Preservation Services at Dartmouth College: Photo Banner

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Photo Banner

A few weeks ago I was contacted for information regarding an item shown in the photo banner of our department home page. The question was a surprising one but it made me think about the photos in the banner, the rationale behind them and the sometimes subliminal messages I am sending.

Looking from left to right there are six photos (actually nine but the last three are generic images of the Library) and each represents an activity or important relationship with other departments in the Library.

1. Digital conversion & digital preservation: A leaf from the Brut Chronicle being scanned. Preservation Services staff have worked hard to raise awareness of the need for pre & post digitization conservation. The Brut was taken apart for cleaning and rebinding, and in the middle of that treatment it was scanned. Preservation staff have also been responsible for the actual scanning of some materials and Preservation staff are collaborating across the organization to manage & preserve digital resources.

2. Conservation: Brushes symbolize book and paper conservation.

3. Non-book preservation: Our department is responsible for ALL of the Library's resources. This staged photo for a film preservation presentation is a graphic reminder of how NOT to handle film. This image is found on the slide show of our blog and is one of my favorites, the title of the film being, "Why I came to Dartmouth".

4. Conservation documentation: Each day Preservation staff repair books from the circulating collections and use their considerable expertise to repair items from the Rauner Special Collections Library. We typically document before and after treatments for items from that collection. This was also the photo that generated the question -- where to obtain the color bar.

5. New Book Processing: Preservation Services is reponsible for attaching book plates, call number labels, and security strips in all newly received items for the collection. The "hand model" is Maxine Cameron, who was a key member of the preservation team up until her retirement in 2010.

6. Circulation: The reason for our being. Access and preservation go hand in hand.

Written by Barb Sagraves

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Contributors

Deborah Howe Is the Collections Conservator at Dartmouth College Library. She's been involved in the book community for over 20 years. She is a member of the Guild of Book Workers and teaches classes in the Book Arts program.

Ryland Ianelli Is a cartoonist and Project Specialist in the Dartmouth Preservation Services department. He graduated from Reed College with a BA in Art History in 2008 and, more recently, from the Center for Cartoon Studies with an MFA in Cartooning in 2010. In addition to his work in Preservation and the Digital Production Unit, he is currently drawing and writing for various independently published comics and anthologies.

Barb Sagraves has been head of Preservation Services since its creation in 1995. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan SLIS program, has an MA in Medieval History from Michigan State University, and a BA in History from the University of Oklahoma. In her role as department head, Barb has overall responsibility for the preservation program and policies at Dartmouth College Library and is in charge of the Book Arts Program.

Jenny Mullins has been the Digital Preservation Librarian for Dartmouth College Library since May of 2014. Prior to coming to Dartmouth, she preserved video and audio collections, helped build a digital repository and worked in book and paper conservation labs. Jenny is a member of ALA and co-chair of the Preservation Metadata Interest Group for 2015-17.