Preservation Week comes to Midwinter

For Immediate Release
Mon, 12/13/2010 - 11:57

Contact: Charles Wilt
ALCTS

CHICAGO - Preservation Week, the national effort to increase public awareness about the importance of preserving our personal cultural heritage and the role libraries play in that effort, brings two programs to the ALA Midwinter Meeting in San Diego specifically for library staff.   Preservation Week in 2011 takes place April 24-30.  Visit the Preservation Week website at www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alcts/confevents/preswk/index.cfm.

The first program, “Beyond the Basics: creative methods for preservation outreach,” assembles a distinguished panel of experts in preservation outreach, including Jeanne Drewes, chair of Preservation Week and chief of binding and collections care at the Library of Congress.  Beyond the Basics will focus on how preservation staff engages the library community as the preservation landscape continues to shift and evolve.  Join this discussion hosted by the Promoting Preservation Interest Group of the Preservation Section beginning at 10:30 a.m. PST on Sunday, Jan. 9, in the San Diego Convention Center, room 30E.

The second program, “Taking Our Pulse,” will be featured at ALCTS Midwinter Forum

“Taking Our Pulse”, issued in October 2010, brought to light the continuing issue that many special collections in libraries are yet still “undiscoverable, and monetary resources are shrinking at the same time that user demand is growing.” Jackie Dooley, OCLC Research, who authored the report with Katherine Luce, will lead a program dedicated to the findings of the report at this ALCTS Midwinter Forum beginning at 10:30 a.m. PST on Monday, Jan. 10, in the San Diego Convention Center, Room 28 A/B.

The report, available on the OCLC Research website at http://www.oclc.org/research/, is a follow up study updating a 1998 ARL report. Key findings were grouped into eight categories, each with a set of recommendations: Assessment; Collections; User Services; Cataloging and Metadata; Archival Collections Management; Digitization; Born-Digital Archival Materials; and Staffing. The top three “most challenging issues” according to the study were: space; born-digital materials; and digitization.

Ms. Dooley will begin the discussion with an overview of the report. Additional speakers will address the view from a participant and an overview of a specific archival project.

Join your colleagues for these important programs.

ALCTS is a division of the American Library Association.