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The Newsletter of the SAA Preservation Section Spring/Summer 1998 Volume 14, Number 1
by Tyler Walters
Well, believe it or not, the SAA annual meeting is right around the corner! The Preservation Section has been busy getting preservation-related arrangements for the meeting so we may continue to learn all we can about ensuring access to our unique collections. In this newsletter, and in the meeting program guide, you will read about pre-conference preservation workshops that are available, program sessions to attend, the Section's business meeting, and various Section committee meetings that will carry on the fine work the Section brings to its members. I would like to thank the Section's Program Committee and Education Committee for making sure that high quality workshops and sessions will take place.
There are a few familiar faces in the Section leadership who are "retiring" from their posts after the annual meeting. They deserve our thanks and praise for their service and devotion to the Preservation Section and archival preservation issues. Pam Hackbart Dean, co-chair of the Education Committee will end her term at the meeting.
The Education Committee has been very busy with workshop proposals, compiling Selected Readings 1995-1996, and many other activities. Thank you Pam for your wonderful efforts. Nancy Marrelli, chair of the Outreach Committee, will be finishing her term as well. Nancy has helped get this relatively new committee off the ground. During her term, Nancy has provided the SAA office in Chicago with a listing of preservation-related organizations willing to help answer preservation inquiries coming into SAA, and has overseen the early development of the Section's web site. Nancy has also been a thoughtful contributor in Section Steering Committee meetings. Thank you Nancy for all you have done. At our annual business meeting you will hear more about the activities of the Section's committees and task forces. I also hope to announce the exact agenda, and name a featured speaker soon for the Section's business meeting. As always, I am happy to hear from any Section members and listen to their ideas, comments, and concerns. Thanks again for allowing me to serve as your Section chair, and I look forward to seeing all of you in Orlando!
Tyler Walters
Head, Special Collections Department
Iowa State University, 403 Parks Library, Ames, IA 50011
twalters@iastate.edu Tel: 515.294.0460 Fax: 515.294.5525
See You In Orlando!
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by Ann Massman
I am writing to the SAA preservation community to let you know that there were no nominees for this year's SAA Preservation Publication Award. Though there may be various reasons why this was so, the selection committee would like to take this opportunity to review the award, to remind authors and publishers that this award exists, and to solicit your help in obtaining nominees for next year's award. The criteria for the award as defined below is quite broad, including electronic, audio/ visual, and print publications; articles as well as monographs. Could it be that this range of publications needs to be re-emphasized? Do we possibly need separate categories, to encourage publishers of non-monographic works to submit? What ways can the Awards Committee work with the preservation community to identify eligible publications from the previous year? Please think about this and send your comments or questions to any of the selection committee members. Sharla Richards will be attending the Annual Meeting in Orlando and hopes to continue the discussion there.
Ann Massmann, 1997/8 Chair
Center for Southwest Research
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-1466
(505) 277-8370; email: massmann@unm.edu
Charles Lamb, 1998/99 Chair
University of Notre Dame
607 Hesburgh Library
Notre Dame, IN 46556
(219) 631-6448; email: lamb.1@nd.edu
Sharla Richards
SOLINET
1438 West Peachtree Street, NW, Suite 200
Atlanta, GA
30309-2955
(800) 999-8558; (404) 892-0943; email: sharla_richards@solinet.net
The SAA Preservation Publication Award
(as it is outlined in the Awards Committee Notebook):
"Established in 1993, this award recognizes and acknowledges the author(s) or editor(s) of an outstanding published work (audio-visual, electronic, or print; article, report, chapter, monograph) related to archives preservation and through this acknowledgment, encourages outstanding achievement on the part of others. The work must contribute to the advancement of the theory and practice of preservation in archives institutions by introducing new preservation theories, method, or techniques; by codifying principles and practices of archives preservation; by presenting the results of innovative research on matters related to archives preservation; by investigating preservation issues of current interest and importance to the archives community; or by studying aspects of the history of archives preservation."
"Eligibility: Awarded to an individual, a group of individuals, or an organization for an outstanding preservation-related work of relevance to the archives community published in North America during the calendar year preceding the date the award is given."
The 1997 winner of the award was the Research Libraries Group and the Commission on Preservation and Access (now a program of the Council on Library and Information Resources, CLIR) for their work: Preserving Digital Information: Report of the Task Force on Archiving of Digital Information.
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by David Weinberg
Introduction
The City of Philadelphia's Department of Records has embarked on an aggressive program to develop a cohesive disaster preparedness program after many years of neglect and risk taking. This initiative, one of many underway within the Department of Records, is being undertaken in partnership with the Philadelphia-based Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts (CCAHA), which has provided funding and technical assistance as part of their William Penn Foundation-funded "Disaster Preparedness and Response Planning Program."
As program managers, it is easy to overlook prevention measures when there are so many immediate concerns diverting our attention. Notwithstanding the importance of disaster planning, the Department of Records followed the well traveled, if not ill advised path for many years. Even during the current Rendell Administration, where the Department of Records has undergone a resurgence in service delivery to the government and the citizens, disaster planning was relegated to a second tier status. With the CCAHA award and the preparation to relocate to a new facility, the time was right to codify what has long been an ad-hoc disaster program.
Background
The Home Rule Charter of 1952 established the Department of Records to ensure that Philadelphia's municipal records are appropriately controlled and managed. The Department sets records management standards and procedures for all departments, boards, commissions, and agencies, and it manages key, central record keeping operations and services such as the City Archives, the Records Center, the Recorder of Deeds and the Central Reprographics Services. The Department also directs public access to municipal records and establishes and collects fees to cover the cost of providing copies of records.
The City Archives has one of the most extensive collections of municipal records-from the City's founding by William Penn in the 17th Century, to the records of a modern government confronting homelessness, the AIDS epidemic, financial instability, and municipal revival. Few other municipal records repositories have the scope and breadth of the Philadelphia City Archives. Among its 103 record groups are the records of the Mayor (1771-present), City Council[s] (1704-present), County Auditors (1810-1854) City Controller (1854-present), Recorder of Deeds (1683-1951), Sheriff (1877-1964), County Prisons (1790-1956), City and County Courts (1753-1954), Overseers and Guardians of the Poor (1751-1887), Board of Health (1795-1974), Fairmount Park Commission (1867-1979), and the Commissioners for the Erection of Public Buildings (1869-1901). The City Archives holds approximately 11,000 cubic feet of archival records.
The City Records Center stores and makes available to City agencies inactive records that have not completed their legally or administratively mandated retention periods. The Records Center holds approximately 120,000 cubic feet of records, 26,000 cubic feet of which are archival in nature.The records in the Center cover the period from the mid-nineteenth century to the present and contain many vital records that are necessary for the functioning of the municipal government and protection of citizens' rights.
Facility Planning
The City Archives and the City Records Center are both housed in a single multi-tenant leased facility that is inadequate for archival and records storage. Environmental conditions are well below archival standards: there are no temperature or relative humidity controls, pipes above the records leak, and uncovered windows in the records storage area admit harmful ultraviolet rays. Fire protection and physical security within the facility are also woefully deficient: the wet pipe sprinkler system in the records storage area violates the fire code, there are no smoke detectors, and security both in the front lobby and within the facility itself are inadequate. Together, all of these drawbacks pose a genuine risk to the city's historical collections.
This July, the City Archives and the City Records Center will relocate to a newly renovated facility. The new Philadelphia Archives and Records Center is designed to provide improved records services to the public with comfortable and well designed reading rooms, ample space for individual research, network capability to access the Internet, and an exhibit area in which to display original documents. The facility will have a storage capacity of more than 200,000 cubic feet of archival and inactive City records with the necessary climate and fire suppression controls. It is a far superior space than the one the Department of Records currently occupies, and the Department's disaster planning efforts are designed for this new space.
Current Disaster Planning Efforts
The Department's greatest disaster preparedness concern is to develop and adopt a plan to respond quickly in case of disaster and do so with appropriate actions. This was emphasized by a small-scale water disaster in 1996, which damaged approximately 200 volumes of 19th century City Council and Mayoral annual reports housed in the City Archives. The staff reacted with appropriate actions, but did so in an ad-hoc fashion. An archivist who first arrived that morning discovered the leak and responded with quick action. Lacking a formal disaster preparedness plan, other individuals may have performed inappropriate actions. Had the disaster been more severe, the water damage would have been far more detrimental.
Michele F. Pacifico, a facility planner at the National Archives and Records Administration, served as one of nine consultants in the Department's 1992-94 Pew Charitable Trusts-funded "Needs Assessment Project." In her report, "Space, Environmental Conditions, and Security: City Archives and Records Center," she strongly suggested that the Department develop a formal disaster preparedness plan for both functional areas. Additional Pew funds were used to hire Laurie Peterson, an archives consultant based in Washington, D.C., to develop a draft disaster preparedness plan. Ms. Peterson's draft plan was an important first step as it transformed an ad-hoc disaster plan to a more formal, albeit draft document. Other internal changes consisted of creating new records retention and disposition schedules, begun with a major grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission in 1993, that included the identification of vital records in the City's records management system. Knowing which records are vital in the City Archives and the City Records Center is a critical step in disaster preparedness planning.
In 1997, the Department of Records was selected to participate in the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts (CCAHA) "Disaster Preparedness and Response Planning Program." Participants in this program receive technical support and financial assistance of $2,500 to purchases supplies to have on-hand in the event of a disaster. Jill Rawnsley, Director of Preservation Services at CCAHA is presently reviewing the draft plan. She joins a team of City personnel that includes staff from the Department's Records Management Division and the City's Emergency Management Services Office. The plan will take effect when the Department occupies the new facility this summer and its days of living vicariously will finally come to an end.
David M. Weinberg
Deputy Commissioner
City of Philadelphia
Department of Records
162A City Hall
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Tel: 215.686.2263; email: david.weinberg@ phila.gov/
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Pre-Conference Workshops: This year's conference will offer two pre-conference workshops: "Preservation Management" will be a two-day workshop taught by Evelyn Frangakis (National Agricultural Library) and Mary Lynn Ritzenthaler (National Archives and Records Administration). The other workshop offered is "Preservation Microfilming Management" taught by Errol Somay (Virginia State Library).
Sessions: The following sessions will be of special interest to Section members (please check your conference program for more details):
Preservation Section Meeting Schedule:
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Inspired by a similar project developed by the Canadian Council of Archives, the committee has been working on a proposal to develop a manual in which to gather a collection of model preservation program documents from a variety of archives. Once approved, the manual would be made available in electronic format, and in hard copy at selected locations, and serve as a guide for institutions developing their own preservation policies and procedures. A Model Preservation Management Policies proposal was distributed to Education Committee members for comment in May. The proposal could not have been developed without the splendid work of Glenda Stevens, Texas Christian University, who developed the elements of the manual and guidelines for conducting this project. Thank You Glenda! Further discussion of the proposal is expected to take place at the Section's meetings in Orlando. The committee encourages all Section members to bring ideas and suggestions !
Work has begun on putting together a web site for the section. Julie Graham has volunteered to do the design and get it mounted. The current plan is to include a copy of the Section Operating Procedures, a list of section leadership contact information, and information about the upcoming annual meeting. If you have other suggestions of what you would like to see on our web page, please get in touch with Chair, Nancy Marrelli @alcor.concordia.ca.
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by Jill Rawnsley
The 13th Annual Preservation Conference, held on March 26, 1998, in Washington, DC, was on Exhibitions: New Preservation Technologies, Standards, and Models. The topic was selected because the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is engaging in a new program of traveling exhibits to show the richness of NARA's collections to the public. Because there is always a risk when placing materials on exhibition, the conference explored many of the issues and tensions facing curators and conservators when selecting materials for display and designing exhibit spaces. The topics included environmental control, lighting objectives, air quality in micro environments, exhibit materials, mounts for displays, facsimile reproduction, and exhibition on the web. Strategies for safely exhibiting original materials were given by many speakers.
Of special note, was Kitty Nicholson's talk on the draft of a new NISO Standard for Exhibitions for Libraries and Archives. A draft will soon be circulated for review. Although there is an exhibition standard for museums, this standard fills a pressing need to address the specific concerns and differences found in libraries and archives. The standard will provide guidelines and target ranges, but not specific method for accomplishing goals in order to allow for creative approaches.
Jill Rawnsley
Director of Preservation Services
Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts
264 South 23rd Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Tel: 215.545.0613 Fax: 215.735.9313; email: ccaha@hslc.org
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by Thom Shepard
As the debate intensifies over which medium is currently best for the long-term storage of digital materials, the Universal Preservation Format initiative is looking at the bigger picture by focusing on how data should be formatted within any given storage medium throughout time and space. Sponsored by the WGBH Educational Foundation and funded in part by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the UPF project advocates a framework format for the long-term storage of electronically generated media. Dave MacCarn, Chief Technologist at WGBH and architect of UPF has expressed the need for a platform-independent format that would bind media to metadata.
In its 1996 Report, "Archiving of Digital Information," the Task Force on Archiving of Digital Information, which is sponsored by the Commission on Preservation and Access and the Research Libraries Group, examined the challenge of information integrity, and suggested a number of perspectives for evaluating this quality: content, the actual binary code versus intellectual essence; fixity, the uniqueness of a digital object; reference, the ability of information objects to be "findable and identifiable" among other objects; provenance, the ability to trace an object's migrational history through individual, corporate, scientific, and organizational levels; and context, the ability of objects to "interact with elements in the wider digital environment," such as with a specific chip set or within a specific network or operating system, as well as within a firewall. Though the report discussed several ideas for preserving information integrity, including emulation and encapsulation, it did not foresee technological trends toward file interchange standards and platform independence, qualities which are at the heart of the Universal Preservation Format.
In papers and presentations, UPF spokespersons have offered several existing technologies to assist in the preservation of information integrity. In an early paper on UPF, Dave MacCarn has discussed container technologies such Apple's Bento, "a universal file format for interchange between systems and applications," and Avid Technology's Open Media Framework Interchange Specifications: "media technologies that approach the UPF concept." (MacCarn, p477) These technologies continue to evolve with the growing recognition by major commercial software developers that media must exist within a solid framework that includes formal standards of metadata. Building on the Bento/OMF concepts, software companies have formed alliances to develop format standards for platform-independent compound documents. Some prominent technologies include Sun's JavaBeans, Apple's QuickTime 3.0, Avid's Open Media Management, and Microsoft's Advanced Streaming Format. Archivists should be warned, however: some critics have characterized a couple of these highly touted technologies as mere "vaporware." As history had demonstrated, commercial interests often force developers to abandon good intentions for quick and easy solutions. Any commercial file format adapted for archival use must meet a set of standards that this project is currently docu-menting. Foremost among these standards would be platform independence, the use of unique identifiers, and incorporation of a "digital Rosetta stone" which would identify and interpret an extensible set of data types.
As part of its mission, the UPF initiative will continue to monitor any developments in technological standards that are relevant to archives and media collections, reporting on them through the UPF Web Site (http://info.wgbh.org/upf/), as well as through our own and other related listservs. We are committed to raising public awareness and to reminding software developers that the success of digital technologies relies not only upon the preservation of bits and bytes, but also on the systems and framework that give this information its human dimension.
Last fall, the Society of Motion Picture and Engineers (SMPTE) established a UPF Study Group. Through this group, the UPF initiative is working with representatives from standards organizations, hardware and software companies, museums, academic institutions, archives and libraries to formulate guidelines for engineers to follow when designing computer applications that involve or interact with digital storage. The most recent Study Group meeting was held on June 10 at the Microsoft Headquarters in Redmond, Washington.
Thom Shepard
WGBH-UPF Project Coordinator
Tel: 617.492.2777; email: thom_shepard@wgbh.org
Task Force on Archiving of Digital Information, "Preserving Digital Information," May 1, 1996 revision.
Available on-line: URL:http://www.rlg.org/ArchTF/
Dave MacCarn, "Toward a universal data format for the preservation of media," SMPTE Journal, July 1997 v106 n7 p477-479.
Available on-line: URL:http://info.wgbh.org/upf/SMPTE_UPF_paper.html ">http://info.wgbh.org/upf/SMPTE_UPF_paper.html
The Society of American Archivists, "Statement on the Preservation of Digitized Reproductions."
Available on-line: URL:htttp://www.archivists.org/governance/resolutions/digitize.html
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CCAHA Announces Architectural Records Workshops in 1998 The Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts (CCAHA) announces two day-long workshops, Have You Got the Blues? Architectural Records: Their Identification, Management, Storage, and Treatment." The workshops are partially funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The workshops will be co-sponsored by the site institutions. SPEAKERS: Lois Olcott Price, Conservator of Library Collections, Winterthur Library; Joan Irving, Conservator, Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts.
WORKSHOP #1:
Thursday, September 24, 1998
Loc: The University of Texas at Austin, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Austin, TX (Presented in cooperation with AMIGOS Bibliographic Council, Inc.).
WORKSHOP #2:
Friday, November 6, 1998
Location: The Historic New Orleans Collection, New Orleans, Louisiana (Presented in cooperation with the Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Susan W. DuBois, Preservation Services Representative, Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts, 264 South 23rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103; Phone: 215.545.0613 FAX:215.735.9313 email: ccaha@hslc.org; WWW Site: http://www.ccaha.org
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Storage Guide for Color Photographic Materials.
DISASTER RECOVERY: Salvaging Photograph Collections
Preservation Planning: Guidelines for Writing a Long Range Plan
Television and Video Preservation, 1997, A Report on the Current State of American Television and Video Preservation
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The National Historical Publications and Records Commission upcoming deadline is October 1, 1998.For more information visit the NHPRC web site at: http://www.nara.gov/nara/nhprc/ or contact the office of the NHPRC, National Archives and Records Administration, 700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Room 106, Washington, DC 20408-0001; Tel: 202.501.5610; Fax: 202.501.5601; email: nhprc@arch1.nara.gov
The European Commission on Preservation and Access (ECPA) presents The Preservation Map of Europe, a virtual directory of organizations working in the preservation field within Europe which can be found at: http://www.knaw.nl/ecpa/ecpatex/map/
The National Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Property (NIC) has changed its name to Heritage Preservation.
Ann Clifford Newhall was appointed as the new Executive Director of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).
Grants recently awarded by the Division of Preservation and Access of the National Endowment for the Humanities were posted at: URL:http://www.neh.gov/html/awards/preserv98.html
Awards made by the Library of Congress/Ameritech National Digital Library competition were announced April 28 and are posted at: URL:http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/award/98award/award98.html
The next deadline for applications to LC/Ameritech is November 2.
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The Nominating Committee (Evelyn Frangakis, Karen Garlick, and Hilary Kaplan) is pleased to present the slate of candidates for the following Preservation Section Steering Committee members:
Please review the biographical notes on each of the candidates, and indicate your selection on the ballot on the reverse. Please note that you may select only one candidate per office. Write-in candidates are welcome. Please mail this original ballot to Evelyn Frangakis, National Agricultural Library, Rm 300, 10301 Baltimore Ave., Beltsville, MD 20705-2351. Evelyn must receive your ballot by Friday, August 14, 1998 for it to be counted. You may contact Evelyn at 301-504-6503 if you have questions about the submission of your ballot. Election results will be announced during the Preservation Section Business Meeting on Thursday, September 3rd, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. The Nominating Committee wishes to thank all the candidates for their willingness to serve and commitment to the Preservation Section.
For Vice Chair/Chair Elect Candidate -- Pam Hackbart-Dean
For Member at Large Candidate -- Sharla Richards
For Nominating Committee Candidate -- Mary Lynn Ritzenthaler
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This Committee Volunteer and Program Suggestion Form is an opportunity to inform the Steering Committee of the Preservation Section about your interest in committee service and your ideas for upcoming programs at the SAA Annual Conference.
Committee Involvement:
If you are interested in participating on a committee, please check off your Committee Preferences. You will be contacted after the 1998 annual meeting about your committee assignment.
___Education Committee; ___Program Committee; ___Outreach Committee ; ___Publications Committee; ___No Preference Name: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Institution:_______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Mailing Address: __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Phone: voice: _____________________________________________fax:_____________________________________________________ Email: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The program committee is interested in hearing about the types of programs that you would be interested in attending. Please give us your program ideas and suggestions. Program Ideas: Thank you!! Your information, suggestions, ideas and active involvement in the Preservation Section will help make it a successful year. Thank you!! + Please mail to: Robin McElheny Harvard University Archives Pusey Library Cambridge, MA 02138 Tel: 617.495.2461 Fax: 617.495.8011; email: robin_mcelheny@harvard.edu
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Many thanks to all the contributors for making this issue possible ! The submission deadline for the next issue (Fall/Winter 1998) is November 30, 1998. I urge all Section members to contribute to Infinity. Please contact me with ideas and proposals for future issues. I look forward to hearing from all of you!
Anke Voss-Hubbard
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