Training session on conservation assessment surveys

Authored by Sonya Issaeva and Kathy Lechuga

Workshop on Identifying and Describing Condition Problems in Circulating

Collections Volumes

Context:
Middle Eastern Program Collection (circulating), Perry Castaneda Library

Duration:

One full day

Format:

Roundtable, conducted in a large conference room

Audience:

Librarians who are interested in preservation issues

PA students

School of Information students interested in preservation issues

Relevance:

One of the major components of assessing the condition of circulating volumes in the Middle Eastern Program Collections, PCL, is conducting an item-level survey of the collection. As part of the proposed assessment two student technicians would have to examine the physical condition of a book, identify the existing problems, enter the information into a survey form and choose the appropriate preservation action, listed on the survey form. The workshop could provide a practical training opportunity for technicians, who will be taking over the survey project. On a broader level, it is important for library, archive and museum professionals, who are interested in working with preservation projects and programs, to have familiarity and a level of comfort with examining materials in their collections for condition problems.

Workshop Preparation:

• In preparation for the workshop, the instructors need to pull a substantial number of books from the shelves. There should be 3 books for an instructor-led demonstration, and 3 books for each workshop participant to use in an individual activity. The 3 books in a group should illustrate a variety of condition problems in different stages of severity. The instructors should also set aside about 10 extra books, so if some participants are done with their individual exercise early, while many others are still working, they can get an extra book to keep them busy.

• The instructors should also prepare several handouts and place them into individual packets to be given to each participant. One handout should be a blank survey form to keep as a record, another handout should be the survey form with additional explanatory notes, definitions and tips typed on it to refresh memory of workshop in minds of participants. The packet should include a list of preservation resources that offer relevant information and archival products, like NEDCC Preservation Leaflets, or Gaylord Library Suppliers. A copy of the Powerpoint presentation with space for taking notes and a pencil should also be included in the individual participant's folder.

• Snacks and hot beverages should be provided for the coffee break. Sodas and water should be provided for the duration of the workshop

• The instructors should prepare a form that could be filled out by the participants to evaluate instructor performance and workshop structure

Workshop Structure:

1) Introduction and brief lecture

• The instructors and workshop participates introduce themselves and say a few words about what they do, how it relates to preservation and how this workshop might inform their work.

• The instructors go through a short Powerpoint presentation with many photo examples of common condition problems in circulating collections volumes, differentiating between problems that arise from patron use and problems that come about as a result of inherent vice in materials, from which the books are made. Appropriate preservation actions for the different condition problems, such as reformatting, boxing and book repair, are discussed.

2) Instructor demonstration

• The instructors and workshop participants gather in a close group around the table, so that the instructors can demonstrate and discuss physical condition problems in the books that they have pre-selected for the purpose of this presentation.

Short break for tea, coffee, snacks and conversation: 10-15 min, refreshments provided

3) Individual exercise

• The instructors hand out groups of 3 books to each individual participant and have them examine the books an fill out a survey form for each book. The instructors circulate throughout the room and check in with participants about their progress and answer possible questions.

• The workshop breaks for lunch at this point. While the participants are at lunch, the instructors will examine the books, look at the filled out forms and see if there are serious misunderstandings or difficulties.

Lunch - 1 hour, participants get their own lunch outside the facility

4) Evaluation:

• When the participants come back from lunch they will talk about one of the books that they examined and discuss their decision-making process while filling out the survey form. This helps the instructors evaluate the level of understanding and comfort that the participants have about the survey process. This active evaluation also helps access whether the survey tool is successful and whether instruction is clear and satisfying for the participants
• Final questions are answered. The instructors give a short 'wrap-up' and 'conclusions' statement

• In the end of the workshop the participants fill out a short instructor evaluation form

Job Search

I did not count the numer of positions because I was not sure what the time frame was - for last year? Right now? I went to two places online: PADG and COOL, hoping to find two job postings that I could write about.

When looking at what might be available for me on the job market, I usually refer to Conservation Online's (COOL) Distribution List. Since I am interested in working within the U.S., I will not mention the overseas positions for conservators. Although the COOL DistList started out as advertising exclusively conservator jobs, in recent years I've seen both conservation and preservation jobs there.

The tricky thing I discovered is that for most of the conservation jobs, preservation components and management of preservation programs and projects weighs heavily in the job descriptions. This is true of the announcement for 2 positions at NARA. One of the positions is for a conservator responsible for coordinating digitization efforts. I assume that this would involve bench treatment time devoted to fragile objects to e digitized. The other position is for a conservator to develop and conduct a preservation training program.

I would think that for this second position, a PA professional would qualify just as well as a conservator. However, the advertisement says that they are looking for a person with professional conservation and preservation experience of a wide range of archival materials and formats. The ad goes on to mention all the major preservation administration competencies as being desired qualities in a candidate. These include, I am quoting: "program development in such areas as preventive conservation, risk assessment and prioritization,reformatting including digitizing, and emergency planning and response." If the person they are looking for is to have professional experience in development of preservation programs, it means that that person would have a fair amount of management experience as well. I have noticed that sometimes postings for Federal Government jobs do not include a detailed list of specific qualifications that the applicant must possess, like the type of degree or the number of years of post-graduate experience. I have encountered this in LOC job postings as well. Perhaps it's an effort to appear open and non-discriminatory?

Both of these positions require collaboration with other departments - digitization for the first one and the various division of NARA for the second one. Clearly, what they are looking for is a person who has leadership skills (able to develop, maintain and evaluate new programs) and is a team player, since cross-department interactions would be an everyday occurance.
The two positions advertised by NARA are examples of an exciting cross-germination between the fields of conservation and preservation. Such high expectations of professional expertise can seem overwhelming to want to acquire (in order to be able to qualify for a job like in the middle of my career). It seems that they are looking for people who embody both disciplines of conservation and preservation management. For many conservators, that career trajectory is natural and welcome. Taking on more responsibility for collections care and management of emergency preparedness and environmental monitoring programs are ways to advance to being head of a conservation lab, and in some cases, heads of preservation divisions. In any case, both of these positions are for people who have been acquiring experience in the field for 7-10 years, that's what I think.

When I looked on the PADG listserv, I saw a job offering for Digital Preservation Librarian at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The position was posted by Shannon Zachary, who is head of Preservation and Conservation. I went to the UM library website to find a detailed list of requirements. The requirements for this position are listed in a much more specific way, I am quoting: "ALA-accredited masters degree in library or information studies or equivalent advanced degree and experience. Demonstrated knowledge of the lifecycle management of digital material; an understanding of issues related to digital formats, media, and migration is required, along with an aptitude for quickly mastering technical topics. Experience working in research collections (libraries, archives, museums, data centers), with a minimum of 3 years of progressive experience with digital resources."
This position seems perfect for a graduating PA, or a PA at the start of their career, since the posting does not specify whether the 3 years of experience had to be post-graduate or not. I think that a graduate from the Kilgarlin center, focusing on digital libraries, with additional experience at HRC or in another digital collection on campus, would qualify well. The plus side of being a recent graduate in a field like digital asset management, is that you are learning and absorbing a lot of new technological knowledge and getting familiar with the newest trends while at school.

Project Summary for the Middle Eastern Program Collections at PCL-Try 2

The Middle Eastern Studies Collection at the University of Texas at Austin Libraries is comprised of many volumes that were made with poor quality materials. The low quality of text block paper and unsympathetic bindings contribute to overall deterioration of the collection. There is a compelling need to establish a long-term preservation plan for the Middle Eastern Program Collection, so that deterioration of materials does not prohibit the use of the collection and does not threaten the survival of the objects along with the information they carry. The overall condition of the collection has to be assessed and, based on the results that that assessment, concrete preservation measures have to be taken to ensure the collection's longevity.

The Middle Eastern Collection is large and diverse. It includes many volumes that represent both a scholarly interest and a significant cultural resource. Although highly valuable and somewhat rare, these volumes do not circulate widely. Because of infrequent circulation, it has been difficult to assess the physical condition of the collection, since most condition problems are identified when a volumes is checked out and returned to the library.

We propose to conduct an item level survey of the Middle Eastern Studies Collection, starting with the Perry Castaneda Library, where the majority of the volumes in the collection are housed. The survey would be conducted by a dedicated part-time staff of Preservation Administration graduate students enrolled at the School of Information, University of Texas at Austin. The goal of the assessment would be to determine what kind of preservation action is appropriate for items in the collection. Some of the options would be reformatting for brittle materials, de-acidification as preventative action for qualifying items, construction of phase boxes for light sensitive materials and repair of bindings at an in-house book conservation facility. Other approaches aimed at preservation of the collection may be determined as a result of the item-level survey.

We believe that this preservation initiative is timely and appropriate not just because of the needs of this particular collection, but also because of the broader cultural and political implication of preserving materials from the Middle East. The unstable political situation in many nations of the Middle East and destruction of war in Iraq have made preservation of Middle Eastern cultural heritage a priority worldwide. Funding agencies in the United States have taken a leadership role in targeting this problem. We believe that the Middle Eastern Collection at the University of Texas at Austin Libraries fits under the category of culturally significant collections of Middle Eastern materials in need of preservation attention.

At a more local level, the Middle Eastern Studies Collection is an integral and unique part of the University of Texas at Austin Libraries. The collection includes more that 300,000 volumes of monographs and bound periodicals, including works in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Tajiki and Kurdish, as well as in western languages. The Middle Eastern Collection serves as an irreplaceable resource for students and faculty at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, as well as for heritage speakers at the University of Texas at Austin. Many of the volumes from the collection get requested through the Inter-Library Loan system.
Ensuring long-term preservation of the Middle Eastern Studies Collection will benefit the students and faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, as well as the scholarly community at other research universities. The collection also offers cultural public value to heritage speakers of the languages that are represented in the collection.

We believe that as Preservation Administration and Conservation graduate students of the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin, we are uniquely qualified to conduct the survey and coordinate the proposed preservation initiative, The Kilgarlin Center for the Preservation of the Cultural Record, which is the home base of our graduate program, is at the forefront of preservation education for library and archive professionals. Graduate students at the Kilgarlin Center are motivated to gain practical real-world knowledge of working in the fields of preservation and conservation, possess the support system of the School of Information faculty and University of Texas Libraries staff, and have access to new technology and scholarly resources through the University of Texas Library system. We believe that these factors will enable our graduate students to come up with the most thoughtful preservation strategy and to effectively implement the assessment recommendations.

Positive and Negative Management Traits

I believe that there is more than one trait that characterizes a successful manager. The trait that I hold in particularly high esteem is being in touch with concerns of the staff that the manager supervises. As mentioned in chapter 1 of "The Knowing-Doing Gap", managers would greatly improve their relationship with staff and the accuracy of their assessment of the workplace productivity and dynamic, if there is a continual loop of communication, feedback and adjustment that happens between the levels of workplace hierarchy. David Sun, the manager of the successful company Kingston Technology, says that as a manager he follows the following simple motto:"Just do what they tell you they want." If the staff perceives that that management is receptive to their feedback, a certain level of trust is developed. The challenge of encouraging productivity and staff dedication is then to deliver what the staff needs to achieve excellent work performance.

Another important factor in being a good manager is recognizing that the vast majority of people learn effective work practices on the job, thus the success of co-op education programs, apprenticeships and internships that offer job-related skills. For a manager, it is important to fully understand what his/her staff does and how they do it. I think it is very important to have the technical expertise to, if not do, then certainly to understand the nature of employees' daily tasks and to clearly see these concrete tasks in a larger context of organizational mission and its goals. Most of the time heads of labs in conservation laboratories are conservators who have had several or many years of work experience in the type of institution, where they are fulfilling the management role. In this way, they have the technical competencies to recognize issues and dilemmas that the staff might be experiencing in their daily work. In addition to technical expertise, it is crucial for a manager and his/her staff to participate in activities that carry embedded tacit knowledge, such as meetings, mentoring, training, informal interactions at break time and outside of work, interaction with patrons and professionals from other departments.

The third quality of a good manager that I want to talk about is the continued effort to see situations and staff members with fresh eyes. All people are susceptible to forming instant stereotypes about co-workers, based on clothes, accents, hobbies, the kind of movies and books they like, what their husband is like, or whatever seems to capture our immediate attention. This is quite normal, but when you are responsible for evaluating and promoting or demoting staff members, it becomes more important to make efforts to neutralize these stereotype-driven assessments.

Normally managers have a lot of previous experience, which is great in some ways and less great in other ways. As mentioned in "The Mind and Heart of a Negotiator", things like "set effect" and "negative transfer" can undermine a manager's performance. This happens when a solution that had worked previously in a separate environment is applied to a different situation without due consideration of the specifics of the new context. The flip side of the coin is what the book calls "inert knowledge", which refers to a manager's inability to transfer their knowledge of problem solving from one context to another. So, it seems that a great manager has to be able to think holistically, and yet not to succumb to generic cookie-cutter solutions. The manager has to possess constant awareness of the major philosophies and dilemmas of their field in general, and then be able to apply their knowledge and insight in a specific, concrete way that fits their "on the ground" workplace situation.

As a manager, I try to see what the needs of my subordinates are and I try to offer them what they need in the most interesting way. However, in return I expect certain things like timeliness, a strong work ethic, general friendliness and the willingness to communicate. I think that trying to see the workplace through the eyes of the person you are supervising is a very valuable exercise. I find that I need to demonstrate that I am secure and confident in the tasks that I am asking my subordinates to do, which in turn gives them confidence. I am always available for questions and I go over and check on them, as how they are doing, engage with them about the process. I definitely try to impart that the work is important and that I care about the work, that we are not just here to slack off and cut corners, but I also try to be warm and friendly and try to find out more about how the person is outside of work. This usually gives me insight into how their work performance is effected by what is going on in other parts of their lives. I try to make my own work and work-related struggles visible to them because it makes me more relatable, characterizes me as an open person and shows that I trust them to see me when everything is not perfect.

Project Summary for the Middle Eastern Program Collection Preservation Initiatiative

The Middle Eastern Studies Collection at the University of Texas at Austin Libraries is comprised of many volumes that were made with poor quality materials. The low quality of text block paper and unsympathetic bindings contribute to overall deterioration of the collection. Because of lack of resources and dedicated staff, no action has been taken to assess the general physical condition of the collection. No long-term preservation plan, with specific needs of the Middle Eastern Studies collection in mind, has been established.

The Middle Eastern Collection includes many volumes that represent a narrow scholarly interest. The reading of these works demands a high level of language proficiency. Although highly valuable and somewhat rare, these volumes do not circulate widely. Because of infrequent circulation, it has been difficult to assess the physical condition of the collection, since most condition problems are identified when a volumes is checked out and returned to the library.

We propose to conduct an item level survey of the Middle Eastern Studies Collection, starting with the Perry Castaneda Library, where the majority of the volumes in the collection are housed. The survey would be conducted by a dedicated part-time staff of Preservation Administration graduate students enrolled at the School of Information, University of Texas at Austin. The goal of the assessment would be to determine what kind of preservation action is appropriate for items in the collection. Some of the options would be reformatting for brittle materials, de-acidification as preventative action for qualifying items, construction of phase boxes for light sensitive materials and repair of bindings at an in-house book conservation facility. Other approaches aimed at preservation of the collection may be determined as a result of the item-level survey.

We believe that this preservation initiative is timely and appropriate not just because of the needs of this particular collection, but also because of the broader cultural and political implication of preserving materials from the Middle East. The unstable political situation in many nations of the Middle East and destruction of war in Iraq have made preservation of Middle Eastern cultural heritage a priority worldwide. Funding agencies in the United States have taken a leadership role in targeting this problem. We believe that the Middle Eastern Collection at the University of Texas at Austin Libraries fits under the category of culturally significant collections of Middle Eastern materials in need of preservation attention.

At a more local level, the Middle Eastern Studies Collection is an integral and unique part of the University of Texas at Austin Libraries. The collection includes more that 300,000 volumes of monographs and bound periodicals, including works in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Tajiki and Kurdish, as well as in western languages. The Middle Eastern Collection serves as an irreplaceable resource for students and faculty at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, as well as for heritage speakers at the University of Texas at Austin. Many of the volumes from the collection get requested through the Inter-Library Loan system.
Ensuring long-term preservation of the Middle Eastern Studies Collection will benefit the students and faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, as well as the scholarly community at other research universities. The collection also offers cultural public value to heritage speakers of the languages that are represented in the collection.

We believe that as Preservation Administration and Conservation graduate students of the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin, we are uniquely qualified to conduct the survey and coordinate the proposed preservation initiative, The Kilgarlin Center for the Preservation of the Cultural Record, which is the home base of our graduate program, is at the forefront of preservation education for library and archive professionals. Graduate students at the Kilgarlin Center are motivated to gain practical real-world knowledge of working in the fields of preservation and conservation, possess the support system of the School of Information faculty and University of Texas Libraries staff, and have access to new technology and scholarly resources through the University of Texas Library system. We believe that these factors will enable our graduate students to come up with the most thoughtful preservation strategy and to effectively implement the assessment recommendations.

NCPTT-funded grants

Link to NCPTT site:
http://www.ncptt.nps.gov/index.php/grants/call-for-proposals-2009/

The National Center for Preservation Technology and Training offers funding for innovative projects in the fields of preservation education in the form of workshops and cirriculum development, documentation using new methods and development of web material that disseminates new preservation technologies. The grants are not very large, the maximum amount being $25,000. The areas of research that they provide funding for, which are relevant to libraries and museums, are collections management and materials research.

The topis of most interest to the agency are:

-conserve cultural resources of the "recent past"

-monitor and evaluate preservation treatments

-investigate minimally invasive techniques to inventory and assess cultural resources
protect cultural resources against natural and human threats

-preserve cemeteries and places of worship

-safeguard resources from effects of pollution and climate

The funding is available to U.S. universties and colleges, U.S. non-for profit organizations, and government agencies.

When reviewing the proposals, NCPTT officials look for certain criteria:

-have a concrete goal and objectives
-employ innovate technologies
-coherent project design
-qualified PI
-disseminate project results effectively
-cost effectiveness
-use non-traditional disseminaton of educational information that summarizes grant results, such as online web based training, webinars, podcasts, videos, DVDs, electronic publishing, etc.

The NCPTT website provides detailed directions for compiling the grant proposal and application, including specific length of each application component.

The website also has a page that shows all the institutions that had received NCPTT grants in the last several years, the monetary amounts and the project topics.

Link to grants: http://www.ncptt.nps.gov/index.php/grants/

This has proved extremely facinating. Conservation-related projects include a FAIC wiki and a review of past conservation treatments and preservation strategies for the southwest pottery collection at the University of Arizona. This is a collection that I used to work with while at the Arizona State Mumseum (U of A). Many of the objects in the collection had undergone several treatment campaigns, which fell under different philosophical periods in archaeological reconstruction and later on archaelogical conservation. Work related to this grant began, when I left for graduate school, so it would be really interesting to find out what they found about the differet kinds of repairs.

Natural History Museum- a preservation policy

Here are some notes from class discussion about preservation strategies in different institutions.
Our group- Helen, Kathy and Sonya- discussed possible points for a preservation strategy at a Natural History Museum.

1) Re-housing
Proper housing for collections is very important because it facilitates better access practices. If the artifacts are well-labeled and housed in secure trays with cavity cuts or in zip-locked plastic bags, researchers would have an easy time identifying which objects they want to look at will replace the objects into their specific cavity cut or container, when they are finished.

2) Access and Education
Only staff members should take out trays or boxes. Researchers should receive a short tutorial in handling objects before allowed to proceed with their work. Gloves should be provided. Some objects in natural history collections have a risk of toxicity associated with them. These objects include taxidermy and artifacts treated with pesticides during their institutional life. Artifacts suspected of toxicity should be clearly labeled and handled with gloves and possibly a mask. Staff and researchers should be alerted to the health risks involved in interacting with these artifacts.

3) Outreach
The museum should encourage students from relevant departments to volunteer in order to gain practical experience handling, organizing and preserving artifacts. Some departments that a natural history museum could advertise itself to are Museum Studies, Science, Archaeology/Anthropology and Classics. Many rehousing projects can be greatly aided with the involvement of student volunteers. It is a hands-on educational opportunity for the students and a chance to cut costs for the museum institution.

4) New Collections.
A major source of new collection material bringing back artifacts from the field during excavation projects. Some requirements should be instituted for the condition of these incoming collections. The artifacts should be clearly labeled so that they might be cataloged in a timely manner. The artifacts should not contain biological growth or pests. The artifacts should be cleaned in the gentlest possible way.