Introductions

My name is Edward Lee Love and I am currently attending the University of North Carolina Greensboro, pursuing a Masters degree in Library and Information Studies. For the summer of 2015, I am doing a Practicum where I will be working with Special Collections at Jackson Library on campus. This blog will be chiefly devoted to the issues that arise out of that.

Personal History
Our points of views are unique to our individual histories and backgrounds. As someone that has been working for many years in the publishing field, my p.o.v. is different from someone pursuing their Masters right after getting their Bachelors. It is a blow to the ego to be informed that the year I graduated from UNC-CH was the year some of my fellow students were born! So, I think it is important to understand a bit of the journey that has brought me to this place.

 I have a BS in Journalism from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I worked for 18 years with The News & Observer, first in their Pre-Press department where I typeset and pasted up ads, pages, and scanned in photographs and art for paste-up of advertising and news pages. As the industry moved to become more digital, I saw the dismantling of the traditional Pre-Press department. I moved first to Photography where I was part of a team scanning and toning photographs, negatives, and slides for publication. I then moved to the Classified department where my role and challenges expanded and became more creative. In addition to scanning, I created maps for ads, I set procedures for colorizing graphics, created a graphic library for graphics that were used most often or pieces that could be utilized for creating photo art. I worked with the Head Image Tech of the Photo department to establish quality control standards such as consistent monitor calibration. I steadily tried out new hardware, software, and processes and made recommendations on integrating them into our daily routines. I trained new hires and created and led a class in Basic Photoshop that was open to all employees. I still look back in pride that many of the people I trained excelled in their jobs, some moving on to leadership roles in different departments and even different companies. When we ran contests of every Image Tech (and a few supervisors) toning the same photograph which then was printed, it was consistently either myself or one of my two evening back-ups that scored the highest for best quality.

In 2008, the company had massive lay-offs due to outsourcing their creative staff. For the next few years, I did freelance work as well as several operations with the US Census.

In 2010, I got married and made Greensboro, NC my permanent residence.

In 2011, I found myself back at the N&O, working part-time in what was once simply referred to as "Plate-making" but now called Pre-Press. I output PDFs to film, troubleshoot problem pages, monitored and managed workflow.

Looking to reinvent and reposition myself, I looked at my interests and the areas of my career that gave me most fulfillment. In the fall of 2013, I began to work on obtaining my Masters in Library and Information Studies at The University of North Carolina Greensboro while also continuing to work.

In the spring of 2014, I left the N&O to take a job with the HF Group, a book and document conservatory out of Brown Summit, NC.  I was originally hired to work on old Supreme Court casebooks dating from the late 1800s to the early/mid 1900s. I scanned pages, would develop a processing script, and then proof the processed pages for any that needed individual adjusting. I also would have to individually adjust fold-out pages and pages with photos and artwork reproduction. In between Supreme Court books, I would do similar work for various deed books and special requests from other departments. When that work slowed, I moved to the digital lab and worked on various digitization projects such as high school yearbooks, band flyers, and doctorate dissertations. That winter, the company had lay-offs simply due to lack of work.

As the Spring Semester of 2015 closed, I started back at the HF Group on a part-time basis. I had also set up to do a Practicum through school at Jackson Library in their Special Collections.