The Library of Congress partners with five universities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to test 2,500 books and observe trends in the assembled data; assessing the physical condition of the national collection.
Preservation Week at the Library of Congress starts April 24th and it’s one of our favorite times of the year! The trees are blooming and it’s time for the Preservation Directorate to fling open our (virtual) doors and welcome you inside. We see Preservation Week as our opportunity to draw back the curtain and let …
This is a guest post by Brandi Marulli, 2022 Librarian in Residence, Preservation Directorate. Support of the next generation of librarians and leaders is an integral part of the mission of The Library of Congress, with a multitude of people of all ages and backgrounds serving in 80 different programs. The Internship and Fellowship Programs …
Read a personal interview with an objects conservator at the Library of Congress, Liz Peirce. Liz talks about her experiences working in conservation at the Library, her educational and professional background, her projects at the Library, and advice for aspiring conservators.
How do we preserve open reel audio tapes? How quickly are they breaking down? Recently published work from a collaborative study between scientists at the Library and colleagues at FUJIFILM shows that many of these historic tapes are likely sticking around for a while.
Preservation administration is much like other types of management and administration, except that our bottom line isn’t financial profit. Instead, the goal comes in two parts: maximize the usability of collections in the present tense, and do that in ways that improve their odds of usability in the future. Read on to see how see how the Preservation Directorate is changing approaches to functional organization and budget planning to achieve these goals at the Library of Congress.
This is a guest post written by Amanda May, Digital Projects Specialist in the Preservation Services Division. Her work includes managing digital files for the division, recovering data from removable media in Library collections, and providing consultation and services for born-digital collections data. Born-digital preservation work most often begins with a physical object – a …
The de-installation of gallery objects is often a process not typically seen by the public. This post offers insight into what is involved in order to successfully carry out such a large undertaking.
One unique and CHARMing collection at The Library of Congress is made up of other peoples’ discards, handmade replicas, and miscellany. A non-collection as it were, it is an amalgamation of reference samples and materials used by preservation scientists to expand discovery and research opportunities.