Room for Improvement
Feb. 14th, 2003 06:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kyra_ojosverdesI never did get to do any actual work with the Domestic Violence project last semester, due to this, that, and cancer. Therefore, I'm putting those hours in this semester. Dr. F emailed me yesterday, saying she'd just realized that she'd be out of town during our next lab meeting, so would I be willing to take charge of that and show everyone what to do? (We're transcribing interviews, 2-3 hours long, with survivors of domestic violence.) I said I'd be happy to do that... but could I, first, go over the process with her, so I knew what I was doing? We met, and I impressed her with my computer skills and quick learning, so that's all good.
I made notes of what to do. The one part we skipped was the actual "turning on the tape recorder, sitting at the machine, and typing what you hear" part. I didn't think that was any big deal. I've transcribed before, how hard could it be?
So, today I dealt with the transcription machine from HELL. You have to keep clicking the power button until you hit it juuuuuuuust right and the little power indicator light turns red. Then you have to either hold it in that position while pushing the other buttons to get things going.. and typing... or somehow fix it in place. There was no tape in the office, so I found an unusable file folder label, and used that to tape the button down. This was not as easy as it sounds, for you have to get it, again, juuuuuuuuust right... and a tiny difference, say when you apply the tape and ease your finger off, will shut the power back off. Once I spent 30 minutes figuring THAT process out, I started transcribing.
The tape I'm transcribing is way too soft. I've got the volume maxed out, and I'm backing up an average of ten times per sentence, to make out the words. These transcripts need to be word-for-word accurate. And of course, the content of the tape is fairly emotionally taxing.
Dr. F got the computer when she came to the University, in 1992. It runs Win 95. It has 16MB RAM. I think it's got the original keyboard. Half the keys stick and you have to punch them HARD, which does not make for smooth typing, especially while trying to hear what's being said and hoping the tape on the power button doesn't give way.
So, that's what I did from 3 to 5. Evidently nobody tells Dr. F about the problems with equipment. She said that the A: drive had been malfunctioning for months by the time someone finally told her "Oh we're not backing up the data, because the A: drive doesn't work!" Uhhh.. (Even better: there wasn't a problem with the drive. It was a combination of full diskettes.. producing a "Can't write to disk" message.. and a bad diskette.. producing a "Can't read from device" message.. that convinced the good folks that the A: drive was broken.)
Lemme tell you, I'm just FULL of ideas for improving the operation of that lab. A new transcription machine, a new keyboard, and a better computer, for starters. I'm typing up a step-by-step list of instructions.. what goes where, what to try when your first attempt doesn't work, and why you need to write stuff down.
It seems like it would be more efficient to enter the data into a database, rather than WordPerfect. It would certainly make it faster to look at specific items in the semi-structured interview.
I made notes of what to do. The one part we skipped was the actual "turning on the tape recorder, sitting at the machine, and typing what you hear" part. I didn't think that was any big deal. I've transcribed before, how hard could it be?
So, today I dealt with the transcription machine from HELL. You have to keep clicking the power button until you hit it juuuuuuuust right and the little power indicator light turns red. Then you have to either hold it in that position while pushing the other buttons to get things going.. and typing... or somehow fix it in place. There was no tape in the office, so I found an unusable file folder label, and used that to tape the button down. This was not as easy as it sounds, for you have to get it, again, juuuuuuuuust right... and a tiny difference, say when you apply the tape and ease your finger off, will shut the power back off. Once I spent 30 minutes figuring THAT process out, I started transcribing.
The tape I'm transcribing is way too soft. I've got the volume maxed out, and I'm backing up an average of ten times per sentence, to make out the words. These transcripts need to be word-for-word accurate. And of course, the content of the tape is fairly emotionally taxing.
Dr. F got the computer when she came to the University, in 1992. It runs Win 95. It has 16MB RAM. I think it's got the original keyboard. Half the keys stick and you have to punch them HARD, which does not make for smooth typing, especially while trying to hear what's being said and hoping the tape on the power button doesn't give way.
So, that's what I did from 3 to 5. Evidently nobody tells Dr. F about the problems with equipment. She said that the A: drive had been malfunctioning for months by the time someone finally told her "Oh we're not backing up the data, because the A: drive doesn't work!" Uhhh.. (Even better: there wasn't a problem with the drive. It was a combination of full diskettes.. producing a "Can't write to disk" message.. and a bad diskette.. producing a "Can't read from device" message.. that convinced the good folks that the A: drive was broken.)
Lemme tell you, I'm just FULL of ideas for improving the operation of that lab. A new transcription machine, a new keyboard, and a better computer, for starters. I'm typing up a step-by-step list of instructions.. what goes where, what to try when your first attempt doesn't work, and why you need to write stuff down.
It seems like it would be more efficient to enter the data into a database, rather than WordPerfect. It would certainly make it faster to look at specific items in the semi-structured interview.
