ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Preservation News

Jane Hedberg

Jane Hedberg is preservation program officer at Harvard University Library, e-mail: jane_hedberg@harvard.edu; fax: (617) 496-8344

State of preservation in libraries

The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) has published The State of Presenation Programs in American College and Research Libraries: Building a Common Understanding and Action Agenda, by Anne R. Kenney and Deirdre C. Stam. It summarizes the results of surveys completed by 116 libraries and follow-up visits to 20. The libraries surveyed included midsize university libraries from the University Library Group, major libraries at land grant institutions that are not members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and liberal arts college libraries belonging to the Oberlin Group. The survey completed by all 116 libraries was designed to elicit information comparable to that published in ARL’s “Preservation Statistics 2000-2001.” This 56-page report outlines the survey responses, trends in preservation activities, and perceived preservation needs. It also puts forth recommendations for future action.

Copies of the report are available free-ofcharge in PDF and HTML formats at http:// www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/publllabst. html, or for $20 in print (ordering information is available on the same Web page).

RLG microfilming addendum

The Research Libraries Group (RLG) has published RLG Guidelines for Microfilming to Support Digitization, by Lars Meyer of Emory University and Janet Gertz of Columbia University. Intended to supplement the RLG Preservation Microfilming Handbook and the RLG Archives Microfilming Manual, it provides guidance for creating microfilm that meets current preservation standards, and can be digitized efficiently to produce high-quality digital images. The guidelines have two primary goals: to improve microfilm for digitizing and to reduce the cost of digitizing from microfilm.

This publication is available free-of-charge in PDF at http://www.rlg.org/preserv/ microsuppl.pdf.

Digitization course

Digitization for Cultural and Heritage Professionals will be held May 11-16, 2003, in Chapel

Hill, North Carolina. Offered by the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), in association with the Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute at the University of Glasgow and Fondren Library at Rice University, the week-long course will consist of 15 lectures, 2 interactive sessions, 5 lab-based practicals, and 2 visits to special library collections. It is designed to provide participants with a comprehensive understanding of creating digital cultural collections. Seamus Ross and Ian Anderson from Glasgow, Helen Tibbo and Steven Weiss from UNC-CH, Lisa Spiro from Rice, and Paul Conway from Duke University will serve as faculty.

Registration costs $775 and includes study materials, mid-morning coffee, lunch, and afternoon tea. To register, see the Web site at http://www.ils.unc.edu/DCHP/. For more information, contact Ann Lambson, SILS, Manning Hall CB#3360, UNC-CH, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3360; phone: (919) 963-8366; fax: (919) 962-8071; e-mail: lambson@email. unc.edu.

Preserving home motion pictures

The Association of Moving Image Archivists is sponsoring a Web site that provides information about “preserving motion picture film materials outside of specialized archives, with a focus on storage at home.” Written by Jean-Louis Bigourdan of the Image Permanence Institute, Liz Coffey of the Rhode Island Historical Society, and Dwight Swanson of Northeast Historic Film, the Web site covers stocks and soundtracks, damage and decomposition, inspection, cleaning and repair, projection, copies, storage preparation, home storage, disasters, and equipment suppliers. It also includes resources, links, a glossary, and charts of Kodak film edge codes.

The URL is http://www.filmforever. org. ■