Preservation Committee Meeting: July 23, 2021

Conference Call / Zoom

Members attending:

• Melina Avery, University of Chicago
• Sarah Cain, Northern Illinois University
• Rob DeLand, VanderCook College of Music, co-chair
• Teri Embry, Pritzker Military Museum and Library
• Nora Gabor, DePaul University
• Tonia Grafakos, Northwestern University, co-chair
• Jade Kastel, Western Illinois University
• Becky Koch, Illinois State University
• William Schlaack, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

CARLI Staff attending:

• Elizabeth Clarage
• Nicole Swanson

Board Liaisons:

• Pattie Piotrowski, University of Illinois Springfield

Tasks Assigned

• Minutes taken by Rob DeLand.
• Members should send a note to Elizabeth and Nicole about any conflicts with the standing meeting day/time.

Decisions

• June minutes were approved as submitted (Teri moved, Rob seconded).
• The committee decided to meet monthly from 10:30-Noon on the second Monday of each month. Members will send conflicts to Elizabeth and Nicole. If there are conflicts, the meeting will be shifted to the third Monday.
• Minutes for 2021-22 will be taken according to the following schedule:
  • September: Melina
  • October: Becky
  • November: Sarah
  • December: Tonia
  • January: Teri
  • February: Nora
  • March: Will
  • April: Rob
  • May: Jade
  • June: Nora
• Preservation Webliography Topical Assignments:
  • Assessment Planning (Jade)
  • Audio-visual Preservation (Analog & Digital) (Jade)
  • Book Repair and Conservation (Melina)
  • Digital Preservation and Digitization for Preservation (William)
  • Disaster Planning and Response (Tonia)
  • Exhibits (Becky)
  • General Preservation and Conservation Resources Sites (2 people needed: Rob & Sarah)
  • Glossaries (Nora)
  • Grants and Development (Teri)
  • Legal issues (Nicole)
  • Library Binding (Rob)
  • Mold, Pests, and the Environment (Becky)
  • Protective Enclosures and Storage (Tonia)
  • Social Media (Teri)
  • Special Collections and Archives (Sarah)
  • Supply Vendors (William)
  • Training (Nora)

Announcements

• Member Announcements:
  • Melina, Teri, Nora, Will, Rob and Tonia all commented on their campuses’ plans to resume in-person for the fall term. Most institutions are requiring students to be fully vaccinated for COVID, with faculty vaccination either required or strongly encouraged. Targeted “back in person” dates were typically between August 1st and September.
  • Teri said construction is going well for a new archival facility just across the border in Wisconsin. Plans are to open early 2023, and for space to be available on a rental basis for institutions who may need it.
• CARLI Announcements:
  • CARLI staff will be returning to the office in September.
  • Ongoing work throughout the upcoming year to reduce the number of duplicate records in Alma.
  • CARLI continues to be a member of the Professional Development Alliance which provides free continuing education programs. Available programs are on the CARLI calendar.
  • Current CARLI policy is for all meetings to be held virtually at least until at least January 2022, possibly later.
  • The CARLI annual meeting will be November 10, 2021 via Zoom. Registration is now open. Link: https://www.carli.illinois.edu/carli-annual-meeting-3

Discussion

• The committee’s Charge was reviewed, and it was noted that language was added to the charges of all CARLI committees to include diversity, equity, and inclusion. The “minutes” template was discussed and assignments made for the coming year. The committee email list and “Box” for document storage were reviewed.
• Our committee’s Preservation Resources Website is here:  https://www.carli.illinois.edu/products-services/collections-managemecnt/preservation-resources
• Committee members volunteered to verify links in each of 17 sections.
• An annual project has been deemed optional this year by CARLI leadership, however we discussed several different options at length for moving forward with this. They included:
  • A webinar on what we learned going virtual during the pandemic; this could include inputs from archivists, reference librarians, and others in various university staff roles who were affected.
  • “How do you collect an event?” – collecting items such as signage, photographs and interviews from events such as those promoting social justice /progress.  Archivist Jeanelle Austin and her activities were cited, as described here: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/12/02/preserving-the-george-floyd-memorial
  • Hosting a panel discussion on diversity, equity, and inclusion as it applies to collections development including access and preservation of controversial materials. Examples included a collection of “dime novels” that included racist themes, and this UCLA blog: https://www.library.ucla.edu/blog/preservation/2020/09/29/thoughts-on-conserving-racist-materials-in-libraries  
  • An open house at the Newberry Library and Chicago History Museum in Chicago was planned for March 2020 but cancelled due to COVID.  It would be nice to revisit this when it is safe to do so (details here: https://www.carli.illinois.edu/canceled-preservation-committee-program-newberry-library-and-chicago-history-museum)
  • Disaster planning could be revisited
  • Best practices of virtual exhibits
• Contributions to the CARLI newsletter: committee members were encouraged to review past monthly contributions, so we can discuss in September and make firm plans to contribute in subsequent newsletters.

Next Meeting Dates and Deadlines

The next Preservation Committee meeting will be September 20, 2021 at 10:30am.  The group consensus was to meet the second Monday each month (via Zoom) from September through June, moved to the third Monday there is a schedule conflict.

Future Committee Meeting Dates:

• September 20, 2021 (moved from September 13)
• October 18, 2021 (moved from October 11)
• November 8, 2021
• December 13, 2021
• January 10, 2022
• February 14, 2022
• March 21, 2022 (moved from March 14)
• April 11, 2022
• May 9, 2022
• June 13, 2022

Deadlines: None