Preservation Committee Meeting: August 28, 2020

Zoom/Conference Call

Members Attending:

• Melina Avery, University of Chicago
• Mary Burns, Northern Illinois University
• Rob DeLand, VanderCook College of Music
• Nora Gabor, DePaul University
• Tonia Grafakos, Northwestern University
• Susan Howell, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
• Becky Koch, Illinois State University
• Pattie Piotrowski, University of Illinois at Springfield, Board liaison
• Meghan Ryan, National Louis University, co-chair
• William Schlaack, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, co-chair

Staff Attending:

• Elizabeth Clarage
• Nicole Swanson

Announcements

• CARLI Announcements:
  • All staff are working remotely.
  • Due to the pandemic, CARLI has cancelled all in-person activities for the foreseeable future including the Annual Meeting. The 40th Anniversary Celebration is still in the works.
  • CARLI partnered with seven other library consortia to form the Professional Development Alliance (PDA). Each member of the PDA offers a program once a month for all to attend. All the PDA presentations are free, but you have to register. CARLI is hosting a program on accessibility. There are currently eight PDA series presentations on the CARLI calendar.
  • The Ebook Program is up and running. Ebooks published from 2017 onward from Wiley Online Books are available. Ebooks published from 2018 onward by Oxford University Press are available. All of the titles from 18 partner presses on University Press Scholarship Online (UPSO) are available. The MARC records for these materials have been added to the Alma Network Zone for I-Share members. Authentication is IP based. Users must be sure their authentications are up to date to access the e-books from off campus. More information is available on the program website.
• Member announcements:
  • Northwestern University is following a hybrid model for classes.
  • At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, classes have started and things are going well. All are tested twice a week for COVID-19, and the results come back quickly. The library is not open. The library is working on a digitization strategy for patron requests.
  • Courses at VanderCook College of Music are 100% virtual.
  • Illinois State University is using a hybrid model for classes. The library is open. When the university started random testing for COVID, their number of cases sky-rocketed in the last week or so. There are problems with students following use rules. Books are quarantined as they returned for three days.

Discussion

• Group Communications
  • The committee discussed and decided to continue using Box as its shared working environment.
  • Members suggested posting updates to the Preservation Resources Webliography in box instead of taking a roll call and using meeting time to gather updates.
  • It was mentioned that communications with drafts of the meeting minutes could get lost in strings of email. It was agreed that draft meeting minutes would be more easily accessible posted in box and an email sent to the Committee when they were available for review.
  • The Committee also discussed using Zoom for meetings and decided to continue using the platform.
• Reviewing the Preservation Committee Charge
  • The review of the CARLI Committee's charges is driven by the migration to ALMA. The main focus is to make certain the Committees are doing what's needed in this new environment.
  • The Committees are actively to discuss whether a Committee should continue as is or update its charge, split, combine with another Committee or cease.
  • Timeline for the review includes:
    • Co-chairs will get a poll to fill out for an all-chairs meeting to be held in mid-October.
    • The draft of what the Committee has decided is due December 1st.
    • A final report is due March 1st before the call for new CARLI Committee members goes out.
  • Members thought that Committee was doing good work in its current form and that we should not lose our preservation focus. Also, it was suggested we might consider working together with the Created Content Committee on certain projects. Before the next meeting the members will review the Preservation Committee charge and those of the other CARLI Committees. Elizabeth will post our charge in Box for us to edit and comment.
• Annual Project:
  • Survey of CARLI Libraries' Preservation activities.
    • Members expressed interest in doing another survey of preservation activities at member institutions and their preservation needs. The last survey was done in 2015,  (http://www.carli.illinois.edu/sites/files/files/2015Preservation_Survey.pdf) and has been used to inform the work of the Committee in the following years.
    • It was thought that the survey would be a good project. It is in need of updating and five years is a good amount of time to let pass between surveys.
    • Surveys are really useful tools to find about what libraries are doing.
    • The point was made that doing the survey in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic may not be the best timing. For example, it would not be a good time to ask institutions how many FTE they have doing preservation activities.
    • It was decided that a survey should not be this year’s project.
  • Past projects that resulted from the 2015 survey:
    • 2016--A Year in the Life: AV/Media Preservation in Illinois
    • 2017--Watch Out for Midwest Disasters
    • 2018--Communication the Value of Preservation
    • 2019--Beyond the Book: Preserving Your Non-Book Collections
    • 2020--Preservation Interviews: Learning from our Collective Experiences
  • Other possible annual projects:
    • Other topics that the committee considered were online exhibits. It was suggested this could be done in conjunction with the Creative Content Committee.
    • Another webinar topic proposed was looking into how member libraries in the Chicago area were coping with their in-person exhibits being shut down.
    • A webinar about handling gifts was mentioned.
  • The Committee decided to think more about an annual project topic and reconsider what to do at the September meeting.
  • A request was made for a document in Box so that committee members could add possible project topics Elizabeth will create one within the committee’s Box folder.
  • History of the format of the annual project: One of the committee members asked how the format of the annual project came to be. Elizabeth explained that at one time the Newsletter tip and annual project were two separate projects that were combined in 2016.
• COVID Resources Webpage
  • Members discussed the possibility of creating a COVID-19 resources webpage.
  • It was thought it would be a huge amount of work to keep updated.
  • It is probably not the place people would go to for the most up-to-date information on how the pandemic affects library resources.
  • Also, the concern was raised that it is beyond the expertise of Committee members who are not trained health care professionals.
  • It was decided this was not a continuing project that the Committee should take on.
• Quarantine Times for Returned Library Materials
  • This subject came up during the member announcements portion of the meeting. Committee members were interested in how long other member libraries were quarantining their materials upon return. It was decided that members would add the quarantine times at their libraries to the draft minutes in Box.

Decisions

• June minutes were approved.
• The committee will continue using Box to post working documents.
• Committee members will post drafts of minutes in Box and send a message to the committee email list when the draft minutes are available for review.
• Updates on checking links on the CARLI Preservation website will be recorded in a document in Box instead of being shared monthly at meetings.
• The committee will continue to use Zoom for our group monthly meeting space.
• The annual project will be discussed and finalized at next meeting.
• Monthly meeting time will be second Monday of the month from 10:30 am to 12:00 pm  

Tasks Assigned

• Schedule for minutes was assigned alphabetically by institution excepting August:
  • August: Mary Burns
  • September: Nora Gabor
  • October: Becky Koch
  • November: Meghan Ryan
  • December: Mary Burns
  • January: Tonia Grafakos
  • February: Susan Howell
  • March: Melina Avery
  • April: Will Schlaack
  • May: Rob Deland
  • June: Nora Gabor
• CARLI Preservation Resources Website - Checking Links:
  • https://www.carli.illinois.edu/products-services/collections-management/preservation-resources
  • Assessment Planning: Susan
  • Audio-visual Preservation (Analog & Digital): Mary
  • Book Repair and Conservation: Susan
  • Digital Preservation and Digitization for Preservation: William
  • Disaster Planning and Response: William
  • Exhibits: Becky
  • General Preservation and Conservation Resources Sites: Rob and Melina
  • Glossaries: Nora
  • Grants and Development: Meghan
  • Legal Issues: Tonia
  • Library Binding: Rob
  • Mold, Pests, and the Environment: Becky
  • Protective Enclosures and Storage: Meghan
  • Social Media: Nicole, willing to switch
  • Special Collections and Archives: Mary
  • Supply Vendors: Elizabeth
  • Training: Nora
• All committee members will review the Preservation Committee charge and other CARLI Committee charges. Consider whether Preservation Committee should continue as is or update its charge, cease, split or combine with another committee.
• All committee members will brainstorm ideas for annual project to discuss at next meeting.
• Elizabeth will add a document in box that committee members will add possible project ideas for the upcoming year.
• Elizabeth will add document to Box with the committee charge, so members can make comments and edits.
• Add length of time to minutes that each member's institution quarantines materials after they are returned to their library
  • DePaul University:
  • Illinois State University: three days
  • National Louis University: three days
  • Northern Illinois University: four days
  • Northwestern University: four days
  • Southern Illinois University Carbondale: five days
  • University of Chicago: three days
  • University of Illinois at Springfield: three to five days
  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign:  three to five days
  • VanderCook College of Music: It depends.
• The meeting was adjourned at 12:00 pm

Meeting Dates and Deadlines

Schedule of Preservation Committee Conference Calls:

• September 14, 2020: 10:30-12:00
• October 12, 2020: 10:30-12:00
• November 9, 2020: 10:30-12:00
• December 14, 2020: 10:30-12:00
• January 11, 2021: 10:30-12:00
• February 8, 2021: 10:30-12:00
• March 8, 2020: 10:30-12:00
• April 12, 2020: 10:30-12:00
• May 10, 2020: 10:30-12:00
• June 14, 2020: 10:30-12:00

Connection Information for the remaining committee conference calls: to be determined.