Week 6: Processing, Processing, Processing

This week on the Veterans History Project I was able to continue down my processing list and work on documenting veterans and preparing their files so that they can be properly archived. I had hoped this week to start working on storyboards as I had mentioned before, but our lead person on that job was out of the office this week and I won't be able to gain access to the program I need until next week.

Example of an AV Log. Veteran's name redacted.

This week, I figured the best thing I can do is to give some insight on our processing and how we do it. there's three separate steps that go into processing a veteran. Firstly, because each interview is recorded, a closed captioning service is provided to offer accessibility to those who need it. The program we use records our speech and creates text to base it on, but oftentimes it can be messed up and we have to go through and correct it. Secondly, each veteran is given an abstract regarding their interview. This abstract is a detailed document that lists a brief introduction of the veteran and gives context to location and time of the interview. Alongside those things a detailed list of all the things discussed is provided as a summary. Lastly, an AV log  combines topics into a graphing system to offer timestamps of the conversation. Throughout the interview as the veteran makes certain points or tells certain stories, the AV log is there to document the time it occurred so we can be easily reached by anyone looking for information.

An example of an abstract. Veteran's name redacted.

All of these things may not seem like a lot of work, but citing specific details from interviews that are up to an hour and a half long can become tenuous and only add to school work due during the week. I try to pace myself by steadily going through a veteran at a time, working in detail  to offer the best preservation possible for each case.