Phase II – Day 1: Puffenberger Collection

Today was day one of the Puffenberger collection project phase II. Tyler Gamble and I will continue digitizing the religious artifact with the supervision of Mrs. Carol Ouimet and Dr. Jeffery Long as part of SCARP this summer. The artifacts in question are either displayed in Nicarry 228, Wenger 307. The main objective of this project is to further digitize the collection by using the existing website (http://puffenberger.omeka.net/) set-up by formal students how worked on this project previously. Therefore, the site will serve as educational tools for both educators and students who are seeking this information either for research or personal inquiry.

The first step of our journey started with meeting betweenTyler, Mrs. Ouimet, and I to discuss our goals for the weeks, and what we need to accomplish by Friday each week, which includes:

  • Viewing all of the artifacts in the collection.
  • Weekly meetings will be held on Fridays.
  • The research will be concluded on July 16th.
  • We may call this research project, The Fat Buddha.
  • Digitizing the collection on the database
  • Looking over past items in the database, the material, and research
  • Recording the first blog entry for the summer.

After agreeing on these goals. Tyler and I, with the help of other SCRAP students and Mrs. Ouimet, set-up the camera booth space and the backdrop to photoshoot each item as needed. Afterward, we when to Nicarry 228 and Wenger 307 and took a first look at the artifact, and cross-reference those that were already digitized last year with the non-digitized physical objects. This step has allowed us to have a bright look at which of the artifact we can focus on.

Finally, I switched my attention toward working on a skeleton draft of the research paper. From there, we were able to write a thesis for what our project might focus on, and we are currently waiting on Dr. Long’s approval. I am beyond excited to start on this project and don’t forget to log in tomorrow for Tyler’s first entry.

Moh Mohammad.

Etown ’20