We’re almost done!  Tanya and I are putting the final touches on the SFPL San Francisco (Subjects) Ephemera Collection finding aid, and then all four institutions will have all the designated finding aids on the OAC.  This last finding aid is a bit of an an anomaly on the project since reprocessing is postponed until sometime after the project when SFPL can put staff resources into the large undertaking of sorting through the validity and consistency of their subject headings.  What this means for the present is that there are folders with the same subject heading in multiple places within the collection, there are inconsistencies within the filing of addresses (including the very bizarre scheme of filing addresses alphabetically, so 837  Montgomery Street gets filed in the “E’s” as E-i-g-h-t-h-u-n-d-r-e-d….), and there are “dummy” folders with subject headings that direct to See references that don’t exist.  As I tried to edit this finding aid I could feel David and Teddy’s pain.  I know how hard it must have been to make themselves forge ahead without being able to impose a logical and consistent order.  We have to keep reminding ourselves that there is keyword capability and users will be directed to thousands and thousands of active headings, even if they’re not well-organized, and those are thousands and thousands of subjects that were formerly inaccessible.  This was an immensely worthwhile project (reference staff has already told us how effective it’s been) and we are proud to make visible the mountains of ephemera that sat there hidden in box after box, drawer after drawer, row after row.  Thanks again to all the CEP assistants!    -Wendy