Processing the Boxes

I was excited to open the first box and start the process. Anne has excellent handwriting and each folder is clearly identified. It took some time to figure out how to manage looking at the files and typing at the same time. I occasionally checked the content on a few of the folder to confirm that what was there was actually what the folder name was but it was clear that Anne is very organized and kept excellent records. I also researched and notes the many acronyms used in the folder names.

One challenge was her use of labels. Some of these have started to loose their glue and fall off. In some cases, I had to pull the folders and review the contents in order to determine the folder name. For the first few boxes, I felt uncomfortable writing the folder title but after seeing that people other than Anne had written on the folders I felt it was ok to update the ones where the labels had fallen off.

Most of the materials are in good condition. There is one box that is partially filled where the papers have slipped and are starting to curl. We'll solve that by putting some wedges in the box to hold things upright.

In the end, I discovered that it takes about an hour to process each box. This means that I will be able to go through many more boxes than I first thought. This was an important and exciting discovery.