Climb Every Mountain, Open Every Box SAA12
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Transcript of Climb Every Mountain, Open Every Box SAA12
CLIMB EVERY MOUNTAIN, OPEN EVERY BOX: CONDITION SURVEYS AND STRATEGIC PRESERVATION PLANNING
JENNIFER WAXMAN
SENIOR MANAGER FOR PRESERVATION AND ACCESS
CENTER FOR JEWISH HISTORY
SAA 2012 Annual Meeting Session 201
CONTEXT
• Strategic plan mandated streamlining access to unique and specialized material
• Creation of Archives Preservation Program in Preservation Department
• Creation of Preservation Archivist position (taking place of Preservation Librarian)
• Change in focus of conservation lab: 80/20, archives to circulating collection split
SO, WWMLR DO?
CONTEXT
• Perform risk assessment of repositories
• Perform condition survey (or, needs assessment) of collections
• Design and implement policy and procedures based on findings
PRECEDENT• Columbia University Mellon survey (2004),
PACSCL survey initiative, and CALIPR came before me• Determined approach: processed collections, box-level,
condition focused, mostly quantitative, some qualitative
• Literature survey easy; very little about condition surveys• Gunselman’s 2007 AA article “Assessing Preservation
Needs of Manuscript Collections with a Comprehensive Survey”
• NEDCC Preservation 101 condition worksheets• British Library National Preservation Office survey (2006)
• Evaluation of tools• Worksheets, spreadsheets, databases
• Box-level, on site processed collections (for this phase)
• Gather quantitative data on:
• condition of housing at collection, unit and material level
• condition of all formats
• Gather qualitative data on:
• overall condition of housing at collection level• condition of formats per unit• intellectual access
METHODOLOGY
Survey tool redesign
METHODOLOGY• kept collection,
unit and material level data
• kept physical condition, housing and intellectual access quality ratings
• expanded format tabs and sub-format dropdowns
• added lots of checkboxes to identify condition at unit, material level
METHODOLOGY
NYU Survey Tool and Survey Manual available here:
http://library.nyu.edu/preservation/archivespreservation
METHODOLOGY
• Staffing
• Part time students, teams of 2• Solid training: Gunselman article,
Ritzenthaler excerpts, NEDCC leaflets, NFPF Film preservation guide, A/V format introduction and inspection techniques, handling and care training, mold isolation procedures.
• Supplies
• Laptop, wifi• Pencil/paper, pH pen, tape
measure
• First step: shelf check
IMPLEMENTATION
• 971 collections, 5501 containers, 7 minutes a box
• Must review staff work periodically to ensure consistency and effectiveness of tool.
• Half way through survey, noticed rating system was fallible:
• Overall Housing Condition Rating 3 overused • Had to further refine ratings and require surveyors to
record reason for designating a collection Rating 2 or below
• Had to backtrack and change all collections from 3 to 2 with new definition in place
IMPLEMENTATION
• 42% Rating 3• housing made of
currently accepted standard mats, no failure to support
• 58% Rating 2 or below• indicates that
enclosures no longer support the items, +/- threaten safety, +/- not made of standard mats
263%
53555%
41042%
Rating 1
Rating 2
Rating 3
Rating 4
n=971
Housing Condition Rating Collection Level
FINDINGS: COLLECTION LEVEL
FINDINGS: UNIT LEVEL
1739
under-
stuffed boxes (33%)
1196 folders slumping (22%)
1049 under-stuffed boxes with slumping
folders
FINDINGS: UNIT LEVELMechanical damage: under/overstuffed, Plasti-clips
Remediation projects
• Fix under-stuffing and slumping issues with internal board supports and cylinders (discarded, rolled archival folders)
• Train students, educate about long term effects of decisions made during processing
OUTCOMES
OUTCOMES
Strategic planning
• Remediation projects and conservation treatments based on condition ratings and curatorial priority
• Training and integration of preservation actions into all phases of archival management (accessioning and processing workflows)
• Write preservation-focused grants armed with data
Electronic Media Survey
• Inconsistent descriptive practices made it very difficult to locate electronic media in already processed collections
• Simplified survey tool: Excel worksheets
• Training guides used to identifying media with Wikipedia articles about magnetic, optical and flash media
OUTCOMES