Smithsonian Libraries

Bibliothèque Nationale d’Haiti — May/June 2011

Katie Wagner, Libraries Book Conservator, and I arrived in Port-au-Prince on May 23^rd to assist with the Haiti Cultural Recovery Program. The project focused on surface cleaning and rehousing the rare book collection from the Bibliothèque Nationale d’Haiti. 

We met with Francoise Beaulieu-Thybulle, Library Director, who gave us a tour of the stacks containing monographs that have been exposed to open windows, high humidity, direct sunlight, and dust (Image 1, left).

1.  Collection storage at the Bibliothèque Nationale

In general, the monographs were Haitian and French imprints. Most dated from the 19^th century and early 20^thcentury with the typical signs of deterioration from that period: brittle acidic textblocks and detached boards.  Several had received previous and crude efforts at conservation treatment, many using pressure sensitive tape (Image 2, left). Due to our limited time of two weeks on the project, the best treatment option for this large collection was to surface clean and rehouse the books while protecting from the dust until a safer environment within the library can be constructed. The new planned space will limit exposure to the aforementioned preservation issues.

2.     Typical condition of rare monographs

We were assigned to work in a room reserved for computer use and thankfully, this was one of the few rooms with air conditioning in the building. The first box of 50 books was delivered from the stacks and Katie and I supplied the staff with dust masks, aprons, gloves, cloths, and brushes.

We demonstrated with this first box of books the process for removing dust and surface dirt (Image 3, left). I also made the decision that books with any loose parts (spine covering, boards, pages) would be wrapped in acid-free paper in lieu of more sturdy boxes or enclosures that were not available at that time.

3. Instructing staff

Once cleaned and wrapped, the books were returned in groups of approximately 50 to cardboard boxes that were sealed and numbered. In the future, the wrapped volumes could easily be identified as those requiring further conservation treatment.

Our intended goal was to complete 300 books per day, and by the end of the first day we had cleaned and documented 350 monographs. The week continued with such good will and hard work by the library staff that by Friday we had cleaned, documented, and re-boxed 1458 monographs of which 598 were wrapped in tissue and 9 were isolated due to mold.

Since our departure on June 3^rd we have been in touch with the group of library technicians to instruct them on the next steps (cleaning as discussed, and continuing to compare the collection database to written lists made at the time of packing). The library staff responded positively to the project and its details. Their diligence, in addition to the cooperation of the Cultural Recovery Conservation Center and their drivers who transported us safely between locations, made it possible to achieve such significant goals during our time in Port-au-Prince.

Vanessa Haight Smith

 

Personal Digital Collections

A recent article in BusinessWeek (http://buswk.co/h8pnfS) profiled a Japanese company that provides homes with some needed extra space. A recent startup, Bookscan, offers scanning of personal book collections in part for customers to more efficiently use their domestic space. As many know, Japanese homes are generally much smaller than North American homes and one can imagine that the elimination or reduction of a bookshelf can be a very valuable expansion of living area.

In addition to services such as those offered by  Bookscan, major manufacturers have begun introducing increasingly sophisticated consumer scanning technologies (an example from ION Audio pictured here). There have even been attempts with personal cameras and other equipment (http://bit.ly/fNqHrt) to scan entire volumes for personal use.

One thing is clear: it has never been easier to create personal digital collections than it is now and that's one reason a Digital Library group was recently formed at the Smithsonian Institution Libraries. In addition to licensing content from commercial publishers and scanning our own books, the SIL is beginning to handle a wide variety of digital materials created outside the professional publishing world. However, the acquisition and management of this type of content in library collections demands forethought and the development of a coherent approach.

Most data management and digital library experts agree that early management intervention of digital material (preferably at the time of creation) is the best way to ensure that the content will survive and be usable even in the short term. And the SIL's new Digital Library group aims to ensure that electronic materials are easily discovered, usable and integrated into the larger Smithsonian digital world. The group plans to meet regularly, relying on the perspective of all SIL staff to recommend work flow and practices for specific situations and material-types. All staff are welcome to attend DL meetings and either contribute their own experience or learn more about the collection and management of this material at SIL.

 

 

 

 

Library - Publisher Partnerships

Studying library science means among other things studying the publishing industry and standard publishing practices. For that reason research librarians are in a good position to offer new services to university and other scholarly publishers. Several university presses now partner with their libraries for support in the conversion to digital publishing.

Many scholarly presses are tapping into the experience with digital publications which librarians have developed since the 1990s. Libraries are increasingly able to offer services range from preservation of digital content, creation of descriptive and other metadata to ensure that publications are most easily discovered by researchers, the management of an efficient digital publication work flow and publishing scientific and other data.

A recent meeting co-sponsored by the Society for Scholarly Publishing and the Association of Research Libraries underscores this emerging connection. “Partnering to Publish: Innovative Roles for Societies, Institutions, Presses, and Libraries” was held in Washington, D.C. on November 10th and featured speakers from libraries and publishers highlighting current cooperation between libraries and presses and exploring new opportunities for cost-effective and innovative joint ventures.

The recent creation of several organizations on university campuses with names like the Center for Digital Research and Scholarship and the creation of new library staff positions such as Associate University Librarian for Publishing or Digital Scholarly Publishing Officer are evidence of this trend in new services at universities across North America. The National Institutes of Health library for example, includes “reference assistants” who help scientific authors with reference verification and management and with manuscript submission. Clark also stated that the advent of online databases, bibliographic management software and other self-service resources has contributed to a drop in requests for basic reference assistance. The inclusion of these kinds of “author services” in additional to traditional reader services in research libraries has been noted elsewhere.¹

Recently the Smithsonian Institution Libraries has also become involved, not only by archiving the digital editions of the Smithsonian Scholarly Press, but also in managing the Institution’s membership in CrossRef, a registry of persistent web URLs commonly used in academic publishing today. The SIL is also overseeing the conversion of existing Scholarly Press publications to the increasingly popular ePub format which is usable on the electronic book readers such as Amazon’s Kindle.

 

¹Christine L. Borgman. 2010. "Research Data: Who will share what, with whom, when, and why?" China-North America Library Conference, Beijing
http://works.bepress.com/borgman/238

We Didn't Start the Fire

The Child's Library. Or, Parent's gift., 1833, Little Jane or Playing with Fire.

This week is National Fire Prevention Week. It's not too late to learn how to stay safe and prevent fires.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) website has all sorts of tips and safety advice for families, teachers, about smoke alarms, as well as Sparky the Fire Dog. What, no Smokey the Bear?

So don't be like Little Jane—don't play with fire.

—Elizabeth Periale