Stop and say thanks

Sometimes, you've got to stop and say thanks to those who helped you on your way. Well, top on my list is Sherman Seki at the University of Hawaii Archives. Sherman is a technician there, which means he does the public work, deals with researchers, inputs stuff digitally, and calls the maintenance department when the toilets leak.

My research was done at several institutions: Hawaii State Public Library, University of Hawaii Hamilton Library, Center for Oral History, JCCH, Pearl Harbor Archives--I could go on. But the most fun I had doing research is when Sherman was at the Hawaii War Records Depository.

Sherman is a professional, he knows his stuff and can almost predict what you will ask for next. I'd always run late for my appointments at the archives, and when I got there, Sherman was grinning and had all the boxes and cart ready for me.

He put up with an AlphaSmart portable input device that was as loud as a Morse Code device. He and my husband could laugh at my organization, and appreciate our (my husband's and my) different styles of information processing.

Archives research can be incredibly boring. I would complain to Sherman because it would take me three hours of sifting through crap to get that one golden nugget of information. And he'd remind me, that they saved the golden nugget.

If you have any interest in World War II Hawaii research, the Hawaii War Records Depository is the Mecca for you. Most of it is not online and you have to let your fingers doing the walking through yellowed index cards crammed into the old fashioned wooden library files from the 60's. You fill out a paper, submit it to Sherman, wait for the boxes to be delivered, go through the stuff, with awkward white gloves sliding all over the stuff, and put it back in the order it was delivered.

But it was fun to be with Sherman. He has a dry sense of humor, a razor-sharp ability to read people and I hear he's a fair musician. I have copied this photo of his musical group without permission. I know what a mortal sin that is, Sherman. But if you sued me, you know all you'd get is an old laptop and a file drawer of notes on the war.

Thank you, Sherman for all your help.

Photo: The Western Archives Institute - class of 2004
Mark Allen, Maritime Museum of San Diego - vocals
Steve Chaney, Oracle Corporation - ukulele
Matt Oftedahl, Port of Vancouver (Washington) - kazoo
Jeff Rosen, Labor Archives - San Francisco State University - guitar & vocals
Sherman Seki, University of Hawaii - Archives & Manuscripts - lead guitar
Photo source: http://online.sfsu.edu/~jrosen/Archivessong.htm