Time Flies Right Past Me!

I opened this blog and realized that the last post was nearly three weeks ago.  Where has time gone?

I have been busy with my 40-hour week job, my home chores, and being a Heritage Consultant for the Koester House Museum.  The museum applied for and got a grant from the Kansas Humanities Council (KHC).  As part of the grant, the museum needed a Heritage Consultant.  Apparently, there are not many in my area, so when small museums apply for grants and they ask where can I find a Heritage Consultant, KHC points them in my direction.

No, this is not part of my 40-hour work week job.  It is something I do on the side.  Now, if I could make a living at being a Heritage Consultant, I would do it because I enjoy going to different museums and seeing what they have and what they need help with.  Unfortunately, when I work with grant recipients, the pay is on the very low end of the scale.

The Koester House Museum is located in Marysville, Kansas.  The house started out as a two-room home and over the years more space was added on.  Today it is a two-story house.  It is surrounded by a brick wall that was created to keep the flood waters out.

 

Sarah Koester Morrison, great-granddaughter.  Photo courtesy of the Marysville Advocate.

Sarah is standing in front of the home.

 

Sarah wrote a book titled Memoirs of the Charles F. Koester House, An Intimate Portrait and it is told from the perspective of the house.  This book is on my “to read” list.

Anyway, the project I  have been consulting on is one of cleaning and cataloging 1,200 books. The museum has a few volunteers that have cleaned the books and they are now in the process of putting the books into LibraryThing so they can be found in the Library of Congress online catalog.  As part of my job as Heritage Consultant, I taught them how to clean the books using “best practices” and I taught them how to use LibraryThing.

Once the project is complete, the museum will begin to use the books in displays/exhibits and during tours of the house.  It is the hope of the museum that the Kansas Poet Laureate will read from some of the poetry books in the library when he does a presentation in the near future.

For this Heritage Consultant, I find joy in watching people’s eyes light up when they find something of interest or learn something new.  It is truly rewarding.