searching for a negative

I've spent the last few days hunting for images and related negatives for a researcher related to CMU Track. Here is the process. which involved several hours over several days. This is how research goes in collections which are not digitized.

First, I checked the finding aid for the CMU. Athletics collection. I search multiple boxes that had women's track images and the patron's student file. I  finally found the image in the sixth box, in a group of galley proofs. Galley proofs are sheets of image prints made directly from the negatives in the exact order of the negatives. They are small and look little positive prints of the negatives which in this period, 1990s, were in strips. They are organized by school term and year. 

The photographers used galley proofs to determine which image of several similar shots were the best. They took a red crayon and circled or marked the images they wanted to print. Sometimes they put an X through an image that is particularly poor quality.

The 96-506 means this is from the 506th reel of film shot by the photographers in 1996. The individual negative number is close to the red crayon but too small to see in the image here.  

Next, I go to the negatives which are in a separate collection, UComm, University Communications which is the master collection of images and recordings at CMU. After checking the finding aid I know which boxes have the 1996 negatives and which specifically has the 506 negatives. Then I pull that box.

I find the envelope in the box above that houses the negatives from the 506th roll.

Then I pulled out the negatives for the roll and find the specific image the patron wants scanned.

The specific negative was then scanned and sent via email to a patron who was a CMU alum.