For our March Project Profile, the Institute is taking a look back at three recipients of our Conservation Project Support grants. As the details of IMLS’ Connecting to Collections initiative unfold, we want to shine a spotlight on some of the important conservation work that the Institute has funded in the past. Enjoy the following three profiles:

Gilbert Stuart Masterpieces Conserved with IMLS Grant
Bowdoin College Museum of Art - Originally posted January 2003

The Art of the Book: Preserving Islamic Manuscripts at the Walters
Walters Art Museum - Originally posted November 2001

Keeping Bugs in Their Place with Help from IMLS
Science Museum of Minnesota - Originally posted June 2000

The IMLS’ eighth annual Webwise Conference, Stewardship in the Digital Age: Managing Museum and Library Collections for Preservation and Use, highlighted the huge shift that is underway at the nation’s museums and libraries. In just a few years, museums and libraries have gone from knowing virtually nothing about how to preserve digital assets to understanding that digitization is an important part of conservation and use. In addition to preserving the tangible objects, there is an increasing awareness that institutions need digital repositories for collections that are:

• physically vulnerable
• on fragile or unstable media such as wax cylinder recordings
• born digital, including modern photographs and video

The value of digitization was vividly illustrated at the University of Hawaii at Manoa when a flash flood swept through the campus in November 2004. Water crested at about six feet on the ground floor of the main library, where the government documents and map collections were located. The force of the flood water was so great that it knocked out walls, broke windows, moved fully loaded map cases and knocked over the stacks. Fortunately, the flood occurred at 8 p.m. and the library was closed so the few people inside were able to escape. However, the collection suffered extremely heavy damage. Almost everything was under water and staff were able to save very little of its collections. Had the valuable historical map collection been digitized, it would have survived at least virtually for future generations. The library had been a federal, regional and United Nations depository.

Most institutions don’t have to worry about flash floods but water main breaks and other disasters jeopardize collections. Digitization can be an important strategy in preparing for emergencies.

On a more positive note, the IMLS participated in a digital success story with a 2003 National Leadership Grant to the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). With IMLS funding, the UCSB library was able to digitize more than 5,000 fragile wax cylinder recordings, which provide a valuable snapshot of musical and popular culture in the decades around the turn of the 20th century. In 2005, the recordings were posted online and made freely available at http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu.

Digitization not only protects historically important collections but also paves the way for future collections. With the emergence of born digital art and ephemeral installations, the need to develop competency in documenting and preserving these works requires a new set of digital preservation skills.

The drive towards digitization also opens to the public vast collections of unique materials held in library special collections as well as museum artifacts, including American art. Museums can whet and feed the public’s vast appetite for non-blockbuster collections that have been rarely on display and all but invisible until now. Interestingly, in the virtual world, the user becomes the curator, thus changing the traditional relationship between the public and the museum in fundamental ways.

Efforts are underway to develop trusted digital repositories. Towards this end, we have funded several significant projects including:

• Development of a model preservation repository for multi-institutional digital assets at the California Digital Library, one of the first digital preservation repositories, and a study of its policies and operations.
• Investigation of long-term digital archiving issues relating to the National Virtual Observatory, which will give astronomers long-term, reliable access to data for publishing research in astronomy. This is being conducted by Johns Hopkins University, in partnership with the University of Washington and the University of Edinburgh.
• A Massachusetts Institute of Technology study of the role of digital preservation archives in developing strategies for the preservation of Computer-Assisted Design (CAD) architectural documents, using the designs of the architect Frank Gehry as a test bed.
• A University of Michigan examination of institutional repositories in North America that will provide case studies that illustrate key elements contributing to successful repositories. The investigators will also create instruments and protocols for reuse of data by other investigators.

Building on their core mission to preserve cultural heritage, museums and libraries must now develop policies, procedures, tools and infrastructure to manage digital collections over the long-term. We want to be part of the solution and, like you, believe that digital stewardship is an important part of the overall mission of libraries and museum to care for their collections.

- Anne-Imelda M. Radice, Ph.D., Director, IMLS

Want more information on WebWise? Check back for:

• Podcasts of the presentations and audio synchronized with PowerPoint presentations on www.imls.gov/webwise
• A publication with the summary of proceedings
• Conference papers posted on www.firstmonday.org

"Pioneering for Museums," Schroeder Cherry, Counselor to the Director, George Washington University Graduate Program for Museum Education, Washington, DC, 2/16.

"African Americans in the Information Professions," Schroeder Cherry, Counselor to the Director, Towson University, Towson, MD, 2/27.

"Reconnaissance on African American Museums in the New Orleans Region," Schroeder Cherry, Counselor to the Director, New Orleans, LA, 3/13-16.

“Award Ceremony at the Frankfort Community Public Library,” Dr. Anne Radice, Director, Frankfort, IN, 03/29.

"IMLS, Libraries, Museums: Strong Partners," Marsha Semmel, Deputy for Museums and Director for Strategic Partnerships, Texas Library Association Annual Meeting, Houston, TX, 4/13.

“IMLS Funding for Technology” Dan Lukash, Senior Program Officer, Museums and the Web 2007, San Francisco, CA, 4/11-14.