In honor of Preservation Week and the 30th Anniversary of the Preservation Standing Committee, the Committee introduced a monthly feature, the “Preservation Tip of the Month,” in April 2013. The monthly tip, sent as an e-mail via the TS-SIS discussion list, highlights tricks, resources, and collections to help you reach your preservation goals.
If you have topics you would like to see highlighted, or suggestions for resources, please send those to Narine Bournoutian at nbournoutian@law.columbia.edu.
September 2020
Instead of a resource, this month’s tip is a conservation case study from NEDCC. They recently conserved, digitized, and rehoused The Great Deed of Billerica, founding documents for the town of Billerica, MA from 1655. The article details the process that NEDCC staff went through to determine the physical history of the documents, as well as the lengthy process for its preservation treatments- complete with wonderfully detailed photographs.
August 2020
The 2020-2021 draft of the Library of Congress Recommended Formats Statements is open to public comments until August 15 2020. Be sure to check out the change log for the specific revisions from last year’s statement and pass along any comments to the appropriate contact.
July 2020
Hope everyone has enjoyed AALL 2020 Virtual! The prerecorded sessions are available on Monday, 07/20. Preservation focused sessions include “Open-Source Alternatives to Digital Commons” and “Problematic Collections: Digitization Surprises, Access, and Privacy.” Be sure to share your thoughts on Twitter with #AALL20!
May/June 2020
If you missed NASIG 2020, be sure to check out conference sessions on YouTube (more to be added)! Of particular note for digital preservation is “Where do we keep that? The new Keeper’s Registry and the digital content in your collection” presented by NASIG Digital Preservation Committee members Willa Tavernier and Ted Westervelt. It’s a great introduction to The Keeper’s Registry and how it can be used in preserving serials content.
April 2020
In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Preservation Committee would like to highlight ALCTS ‘ comprehensive guide to handling materials during a pandemic. It has useful documentation on how to safely disinfect materials, as well as other general safety resources for library staff. I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during this time.
March 2020
This month’s preservation tip invites everyone planning a digitization project to consider the labor involved and the issues that face contingent/precarious workers hired only for such digital projects. The Digital Library Federation Labor Working Group is currently examining this topic, as detailed in the Library Journal. The draft guidelines for developing and supporting grant-funded positions that are mentioned in the article have been finalized; anyone interested in getting involved with the next steps should look for calls for participation in the future.
February 2020
The 4th annual No Time to Wait conference took place at the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives, Budapest, Hungary, from 12/5/19 to 12/6/19. This conference focuses on fostering collaboration between AV preservation communities, open source tools and open media, and sharing digitization and preservation strategies for different kinds of collections. All the recordings and some presentation slides from the most recent conference and previous ones are available to view on the site. You can also check out the conference activity on Twitter through #nttw4.
JANUARY 2020
Happy New Year! If your resolutions included finally embarking on that long neglected preservation project, mark your calendars for the following grant deadlines:
- Bay Area Video Coalition’s Preservation Access Program for AV materials (February 17, 2020)
- NEH’s Preservation Access, Education, and Training grant (May 15, 2020)
- NEH’s Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge grant (May 15, 2020)
Stuck on how to actually apply for these? Check out our September 2019 preservation tip, with webinars from NEDCC to help you with your applications!