Jill Sweetapple

Welcome!  Be kind as I am a newbie to web design.

I am the archivist and "lone arranger" at the DeKalb History Center in Decatur, Georgia.  I started in June 2010.  I love it!  I have been going through all of the special collections and cleaning them up, plus putting maps into Past Perfect software.  I rehoused the entire 19 box photograph collection and next is cataloguing those as well.  I like to be busy and I'm having a wonderful time. Before that, I was a digital preservation contractor for Ancestry.com, based at the Georgia Archives. 

I graduated from Florida State University with a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science in August 2009, particularly interested in archives and museums.  I interned at the Georgia Archives in Morrow, Georgia and the DeKalb History Center in Decatur.  I attended the 2009 Georgia Archives Institute. I was able to go for free, as I won a scholarship from The Friends of the Georgia Archives. I also volunteered at the Atlanta History Center, Georgia State University’s Special Collections and the Georgia Archives. At the DeKalb History Center, I moved over 130 oral histories from VHS tapes to DVDs.  At the Georgia Archives I volunteered in the preservation lab and at the Atlanta History Center I digitized a folklore collection beginning in the 1960s and spanning 40 years.  I processed a collection for the Women’s Collection at Georgia State.

I worked for Turner Broadcasting for many years.  I started at CNN in 1989 as a Video Journalist, running camera, prompter and moving up to the tape room, where we loaded the tapes used in the newscast.  I'd worked in graphics at my former job at WSAV in Savannah, and took the test to move into that area and passed.  I worked my way up to the senior position, which happened to be weeknight sports and really enjoyed it.  I became a font coordinator after that, helping the operators in the control room and making sure they had everything they needed during breaking news and scheduled events as well.  Next I moved over the CNN/SI, a joint venture between CNN and Sports Illustrated for an all-sports network.  I helped to set up the graphics department there, and then to maintain the systems, which included keeping track of every big college and pro sport logo.  My list was huge!  I consider that my first real archiving job.  CNN/SI, unfortunately, did not survive and I ended up at Network Operations for Turner Broadcasting, where I was an associate director for live events.  I sat in the control room for live events, mostly nights and weekends by the way, and made sure everyone knew where the next commercials were coming from and how long they'd be.  Every day was different and many things could (and did!) go wrong.  After 22 years in television, I got very tired of the long hours and small dark rooms of monitors and decided to try something completely different.

I am also a fan of Australia and have been there three times.  I include some pictures from my last visit in July 2006. 

    

The first is from a pathway at Government House in Darwin, the second from Lameroo Beach, also in Darwin.


    

Three is the wall 'o beer at Grove Hill Hotel.  The fourth is from Birdum, site of Gen. Douglas MacArthur's headquarters
during World War II.  This old disused railway in nearby Larrimah is how we got to the old site.


    

Five is sunset in Darwin from the Cruising Yacht Club where we played Scrabble. I didn't win once!

The last two are from Sydney's Cronulla Beach.



Cronulla Beach in Sydney

       Where I Live         Some Favorite Things         What I Want to Do

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