entry 4

During our final internship meeting, when I arrived at the location at the agreed upon time, I surprised Patricia, who was expecting me the next day for some reason (even though we’d confirmed the meeting time and day via email.) She was, of course, unprepared for my visit.
Patricia basically filled me in on the progress that had been made in regards to securing permission from those who have/hold the copyright of certain videos. She apologized for the uneven nature of my internship and confessed that she did not think having fewer, lengthier sessions fit the way in which she operates. She said she should not have ever agreed to it. I apologized for not aiding her more. I felt essentially useless and under-utilized during the entire experience. She’s the type of person that wants to complete or get to the bottom of something while the item is still on her mind. When she came up with things for me to do, she would get engrossed in finding out the answer right then and there instead of allowing me to investigate. This many times meant an air of impatience for my results. By the time I came to the next session with my findings, she had already discovered things herself and taken the next necessary steps without including me. I felt her objectives for me were constantly shifting, and it became difficult to understand exactly what she wanted from me from minute to minute—literally.
She showed me posters and fliers from one of her upcoming events and gave me updates on copyright holders she had contacted.
Patricia was quite nice- even if eccentric- throughout the entire experience. I just think her organizational and communication issues combined with my health issues created a less-than-effective combination and environment. We both meant well, but it just wasn’t meant to be a smooth-sailing type of internship. I wish I could say more occurred, but aside from experience in creating an inventory and superficial copyright research, I did not gain much from this internship other than frustration and confusion. 345 Words

entry 3

During my session, Patricia showed me footage from one of videos in the In Sisterhood collection (an ABC news brief by Don Farmer). It had been transferred to DVD and iDVD, and she played it on her computer. The quality of the circa 1977 video was not that bad, but it did skip in a few places and the audio did not seem to be properly balanced. (I assume this is an issue that was not properly addressed/occurred during the transfer of the video.) That video was only a few minutes long (around 5, I believe). She wanted to show me another one or two of her videos on VHS, but after an extremely long, drawn-out, painful ordeal in which she attempted to reconnect her TV and VCR (and refused to accept my help or even allow me to look at the system whatsoever), she gave up. Once she gave up on this idea, she could not find the items she originally wanted to play. She then basically accused me of stealing the videos. She kept eyeing my bookbag and asked if they were in my bag until I showed her they were in fact not. I don’t know why she would think I would want to steal her VHS tapes, but having spent a short amount of time with her quirks, I tried not to take it too personally. [When I asked her about them during the next session, I think she just brushed it off, and mumbled that she had found them.]
She then composed a to-do list for me to complete and proceeded to complete the items herself--like calling the ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C. to investigate the copyright on the Don Farmer piece. She did not really give me a chance to explore things for her (even though I kept offering)—which was the reason I was there. She wouldn’t even let me navigate the search as she watched. She simply performed all of my to-do list herself.
She then left to keep a lunch date, I believe, and I continued to complete the inventory in her absence. While it might have seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to finally utilize her internet access and non-stone-age computer to complete her new search requests and my new to-do list, she made sure to lock up her computer and all the video materials before leaving. She was also quite protective of the inventory list for some reason. It took awhile for her to warm to the idea of me saving a copy on my usb drive, so that we could transfer the information to her (new) computer so she could print it out. Quite odd. 447 Words