Way to go, Alpine AIC Angels!

I know that as soon as she has a chance to catch her breath, Beth will write all about the Angels Projects at the American Alpine Club in Golden, CO that took place last week after the 2008 AIC Annual Meeting in Denver. In the mean-time, MileHighNews.com has a great write-up of the project and the conservators who were so entralled in their volunteer work that they couldn’t put down their “painter’s pallet knife”-like microspatulas to grab a bite of lunch. I know the exact feeling, and wish I could’ve stayed in town and helped out!

I love this article because it not only gives conservation some great news exposure and better helps the public (aka, folks like my very own parents) to better understand the many facets of library, archives, and museum conservation activities, but it will also be a great prop for Beth to employ as she courts donors and grant agencies over the next few years to build a conservation program for the AAC. Preservation / conservation activities are always a “sexy sell” for fundraising (all those shiny tools, solvent submersions, and intricate hand skills). Add mountains, climbers, their ephemera, and heroic feats of sportsmanship, and a archival backlog of conservation need to the mix, and you have the recipe for conservation fundraising success.

 

Jesus is my co-encapsulator

This gem arrived from California this morning.

 

Definition of preservation, conservation?

The PARS (Preservation and Reformatting Section) of ALCTS / ALA did a really wonderful thing last year by drafting short, medium, and long definitions of “digital preservation.” By the way, this post generated some great discussion and comments that I had previously overlooked.

I’m trying to figure out this afternoon if there are similarly agreed upon definitions for library / archives preservation and conservation. The short answer seems to be no, there are no organization-drafted definitions but rather institutional perspectives and explanations from individuals who are experts in the field. Here are a few of the definitions I unearthed:

My favorite definition of conservation comes courtesy of Harvard’s Glossary of Preservation Terms. Not only do they define conservation activities beyond the ‘traditional collection formats of book and paper (”Conservation treatments for videotape, for example, include splicing and ultrasonic cleaning”), but they also provide great definitions of special collections conservation vs. collections conservation. Along these lines, props to Whitney Baker at U. Kansas for introducing the term “hybrid conservation.”

Harvard’s Glossary defines a “comprehensive preservation program” as consisting of “core initiatives” that include “conservation treatment, reformatting, commercial library binding, environmental control, disaster preparedness and response, and preservation education and training.”

The Roberts and Etherington Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books: Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology provides a definition of conservation but no definition of preservation. I can’t look at this resource without pining for some conservation grad student to render it into a more with-the-times online resource, replete with images and illustrations.

More on this later …

 

My first grant!

Whoo-hoo, I just learned that my first ever major grant proposal is now my first ever major grant success! I’m proud to announce that the University of Virginia Library was just awarded a Save America’s Treasures grant to conserve, digitize, and provide enhanced access to the Paper of John Randolph of Roanoke from the Small Special Collections Library.

More on this exciting project later (hint: disemBarrowing!). And while I wish to congratulate fellow SAT grant recipients, I’m wondering how many of y’all found out that you were awarded the SAT grant by checking the NPS website (and NOT by getting a call or email from anyone at NPS or NEH??).

2007 Save America’s Treasures Grant Recipients