Meet the Reformatting Team
By Brian Carpenter
As part of Utah’s Public Service Recognition Week, we want to honor the men and women of the Utah State Archives and Records Service who work to ensure the management and preservation of and access to our governmental records.
The preservation/reformatting section is responsible for a variety of reformatting processes used for the long-term preservation and easy access of essential documents or images. Our section microfilms documents for preservation, scans images, and duplicates rolls of microfilm for access. We also oversee the climate controlled vault for the 120,000 master microfilm rolls in our permanent collection.
Reformatting Team (left to right) Front Row: Julie Talbot-Maestas, Melody Yearsley, Back Row: Brian Carpenter, Nathan Gardner, James (Jim) V. Duke
Nathan Gardner, BFA Photography.
Hired October 2001
I digitize microfilm, microfiche, and sleeved microfilm for outside agencies as well as for the Archives. These images are used for worldwide online access and by individual patrons and governmental agencies. They are also used by various archives staff to make information of historic value and interest available to the public. I assist as supervisor, as needed, and I oversee the maintenance of the equipment within the micrographics/reformatting section.
Melody Yearsley
Hired May 10, 2000
I started out as a micrographic section filmer. I prepped and filmed case files for 3rd District Court in Salt Lake City, UT. However, I filmed only for a short time. I was moved over from filming to the accessioning area of the micrographic/reformatting section. The process of accessioning the rolls of microfilm is to put the information from the roll of film into the Archives database. This process assigns the roll a unique tracking number. With the unique accession number assigned to the roll of film, an agency or the public has easy access to a roll of film. I also assist in the micrographics lab by making diazo film copies of the master film. I also barcode master microfilm, which provides an inventory control of our microfilm collection and allows easier access to the rolls for public use. Filming, duplication, accessioning, barcoding, and our other responsibilities help preserve the historic documents, and ensure that the records are available for the public to use.
Julie Talbot-Maestas
Hired July 1987
I am an Archival Technician and have worked mostly in the Micrographics Section, with a few years spent at our Records Center. I have worked in all of the areas of the micrographics section, including microfilming, processing film in the lab, film duplication, and now data entry.
I learned how to digitize microfiche and roll film and I look forward to doing that again in the near future. Currently I am barcoding our master microfilm rolls to accession them into the Archives permanent collection.
James V. Duke
Hired January 2017
I started at the Archives in January 2016 as a volunteer because I wanted to use my Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree and I knew the archives was a great place with many great people. In January 2017 I was hired as an Archival Technician and I am lucky to work on a few fun and interesting filming jobs. Mainly I film documents or books for state agencies or from the Archives permanent collection. Filming is a new adventure. My other duties include making digital masters of TIFF images and transferring those images to Blu-ray discs, which are used in our Research Center. I also help process images for the website. I do various jobs and am always look for new ways to help and new things to learn, which is essential to our micrographics team. I am very fortunate to be paid for what I enjoy doing and working with many great men and women.
I am grateful for the hard work these four individuals do on a daily bases. They all are good at their individual jobs and are great representatives of the Utah State Archives. Everyone is very willing to help each other out from time to time, if assistance is needed. They all work very hard to produce the highest quality product possible and always in a timely manner. These four make up a great work force.
Join the State Archives in recognizing them along with other employees in blog posts throughout the week, both here and on our Recordskeepers Blog.
