So, after twelve years of school plus six more in college, I’ve finally found myself getting paid to do historical work. It’s been every bit as rewarding as I was hoping that it would be, and I really hope that it continues in the future. It also isn’t what I expected it to be. It isn’t combing through old textbooks and writing papers, it’s entering data into spreadsheets, which has been strangely rewarding. Being able to do a majority of the work from the comfort of my own home has been one of the best parts, and ideally it could continue on into the future, but this is a great chance to not only expand my historical skills but others as well.
My main goal for this semester is to expand on those other skills as well. For example, the last week has seen me doing a lot of data entry for the spreadsheet that includes the names of the cities in Roman occupied Carthage. My two primary deliverables this semester are a massive spreadsheet of the town names, populations, amenities, location, etc, and then a map of all these locations in Arc-GIS online. These two new skills, which are map making and data entry are things I want to expand on, since they open up new job opportunities in the future. They may not always have to do with history, but they’re still options which I want to have. I really want to keep my current tutorial maps, and then at the end of the semester look at the final map to really gage my progress. I spent the first two weeks of this internship strictly doing Arc-GIS online, using that and making basemaps.
The first one I did during the tutorials was a map of all the Roman roads, forts, and cities of Roman occupied Britain. One of the coolest things that I was able to do was actually put the height of the forts and soldiers into the software, and it put a cone shape out on the map of all the area that someone patrolling the walls could see, giving you the same kind of view a Roman soldier on patrol would have had. On the other hand, I realized how quickly and efficiently I’m able to do data entry. Taking notes, names and populations from a recent study of the urbanization of Roman North Africa, I’ve been putting the spreadsheet together. However, one thing that I’m realizing is how much more intricate that this process is then I originally thought. Dr. Saladin in our first meeting showed me just how many more columns of data are going to be needed then I originally thought. For example, not only do I need a column with the citation from the book I drew from, but then one that lists the sources that book drew from as well. This is showing me how much more work is going into something as simple as a spreadsheet.
One of the best benefits to this entire experience, is obviously being paid for it. It helps me feel so much more motivated to deliver a good product and do it on time as well. I really hope that this is a sign of things to come in the future, and that I can continue on with work like this in the future. That is what I primarily want to get out of this entire semester, the skills to move forward and continue in this line of work.
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