Library News

“The Inner Workings of the UI Libraries Conservation Lab” will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m., July 22, at the University of Iowa Main Library Conservation Lab.

The program is part of the “Wednesday Night at the Lab” series offered by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the UI. The course fee is $5 for Osher Institute members and $20 for non-members.

Attendees will observe the cleaning and repair of flood-damaged items from the African American Museum of Iowa, the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library, and the Johnson County Historical Society. Each participant can experience the patience and skill required to be a conservator by stitching a pamphlet and making a protective enclosure.

Register online at http://www.olliatiowa.org, or contact Linsey Abbott at 319-384-4221 or coa-osher@uiowa.edu for more information.

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Dave Loebsack (IA-02) announced the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences awarded a grant of $40,000 to develop a statewide disaster preparedness and response plan for Iowa.

“Iowa is home to many unique cultural and historical treasures,” said Congressman Loebsack.  “I am pleased to announce funding that will establish an action plan that will work to save and protect artifacts in the event of another natural disaster, like the Floods of 2008.”

The grant funding will be used by the Iowa Conservation and Preservation Consortium in partnership with the State Historical Society of Iowa, the Iowa Museum Association, and the State Library of Iowa to marshal resources to act as first responders for cultural entities in the event of disaster. Nancy E. Kraft, University of Iowa Libraries Preservation Librarian, and Jerome Thompson, State Curator at the State Historical Society of Iowa, will serve as co-project directors.

“We learned during the Floods of 2008 that a rapid response can save a significant portion of a collection. This grant will help us put a plan in place so cultural institutions anywhere in Iowa can get prompt assistance during a disaster,” stated Nancy E. Kraft.

Specifically, the grant will fund surveys of institutional preparedness, knowledge of resources, geo-referencing location of cultural repositories, raising awareness of the need for disaster response plans, developing a strategy for establishing first responders, and developing applicable disaster response planning tools. This will ensure that in the event of an emergency situation, Iowa’s cultural entities are able to quickly respond and provide safe conditions for collections.

“Disaster Preparedness and Response” Feb. 10-11, 2009
Moderated by Walter Cybulski, National Library of Medicine, and Nancy E Kraft, University of Iowa.

Largely due to the widespread impact of recent disasters, including Hurricane Katrina and the recent extensive flooding in Iowa, disaster preparedness has become a priority in many of the nation’s libraries.  No repository can afford to be without a well crafted plan that addresses response and recovery options in the event of a natural disaster.  Of four major recommendations resulting from the 2005 Heritage Health Index Report on the State of America’s Collections, one stated that “every collecting institution must develop an emergency plan to protect its collections and train staff to carry it out”  (see: http://www.heritagepreservation.org/HHI/index.html).

Join this e-forum to share your disaster planning and response experiences and learn more about online resources that can help you get started if you haven’t already.  Feel free to discuss problems you met along the way and how having (or not having) a plan impacted your response to a disaster, whether you encountered a building roof or pipe leak or experienced the devastation of a regional disaster.

Discussion will start Tuesday, February 10, 8 a.m. central time and conclude Wednesday, February 11, 4 p.m. central time. This will be a list-serv discussion that people can participate over the two days as their schedules permit.

Walter Cybulski is a Preservation Librarian at the National Library of Medicine, where he has served as Disaster Response Chief for over a decade.  Walter has coordinated a variety of response and recovery actions at NLM, ranging from mechanical room equipment leaks to major flooding in collection storage areas.  He serves on the Library’s Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) planning team for Library Operations, and has provided collection response and salvage training for regional medical librarians in Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee.

Nancy E. Kraft is the University of Iowa Libraries Preservation Librarian. Kraft has first-hand experience in disaster response and recovery. She toured Iowa after the 1993 floods as a post flood recovery assessment team member, co-directed disaster response and recovery of the State Historical Society of Iowa building flooded by water from a broken pipe on the top floor, assisted with recovery from the University of Iowa Old Capitol fire, directed several mold remediations, and is assisting with the Iowa 2008 flood response and recovery.

To register for this FREE e-forum:

Go to: http://lists.ala.org/sympa, click on ALCTS (spelled out) under the ALA Division heading, then choose alcts-eforum@ala.org.  A login and password are required to register.  Instructions for obtaining a login and password may be found on the list homepage.  Participation is free and open to anyone.

The Conservation Laboratory at the University of Iowa Libraries has completed restoration of 23 flood-damaged artifacts from the African American Historical Museum and Cultural Center of Iowa in Cedar Rapids.

The media is invited to be the lab at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 3, when Susan Kuecker, museum curator, comes to the Conservation Lab to accept the items, which will also be on view before packing up for safe return to the museum. Kuecker will be available to provide background information on the cleaned items.

The artifacts include a collection of buttons was from the Mason’s Dry Cleaners in Cedar Rapids owned by Elmer Smith, Jr., coins, baskets, gourds, feathered fans, and a mat woven by George Washington Carver.  

Nancy E. Kraft, head of preservation at UI Libraries, says her staff logged over 100 hours to clean the items, which were retrieved the week of June 16, 2008 after flood waters receded from the museum at 55 12th Ave. SE in Cedar Rapids. The length of time for cleaning each item ranged from 15 minutes to 35 hours, depending on the amount of damage and intricacy, Kraft said.

The return of the collection coincides with Black History Month, a popular time to visit the museum.

The Conservation Lab is also restoring flood-damaged collections from the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in Cedar Rapids and the Johnson County Historical Society.  For background on these efforts see http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2008/december/121608restoration.html

An article in today’s Des Moines Register highlights the conservation and restoration work the UI Libraries Preservation Department is doing with damaged items from the Czech & Slovak Museum and the African-American Cultural Center in Cedar Rapids.

We are pleased to announce that the National Historical Publications and Records Committee (NHPRC) of the National Archives has awarded The University of Iowa Libraries $32,700 in funding to digitize the microfilm edition of the Henry A. Wallace (1888-1965) Papers to create an open-access online collection.

The 67 reels of microfilm contain approximately 67,000 frames depicting correspondence (letters, telegrams and postcards), appointment books and memoranda. Wallace was the 33rd vice president of the United States, Progressive Party candidate for President in 1948 and an Iowa native.

Official NHPRC announcement at http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2009/nr09-20.html

This week’s issue of FYI, the monthly online faculty and staff newsletter, featured flood restoration work being done in the Libraries by members of the Preservation Staff.

UI Libraries preservation specialists reach out to area museums in need of restoration work.

University of Iowa Libraries’ conservator Gary Frost is working with Iowa City artists Emily Martin and Loret Mast to create an exhibit for Friday’s Gallery Walk at MidWestOne Bank (formerly Iowa State Bank) in downtown Iowa City.

Frost will focus his exhibit pieces on “Saving Collections: Storm and Salvage” and “Saving Collections: Recovery and Protection.”

The Gallery Walk is Friday, October 3 from 5-8 p.m. in downtown Iowa City.

Nancy E. Kraft, Head of Preservation and David McCartney, University Archivist in the University of Iowa Libraries have been asked to participate in Governor Culver’s Rebuild Iowa project. They are part of the Cultural Heritage and Records Retention Task Forces.

Each of the nine Rebuild Iowa Task Forces is charged with developing and setting out a plan for action in a specific issue-area integral to Iowa’s rebuilding efforts. This charge and a list of Rebuild Iowa Task Forces are detailed in Executive Order Number 7, signed into law effective June 27, 2008 by Governor Culver.

The Cultural Heritage Task Force will consider the impact natural disasters of summer 2008 had (or continue to have) on cultural organizations and individuals associated with the arts, history and culture in Iowa. The Task Force will recommend immediate action steps needed, articulate unmet technical and financial needs, and recommend policies for long-term rebuilding efforts that incorporate arts, history and culture.

The Records Retention Task Force will consider the issue of records physical and electronic storage. Such documents may include historical records, vital records, court documents, private business records and others. The Task Force will consider how the recent natural disasters have impacted physical preservation of such records, best practices for records retention, and the dual needs of digitization and hard-copy retention.

These task forces also are collecting imput from Iowa citizens at local listening sessions. All of this gathered information and recommendations will be presented to the Governor in a report at the beginning of September.

Last November, University Conservator Gary Frost visited Arequipa, Peru, at former UI Librarian Helen Ryan’s invitation to assist in preservation assessment of the historical libraries in the area. Gary has returned to Arequipa to provide further assistance along with a couple of his colleagues from other universities. A major activity will be moving an entire collection out of a condemned, earthquake damaged library.

You can follow the progress of the team on Gary’s blog.

Arequipa is in the southern region of Peru near the border with Chile. With a population of one million, it is the second largest city. The city is 40 miles from the coast and surrounded by volcanoes and expansive canyon lands. The region has had long pre-Incan settlement with an archeological record of more than 6,000 years. The Incan intrusion began in the 14th century. Spanish settlement was established in 1539.

Libraries for the education of clerics were founded beginning in the mid 17th century. Subsequent acquisition programs have continued to build the collections bringing together printed books imported to Peru as well as those printed in Peru over a period of five centuries. The genres collected include civil and canon law, theology, ecclesiastic history, philosophy, sociology, and linguistics. The church libraries have also served as repositories for magazines, newspapers and regional imprints of various kinds.

The project team will demonstrate actions needed to preserve these historical libraries. Specialists Chela Metzger from the Kilgarlin Center for the Preservation of the Cultural Record, University of Texas at Austin, Anna Embree, from the School of Library and Information Studies, The University of Alabama and project director Gary Frost, UICB Instructor and University of Iowa Libraries Conservator will demonstrate non-damaging exhibit installation, methods for preservation of historical libraries and cleaning and stabilization of book collections. The team will also participate in salvage of collections from earthquake damage.