Preserving Local Writers, Genealogy, Photographs, Newspapers, and Related Materials

Edited by Carol Smallwood and Elaine Williams

Preservation of historical documents and library related materials is a growing problem in all library types and institutions. Fortunately, editors Carol Smallwood and Elaine Williams have pulled together the wisdom of practicing professionals to elucidate how to cope with the many problems that arise when preserving, managing, and digitizing important collections.

Preserving Local Writers, Genealogy, Photographs, Newspapers, and Related Materials contains informative chapters on physical preservation, collection management, cooperation with organizations and communities, various formats, and special projects. Each part covers the preservation of specific materials, from newspapers and scrapbooks to photographs and oral histories. In addition, chapters cover repair and restoration of materials, while taking into consideration the current state of funding for agencies with an interest in history. Contributors also shed light on how the racial, economic, and political dynamics of the past affect how collections are gathered, maintained, and presented today.

Preserving Local Writers, Genealogy, Photographs, Newspapers, and Related Materials offers plenty to inspire anyone facing backlogs of unprocessed papers or boxes of artifacts. Stories of the rescue efforts of a group of volunteers, or the discovery of a lost diary, show that the hard work of preservation is well worth it. Libraries, archives, and historical and genealogical societies all have their role to play in preserving important historical materials, as do patrons, sponsors, and volunteers; such institutions and individuals will find this book extremely helpful in their preservation efforts.

Scarecrow Press

Pages: 356 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-0-8108-8358-1 • Paperback • April 2012 • $92.00 • (£71.00)

978-0-8108-8359-8 • eBook • April 2012 • $87.00 • (£67.00)

Subjects: Business & Economics / Museum Administration & Museology, Language Arts & Disciplines / Library & Information Science / General, Language Arts & Disciplines / Library & Information Science / Archives & Special Libraries

Preserving Local Writers, Genealogy, Photographs, Newspapers, and Related Materials

Paperback

eBook

Summary

Preservation of historical documents and library related materials is a growing problem in all library types and institutions. Fortunately, editors Carol Smallwood and Elaine Williams have pulled together the wisdom of practicing professionals to elucidate how to cope with the many problems that arise when preserving, managing, and digitizing important collections.

Preserving Local Writers, Genealogy, Photographs, Newspapers, and Related Materials contains informative chapters on physical preservation, collection management, cooperation with organizations and communities, various formats, and special projects. Each part covers the preservation of specific materials, from newspapers and scrapbooks to photographs and oral histories. In addition, chapters cover repair and restoration of materials, while taking into consideration the current state of funding for agencies with an interest in history. Contributors also shed light on how the racial, economic, and political dynamics of the past affect how collections are gathered, maintained, and presented today.

Preserving Local Writers, Genealogy, Photographs, Newspapers, and Related Materials offers plenty to inspire anyone facing backlogs of unprocessed papers or boxes of artifacts. Stories of the rescue efforts of a group of volunteers, or the discovery of a lost diary, show that the hard work of preservation is well worth it. Libraries, archives, and historical and genealogical societies all have their role to play in preserving important historical materials, as do patrons, sponsors, and volunteers; such institutions and individuals will find this book extremely helpful in their preservation efforts.

Details

Scarecrow Press

Pages: 356 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-0-8108-8358-1 • Paperback • April 2012 • $92.00 • (£71.00)

978-0-8108-8359-8 • eBook • April 2012 • $87.00 • (£67.00)

Subjects: Business & Economics / Museum Administration & Museology, Language Arts & Disciplines / Library & Information Science / General, Language Arts & Disciplines / Library & Information Science / Archives & Special Libraries

Author

Carol Smallwood has worked as a public library systems administrator and consultant, and in school, academic, and special libraries. She has authored, co-authored, edited, and co-edited several books, including Writing and Publishing: The Librarian's Handbook (2010), Librarians as Community Partners: An Outreach Handbook (2010), and How to Thrive as a Solo Librarian (Scarecrow, 2011). Her articles have appeared in numerous journals, including American Libraries.

Elaine S. Williams is branch manager and youth librarian at the Lynchburg (Ohio) Branch of the Highland County District Library. Her writing has appeared in Librarians as Community Partners (ALA, 2010) and A Cup of Comfort for Fathers (Adams Media, 2010). She is a member of the Lynchburg Historical Society and the Ohio Library Council, Southwest Chapter.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction

PART I: BASICS
1. Band-Aids and Superglue for the Cash-Strapped Local History Librarian, Chad Leinaweaver
2. Basic In-House Book and Paper Repair, Karen E.K Brown
3. Emergency Preparedness, Dyani Feige
4. You Can't Keep It All, Rochelle LeMaster

PART II: NEWSPAPERS
5. Balancing Selection and Digitization: Selecting 19th and Early-20th Century Newspaper Titles for Online Access, Athena Jackson
6. Indexing your Local Newspapers on Microfilm, Kelly Zackmann
7. Newspaper Preservation in Developing Countries: Issues and Strategies for Intervention, Goodluck Israel Ifijeh

PART III: SCRAPBOOKS
8. How to Get Scrapbooks Into the Hands of Users, Anastasia Weigle
9. Keeping Scrapbooks Secure and Available, Erin Foley
10. Physical Properties of Scrapbooks, Jennifer Hain Teper

PART IV: LOCAL HISTORY
11. Creating Local History Development Guidelines, William Helling
12. Keeping a Past: Preservation Issues in Local History, Nancy Richey
13. Minimizing Privacy and Copyright Concerns with Online Local History Collections, David Gwynn
14. Lavaca County Records Retention Project, Brenda Lincke Fisseler
15. Managing Archives in Local History Collections, Sarah Welland

PART V: GENEALOGY
16. Partnering with Local Genealogical Societies, Lisa Fraser
17. Patron Driven Family History Preservation, Howard C. Bybee

PART VI: PHOTOGRAPHS
18. Collecting and Preserving Photographic Materials, Amanda Drost
19. Organizing and Indexing Photo Collections, Rose Fortier
20. Photograph Selection, Access, and Preservation for the Public Librarian, Rebekah Tabah

PART VII: DIGITAL
21. Digital Preservation of the Emilie Davis Diaries, Alexia Hudson
22. Preserving and “Publishing” Local Biographies, Elizabeth B. Cooksey
23. Promoting Local History through the Catablog, Cyndi Harbeson
24. Reinventing the Obituary File for the Digital Age, Kerry FitzGerald

PART VIIII: ORAL HISTORIES
25. Preserving Born-Digital Oral Histories, Juliana Nykolaiszyn
26. Preserving Indiana Women's Voices: a University Oral History Project, Theresa McDevitt
27. Steps in Preserving Oral Histories, Suellyn Lathrop

PART IX: APPROACHES TO PRESERVATION
28. Affiliation Agreements, Tomaro Taylor
29. Educating the Community: Preserving Tomorrow's Treasures Today, Jessica Phillips
30. Historical Sheet Music Collections: Practical Wisdom, Racial Sensitivity, Karl Madden
31. Tracing History Through Non-Traditional Methods, Emily Griffin

Afterword
Contributors
Index

Reviews

Smallwood (How To Thrive as a Solo Librarian) and Williams (Highland County District Library; Librarians as Community Partners) present writings created specifically for this volume, addressing the preservation issues that “custodians of history” face in local communities. From traditional methods of paper and photographic conservation to the burgeoning field of digital preservation, the 33 contributors provide a thorough manual for those just starting in the discipline and for professionals wanting to branch out into a different area. The volume focuses on important concerns like preserving collections on stringent budgets and how to best promote them once acquired. Some pieces delve into the specifics of successful preservation projects, with personal observations, retrospective comments, and lessons learned. Especially poignant is Alexia Hudson’s essay on the Emily Davis Preservation Project, which digitized the journals of a free black woman writing during the Civil War. Each author’s piece has its own style and methodology, which results in some inconsistencies overall regarding bibliographic references and presence or absence of source notes. This will be detrimental to readers. VERDICT This collection of practical how-to essays, complete with charts, diagrams, sample proposal letters, policies, and best practices, is a must-have tool for historical societies, museums, libraries, and archivists.
— Library Journal

For librarians who aren’t sure how to tackle the photographs, scrapbooks, oral histories, and other materials tied to their community’s history, editors Smallwood (The Frugal Librarian, 2011) and Williams have compiled a crash course in evaluating and preserving local-history resources. In this anthology, 33 librarian and archivist contributors share their experiences in articles covering topics from low-budget book repair to large-scale newspaper digitization. With some overlap, they discuss deciding what to preserve; caring for fragile materials; scanning, organizing, and indexing collections; and storing and migrating digital files. Also considered are legal issues related to privacy and copyright and crafting partnerships with genealogical societies. Specific case studies include preparing newspaper and obituary indexes and digitizing nineteenth-century diaries. Written for the librarian and the layperson, most of the book’s articles list further resources, and many provide sample policies, permissions, or partnership agreements. A useful resource for libraries or groups engaged in preserving and promoting local history. Public libraries with active community local-history groups may want to consider a circulating copy.
— Booklist

Consider it a crash course in local history preservation. If I had access to Preserving Local Writers years ago, I might have even gotten that archivist job I once applied for.
— Nancy Kalikow Maxwell, Author of Library Grant Collaboration: How Libraries Can Benefit From Other People’s Money

From glue to Google, Preserving Local Writers, Genealogy, Photographs, Newspapers, and Related Materials guides the local history librarian through development policy creation to alternative research strategies, all the way to techniques for curating the resulting collection. This anthology is a must-read not only for librarians, but also for historical society members and municipal archivists.
— Sandra Cortese, Jonathan Bourne Public Library

Preserving Local History draws from a wide range of contributors on a variety of useful subjects. Resources like this generally prove valuable to those who need a quick 'go-to' for local history ideas.
— Catherine Wilson, Executive Director, Greene County Ohio Historical Society; author of Historic Greene County

As a guidebook for library workers and the interested public, Preserving Local Writers, Genealogy, Photographs, Newspapers and Related Materials will be indispensable. Laying the necessary groundwork but going well beyond the basics, this book is a must for anyone interested in developing local or personal histories.
— Greg MacAyeal, Assistant head, Nonwestern University Music Library

Professional librarians, archivists, and preservation specialists contribute chapters addressing current challenges in preserving, managing, and digitizing local historical documents and related library materials. Practical how-to essays cover topics such as the physical preservation of materials ranging from newspapers and scrapbooks to photographs and oral histories, collection management under stringent budgets, and successful joint ventures with community groups and other organizations.
— Missouri Historical Review

Edited by a former public library systems administrator and consultant and former school, academic and special librarian, along with the branch manager and youth librarian at the Lynchburg (Ohio) Branch of the Highland County District Library, this work presents 31 chapters organized into 9 sections. Whether one is interested in the basics of special collections of local history materials, specific materials (such as newspapers, scrapbooks, photographs, or oral histories), types of services and sources (such as local history and digital), or preservation there is a chapter of use for any type of collection. The writings include case studies of specific situations and more general topics, such as affiliation agreements, organizing and indexing photograph collections, copyright, and indexing local newspapers. Students of public history, archives, and preservation will all benefit from this knowledge, as will practicing archivists and preservationists as well as librarians working with special collections of nonprint materials used for genealogy such as photographs, newspapers, and related materials. The 33 contributors from around the world, including Nigeria and Canada, bring experience from academic, public, and special libraries, and offer their expertise and knowledge in an approachable manner for any researcher or practitioner of public history in any form that requires looking beyond the traditional print materials.
— American Reference Books Annual

This work serves as a readable reference work, a beginner’s guide, and a thought-provoking introduction to things to come. . . .The amount of useful advice contained in these so few words and pages is . . . staggering!
— Journal of Archival Organization