wishes to do so has the opportunity through these microfilm files.