Cheers and Good Luck Tanya!

A couple of months ago I blogged about my boss, David Gregory, retiring and now I get to reminisce about our former Head of Special Collections and University Archivist, Tanya Zanish-Belcher.  Just two weeks after David left, Tanya went off to be the Director of Special Collections and University Archivist at Wake Forest University.  Although, those of us still here at ISU really resented the fact that she was sending us images of daffodils blooming in Winston-Salem in March (especially since it was snowing in Ames at the time and is now snowing here in May!), we miss her.

Tanya started here in 1995 as the Curator of the Archives of Women in Science and Engineering, and in 1998 became the Head of Special Collections.  Laura, our archivist, blogged a farewell to Tanya in January highlighting what she has done for and meant to the Department over her 17 year tenure.  She was their leader and mentor, spokesperson across campus and the community, and a national presence in the profession.  She’s a Society of American Archivists Fellow.  It doesn’t get much better than that.  She’s a dynamo, participating actively at every level in the archives world, but she also looks beyond the Archives and Special Collections.

When I started here, the relationship between Special Collections and Preservation was a little chilly.  Communication was non-existent and, pre-Tanya, items for conservation were selected without Special Collection’s knowledge.  Tanya made it a point to repair the relationship and she not only became my colleague and co-worker but also my faculty mentor, collaborator, friend, and some would say co-conspirator.  She brought to my attention some of the problems that she had discovered and we talked about workflows, tensions over decision making, and the lack of communication.  We saw this as a shared challenge and worked at establishing workflows and opening lines of communication.  We both knew all too well the stories about obstinate curators and conservators that would only consider the singular best way to provide access to, value, handle, and treat an artifact; any compromise would go against their standards even if it meant it could no longer be stored on any shelf or used in anyway.

This is not to say that Tanya and I always saw things eye-to-eye, and on some issues probably still don’t.  We also brought our differing philosophies and perspectives to the table when discussing preservation and access.  Special Collections and Preservation have closely aligned but slightly different missions and goals.  Our responsibilities to the collection and the user, and our codes of ethics guide us in ways that do not always result in the same expectations and results.  We learned to compromise without straying from our codes of ethics or standards, but this took a lot of communicating and learning about the real issues behind the disagreements.  As I mentioned, we still may not agree on everything, but I learned so much from the conversations and arguments we had.  These discussions on when full-treatment was appropriate versus stabilization or simply re-housing were very informative.   We ended up collaborating on a couple of articles that evolved out of our discussions:  “Pitfalls, Progress, and Partnership:  Collaboration Between Special Colelctions and Preservation in Academic Libraries,” and “Square Pegs, Round Holes:  Thinking Creatively about Housing and Storage.”

Spa day!

I think it’s funny that colleagues ask me what I’m going to do without Tanya or how I’m holding up now that she is gone because I do miss my friend but they do not seem to realize that we sometimes battled it out.  For that I am grateful because I am a better preservation advocate now that I also have a better understanding of the curator/archivist perspective.  I’m certain that our philosophical debates will continue over email and we will continue to learn from each other, but I miss our mimosas!

 

A Glitch in the System: Accessing ISU Library Digital Collections

The Iowa State University Library Digital Collections include a wide variety of content which is presented in a variety of formats.  There are many photographs presented as individual images, some audio and video files, and plenty of PDFs like the example below of a seed catalog from 1887.

We want all of our collections to be accessible to the public who view the content from a variety of computer devices that connect to the internet, so we test everything by viewing it on different computers besides the computers on our desk in our office.  We discovered that our PDFs were not opening on any of the public computers throughout our library.

The library has an automated system that turns off all the public computers when the building closes and when it turns them on in the morning, it also opens the Internet Explorer browser to the library web page so that when a patron comes up to any computer it’s ready for searching the library.  Eventually, I figured out that the reason that the PDFs were not opening was that the add-ons for Adobe PDF and Adobe PDF Link Helper were not enabled when the Internet Explorer browser opens automatically each morning.  Through much trial and error, I finally figured out that all I had to do was to close Internet Explorer and re-open it for the Adobe PDF add-ons to be enabled.  However, having somebody manually close and re-open Internet Explorer every morning on all the public computers in the library is not a very good solution to the problem.  Library IT is looking into why the Adobe PDF add-ons are not enabled when Internet Explorer opens automatically every morning and how to make it happen.  However, as Library IT continues to work on a solution, this glitch in the system remains for our potential Library Digital Collections users.

 

Gone to Pieces

Brittle book pieces for tours and presentations.

Decisions, decisions!  Who makes the decisions on what to do with our brittle books?  Here at Iowa State University Library, the process has evolved over time.  We have streamlined the process making it easier for all involved with the decisions.

Brittle books.

In the past, damaged books would be brought to the reformatting area, and staff would make the decision on whether to repair, reformat, or box the book.  Only if it was in very bad shape would we request input from the Bibliographers.  Over time, we determined that we wanted more input from them so we could be sure we were keeping and working on books that were still important to the collection.  The Library Assistant in Reformatting would search the title in our online catalog, OCLC, and Books in Print, and make paper copies of all of the records found for the book in-hand and for more recent editions.  The Bibliographer was then notified to come to the reformatting area to review the book.  However, this searching process was determined not to be a good use of time or paper, as it used up a lot of both.

As staffing and reorganization brought about change, we decided it was time to look at the process and determine what changes needed to take place for working with the Bibliographers regarding brittle and damaged books.  The Circulation Department was asked to take the damaged books to the Conservation Laboratory, where the Conservator would first take a look at the books and determine if they could be fixed in the lab.  If so, they were added to the lab’s inventory and processed through their workflow.

If Conservation determined that the book needed to be reviewed by a Bibliographer, they would fill out a slip for Preservation Services and forward it with the book to our area.  This form (shown at left) helps us to track the processes that the book is going through.  The form is tucked into the publication by the staff in the Conservation Lab after they have filled out the basic information (Date Received, Call Number and/or Title), along with their recommendation to send for Bibliographic Review, Box, or Reformat.  Bibliographic Review is the most often chosen selection. The appropriate bibliographer’s name and the subject code are added to the form by staff in Preservation Services.  The next step is to search the title in our online catalog and print off the bibliographic information.

We now have another form which is filled out and printed to go along with the volume to the Bibliographers.  This is known as the “Referral to Bibliographer” form.  This form is tucked into the book along with the Preservation Services Processing Form and the Bibliographic record from our online catalog.

The books are then transferred to designated shelves for the Bibliographers to review.  An email is sent to each of the Bibliographers receiving books to notify them that there are books awaiting their review.  They are given a set amount of time to complete this task, usually a 2-week turnaround.  If at the end of that time a decision has not been made, the Collections Coordinator makes the decision and passes the book back to Preservation Services staff.

To assist the Bibliographers in making their decision, a computer is available for their use in the review area.  They are able to look up titles in World Cat, Books in Print, and other online resources.  Their response is noted on the Referral to Bibliographer form along with their initials and date.

Brittle books awaiting bibliographic review.

When the book is returned to Preservation Services, the decision by the Bibliographer is noted on the Preservation Services Processing Form if it is to be boxed or reformatted.   At this point, any additional information about how to handle the book is made by Preservation Services staff in consultation with the Head of Preservation and/or the Conservator.  If the book is to be withdrawn, the necessary information is forwarded along with the book to the Cataloging Department to complete the process.

Brittle books.

This current handling process has streamlined the workflow, helped us to process books in a more timely manner, and involved the various, knowledgeable staff members who should be making these decisions about our collection.

 

Hand in Hand: Analog and Digital Preservation

Sometimes people are surprised to find out that I have an interest in digital preservation.  I find their surprise surprising.  It’s as if they assume that, because I am a book and paper conservator, I must labor away in an ivory tower filled with moldering books while the modern trappings of technology hold no sway over me, if, indeed, I realize that “digital technology” exists at all.

Image from Lisa Gregory’s ASERL-sponsored webinar “Preservation Planning and PREMIS,” held on April 2, 2013, 11 am EST.

While it is true that my profession entails a love affair with history (i.e. “the past”), and the literal tools of my trade are mechanical devices and hand tools designed centuries ago, my passion for preserving the cultural record crosses the boundary of analog versus digital.  As time ticks relentlessly on, the culture of the present day slips ever backwards into history, and preserving born-digital works becomes just as important as preserving centuries-old manuscripts.  In truth, I see little difference in the mission.  In my day-today activities, I may deal more with the chemical deterioration processes of cellulose than I do with corrupted bitstreams, but I still consider it a significant part of my profession to stay informed about advances in all aspects of library and archives preservation.

I’m lucky to have a supervisor who shares my sentiments.  Our Head of Preservation includes me on the “Digital Team,” which is made up of our Head of Preservation, the Digital Initiatives staff, the Digital Repository Coordinator, the University Archivist and Assistant Archivist, and — when the position is filled later this spring — our Cataloging and Metadata Management Librarian.  This also means that I am invited to educational webinars like the one we all attended today, the ASERL-sponsored webinar “Preservation Planning and PREMIS,” presented by Lisa Gregory, the Digital Collections Manager at the State Library of North Carolina.  The webinar is the first in a series of four about digital preservation.  I enjoy thinking over the theories and practicalities of digital preservation while I’m at the bench, repairing and mending books and documents centuries older than I am.

 

George Washington Carver’s Wide Appeal

The George Washington Carver digital collection was one of our first priorities when I began in Digital Initiatives four years ago.  We digitized all of the correspondence between Carver and his mentor Dr. Louis Pammel at Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa State University).  Carver received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the college, and was its first African American student (1891) and faculty member (1894).  Recently, we received an email from a man who translates articles about interesting science subjects.  He let us know that he has translated our Carver digital collection web page into Ukrainian.

This is not entirely surprising since there has been a consistent and widespread interest in Carver for many years.  Carver is one of the top five most-researched topics at the Iowa State University Library Special Collections and Archives, where they get an average of 2-4 requests per month in regards to Carver.  The Iowa State University Library Special Collections’ George Washington Carver website receives around 20,000 hits per month, with numbers swelling to over 100,000 hits during Black History Month every year.  The link to this website is also cited online by Encyclopedia Britannica in their article on Carver (click “Weblinks” in the left-hand column).

Students from K-12 and people of all ages and interests find Carver a fascinating and important person and they come to Iowa State to learn more about him.  Many students research Carver each year for National History Day.  Southwest Airlines asked permission to use one of the library’s photographs of Carver on their packages of peanuts.   Even poetry has been written about Carver’s life and work, as shown in this video of a poetry reading by a poet who researched Carver here at the library.

If we’ve piqued your interest, please take a few minutes to browse our George Washington Carver digital collection!