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Posted by: Beatriz Haspo
In this blog, I present the Collections Management Division or CMD, one of the largest divisions in the Library of Congress and part of the Preservation Directorate. Here are some highlights of what we do, starting with the mission. CMD is responsible for the safekeeping of the Library’s collections through inventory control, storage, and delivery …
Posted in: Collections Management, Conservation, Preservation
Posted by: Aaron D. Chaletzky
The Preservation Services Division uses a wide array of specialized software in order to preserve born-digital collections, most of which originally arrived at the Library of Congress on external media such as floppy disks, optical disks, and hard drives. By using this software, staff are able to find and preserve millions of files that are otherwise trapped on older media.
Posted in: Born Digital, Collections Management, Preservation, Reformatting, Tangible Media
Posted by: Tana Villafana
This is a guest post by Lynn Brostoff, a chemist in the Preservation Research and Testing Division. Her research interests include the characterization of iron gall ink, verdigris pigment, and glass deterioration. Carol Lynn Ward-Bamford (left), Curator, and Lynn Brostoff (right), Chemist, examining a Laurent flute in the Music Division’s Flute Vault. Photo Credit: Larry …
Posted in: Conservation, Heritage Science, Music, Preservation
Posted by: Samantha Schireson
This is a guest post authored by Gwenanne Edwards, Senior Paper Conservator in the Conservation Division. Drawings personifying genres of literature, Fancy, Romance, and Tragedy, were recently treated in the Conservation Division. The drawings were made in 1896 as preparatory sketches for mural paintings in the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress and …
Posted in: Conservation, Preservation
Posted by: Beatriz Haspo
Our previous blog A Cool Collective Success! Preserving Collections Offsite presented the general details about the Library of Congress offsite storage facility at Fort Meade, MD. Check it out! In this blog, I share our excitement about the opening of our newest storage location at Fort Meade, Module #6, and the many actions taken in …
Posted in: Collections Management, Preservation
Posted by: Tana Villafana
This is a guest post by Kimberly Chancellor and Heidi Vance, two Junior Fellow summer interns in the Preservation Research and Testing Division. Kimberly is a recent graduate from Texas A&M University where she earned her BS in Anthropology. Heidi is a current paper conservation graduate student at Northumbria University. This summer we had the …
Posted in: Collections Care, Heritage Science, Internships, Preservation
Posted by: Aaron D. Chaletzky
This is a guest post written by Amanda May, Digital Conversion Specialist in the Preservation Services Division. Her work includes recovering data from removable media in Library collections and providing consultation and services for born-digital collections data. Of the hundreds of thousands of removable media items in the Library’s collections, the vast majority are optical …
Posted in: Preservation
Posted by: Samantha Schireson
This is a guest post by Jennifer Lewis, a Preservation Specialist in the Conservation Division who specializes in stabilization, collection housing, and large-scale projects. Have you wondered what the Library was like when the buildings were nearly empty during the first months of the pandemic? During the Library’s extended closure beginning in March 2020, a team …
Posted in: Collections Management, Conservation, Preservation
Posted by: Beatriz Haspo
This is a guest post by Amy Olson, 2021 Junior Fellow in the Collections Management Division and recent graduate of Smith College in Women & Gender Studies. This summer, I have worked as a Junior Fellow with the Carvalho Monteiro Collection, a project to locate and digitally reunite a 30,000 book library within the Library’s …
Posted in: Internships, Preservation