Preservation Archives | American Libraries Magazine

Dewey Decibel: Libraries Respond to COVID-19

Dewey Decibel Podcast: Libraries Respond to COVID-19

April 21, 2020

First, American Libraries Senior Editor and Dewey Decibel host Phil Morehart speaks with Felton Thomas Jr., executive director and CEO of Cleveland Public Library, about the library’s use of 3D printers to make personal protective equipment for emergency workers. Then Morehart talks with Evan Knight, preservation specialist at the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, about … Continue reading Dewey Decibel Podcast: Libraries Respond to COVID-19 →

Personal protective equipment donated by University of Maryland's Preservation Department

University Libraries Help Hospitals with PPE Donations

By Timothy Inklebarger | March 27, 2020

Archivists and conservators from university libraries across the country have been pitching in to help bridge the supply gap, donating their supplies of the PPE typically used in the restoration of materials. Through networking with local health care providers, libraries are getting lifesaving supplies where they’re needed most. Eric Alstrom, head of conservation and preservation … Continue reading University Libraries Help Hospitals with PPE Donations →

How to Sanitize Collections in a Pandemic

By Lara Ewen | March 27, 2020

It’s an unprecedented situation. Conservators, who are experienced in diagnosing and repairing collection damage, say that historical information on sanitizing library materials is lacking. Besides a bit of anecdotal evidence from a 2019 Smithsonian Magazine article, there’s very little historical data available, says Evan Knight, preservation specialist at the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners: “There’s … Continue reading How to Sanitize Collections in a Pandemic →

Preservation as Risk Management

By Erin Baucom | September 3, 2019

The best type of program is an interlocking system of policies, workflows, technical solutions, and efforts meant to keep digital objects usable in the long term. Digital objects are made up of bitstreams—sequences of 1s and 0s that require specific software and hardware environments to remain accessible. Some are born digital (those materials with no … Continue reading Preservation as Risk Management →

Preservation Showdown: Environmental Edition

By Carli V. Lowe | June 27, 2018

The debate was moderated by Kara McClurken, director of preservation services at the University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville. The panel took place as part of the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans Monday, June 25. As the debate opened, McClurken explained that some of the debaters had been asked to defend … Continue reading Preservation Showdown: Environmental Edition →

Dewey Decibel Episode 23: Saving Lost Cinema

Dewey Decibel Podcast: Saving Lost Cinema

March 5, 2018

First, Steve Zalusky, manager of communications for the American Library Association’s Public Awareness Office, reports from the Mostly Lost film workshop at the Library of Congress’s Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation in Culpeper, Virginia. Next, Phil Morehart, Dewey Decibel host and American Libraries associate editor, talks to AJ Lawrence, media conservation and digitization assistant at the … Continue reading Dewey Decibel Podcast: Saving Lost Cinema →

What Is Access without Equity?

By Nicole Umayam | March 1, 2018

For community-based or other participatory archive models, digital technologies offer a way to meaningfully engage with materials. Yet what good is a digital archive if the community does not have internet available? How can an individual fully participate in using or shaping digital heritage resources if they do not have the computer skills, or even … Continue reading What Is Access without Equity? →

To Preserve and Protect

By Amy Harpe | March 1, 2018

As we observe Preservation Week (April 22–26), keep in mind that even our youngest students are eager to hear about cultural and historic preservation from the people most invested in it. Our learners realize that everybody has a story and that these stories make a difference. My own preservation journey with 3rd graders at Pilot … Continue reading To Preserve and Protect →

The Mysterious Case of White Film on Old Books

By Malia Van Heukelem | December 21, 2017

This didn’t make sense—the books had been in an area of the library considered very dry by Hawaii standards (relative humidity in the 40s and sometimes 50s) ever since a temperature and humidity data logger was deployed there in late 2008. Mold is commonplace in Hawaii and is something UHM library has battled for years. … Continue reading The Mysterious Case of White Film on Old Books →

During the tour of the Library of Congress Culpeper facility, guests learn about nitrate film decomposition from Nitrate Film Vault Manager George Willeman (center). Photo: Steve Zalusky

Crowdsourcing Cinema

By Steve Zalusky | June 22, 2017

Nearly 200 people had gathered for a labor of love and a test of their research skills and knowledge of film history June 15–17 at the Library of Congress’s (LC) Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation in Culpeper, Virginia. The 45-acre campus is where LC acquires, preserves, and provides access to the world’s largest and most comprehensive … Continue reading Crowdsourcing Cinema →

Mary Miller assists with the rehousing of the Orange County (Fla.) Regional History Center media collection during the inaugural Preservation in Action (PIA) service project at the 2016 ALA Annual Conference. She is helping to preserve a film about the underwater "mermaid" performers at Weeki Wachee Springs, Florida. Photo: Jessica Bitely

Saving At-Risk Audiovisual Materials

By Jeanne Drewes | March 1, 2017

Libraries have been collecting audio and video for many years, and audiovisual librarians well know the value of voices and moving images. Within the profession itself, Technical Services Manager A. Arro Smith—author of Capturing Our Stories: An Oral History of Librarianship in Transition (ALA Editions, 2017)—has been chronicling the oral histories of retired librarians on … Continue reading Saving At-Risk Audiovisual Materials →

Crowley Imaging Services’s new 100MP digital back camera system

Saving Your Media

By Carrie Smith | March 1, 2017

Document capture at Crowley Imaging Services The Crowley Company has been providing micrographic and digital archiving services for more than 30 years. Crowley Imaging Services uses equipment from its own manufacturing arm and other vendors to offer services to libraries and archives that don’t have an in-house digitization department. The company recently purchased two Phase One IQ3 … Continue reading Saving Your Media →

Latest Library Links

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Walker Caplan writes: “For all the fake news fearmongering of the last four years, we’re still very susceptible to myths presented as fact when they’re deployed with authority. February 7 saw the viral Facebook resurgence of a popular tweet from 2018 which claimed that in the event of a fire, all the oxygen is slurped out of Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library to preserve the library’s collection of over 1 million rare books—killing all the people inside.”

LitHub, Feb. 16
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When Penguin Random House said last year that it planned to buy Simon & Schuster for more than $2 billion, the entire publishing industry snapped to attention. The merger of two of the largest publishers in the United States—Penguin Random House is already the biggest by almost any metric—has the potential to touch every piece of the book business, including how much writers get paid, which books get priority at printing plants and how independent bookshops are run.

New York Jewish Week, Feb. 25
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Rebecca Torchia writes: “As schools across the nation shifted to distance learning—and then again to a hybrid model—library staff have taken creative approaches to foster student engagement and give students access to literature. From sharing digital resources with teachers to helping students in research projects, librarians around the country have found themselves going above and beyond to guide teachers and students at all grade levels, including in their efforts to engage and educate using technology solutions.”

Ed Tech, Feb. 25
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Researchers at Stanford University have confirmed what millions of remote workers already knew: “Zoom fatigue” causes greater stress than meeting in real life because of the “nonverbal overload” of endless video calls. A study by Jeremy Bailenson, professor of communication and founding director of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab, found that the underlying causes of Zoom fatigue include “excessive amounts of close-up eye gaze” and “increased self-evaluation from staring at video of oneself.”

Financial Times, Feb. 26
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In the latest edition of our online Letters of the Law column, lawyer-librarian Mary Minow explores nuances of meeting room policy affected by pandemic conditions, as well as privacy considerations and liability around tax season.

American Libraries column, Feb. 23
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Kelly Jensen writes: “New research from authors Rachel Noorda and Kathi Inman Berenes, both of Portland State University, published by the Panorama Project and funded by OverDrive, ALA, the Book Industry Study Group, and the Independent Book Publishers Association, explored consumer attitudes toward media and books. The findings are fascinating and insightful in exploring who is buying books, where readers are engaging with books, where and how books are being discovered, and more. Of the three age groups studied, it was millennials who engaged with books more than any other. But more specifically, it was avid Black, Latinx, and male-identifying millennials who engaged with books the most, though across all age groups, it was individuals who did not identify as white who engaged the most.”

Book Riot, Feb. 23
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Jae Thomas writes: “While supporting Black creators and getting educated on Black history and antiracism are things we all should be doing every month of the year, Black History Month is a great reminder to put even more time and energy into those pursuits. Each of these programs was made by a Black creator or educator, can be completed in the comfort of your home, and involves both historical education and contemporary tools for antiracism work.”

Mashable, Feb. 24

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