Special Collections Roundtable
Newsletter
April - May 2019
A newsletter for members of the RI library community who have responsibility for the care and access of unique or rare manuscripts, records, books, audio and/or visual materials, local history and other special collections.
******************
Rescheduled! Security Measures for Special Collections
Come to the Special Collections Roundtable meeting for a panel discussion on security practices for reading rooms and collection storage areas. Are your collections safe from theft? from premeditated or accidental damage? from environmental damage? Does your repository have check-out and return procedures for users in place? How is sound is your collection monitoring process?
Libraries, historical societies, and archives need security measures in place to assure that collections are protected when in use and shelved. Policies and procedures assure that adequate security measures are followed and that the repository has a strategy for responding to thefts. Security arrangements may vary from one institution to another and are dependent on staffing, physical setting, and use. The important thing is that there are security practices in place to meet your institution's needs. You'll leave this session better prepared to review your current policies and procedures and revise them to improve security for your collections!
After the meeting, there is an optional 1-hour tour of the Jamestown Historical Society's Vault and Museum. The Museum and Vault are a short walk or drive from the Library (3-4 blocks).
Thursday, Jul 11, 2019, 09:30 AM
Jamestown Philomenian Public Library, 26 North Road Jamestown, RI 02835
Historical Resources Will Be Available Online with LORI Grant Awards
OLIS awarded two Library of Rhode Island Grants to libraries for projects that will digitize historical resources and make them available online.
Pawtucket Times Newspaper Digitization Project, $49,775.00
The Pawtucket Public Library will digitize microfilm copies of The Pawtucket Times newspaper published between 1902 and 1947 to make them available and searchable online. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) will be included in the digital product to facilitate searching and make more precise discovery possible for users. Newspaper coverage encompasses Rhode Island cities and towns surrounding Pawtucket, including East Providence, Cumberland, and Lincoln, and includes many villages in the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor. Online access to the newspaper will make local history of this historic region broadly available to researchers. Contact: Tim McDuff, Technical Services Preservation Librarian
The Legislator Index Digitization Pilot Project, $10,215.00
The State Library, Rhode Island’s legislative library, will digitize its Legislator Index to facilitate access to primary source records currently available only on index cards. The 4600 index cards contain information about every legislator that served in the RI Senate and House between 1872 and 1989. The digitized collection will be searchable online and facilitate answers to reference inquiries from genealogists, legislative attorneys, legislative support staff, students and the public. Contact: Megan Hamlin-Black, State Librarian
The projects were made possible with a grant from the RI Office of Library and Information Services using funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. For the complete list of grants awarded, visit the OLIS web site.
MayDay: Saving Our Heritage
Protecting our collections is one of our fundamental responsibilities as librarians and archivists. It’s easy to put off emergency response planning as we devote our attention to tasks with more immediate “payback.” But on May 1—this year and every year—you can do something that will make a difference when and if an emergency occurs. That’s the purpose of MayDay—a grassroots effort whose goal is to keep our collections healthy.
MayDay is a time when librarians, archivists, and other cultural heritage professionals take personal and professional responsibility for doing something simple—something that can be accomplished in a day but that can have a significant impact on an individual’s or a repository’s ability to prevent or respond to a disaster.
Connecting to Collections Care Changes to the C2CC-Announce Listserv
C2CC is transferring all of its announcements to the Connecting to Collections Community in the AIC Communities. This Community is also the new location for the Connecting to Collections Care discussions - so, if you have questions about caring for your collections, you may post them there for reliable guidance.
As always, Connecting to Collections Care is dedicated to providing professional development and guidance for small and mid-sized cultural institutions with an eye towards improving the care and management of your collections.
To join the new Community,* follow these steps:
1. Create an account
· Visit https://community.culturalheritage.org/home
Join the community by creating an account by selecting the Sign In Here button in the upper right corner of this page
· Towards the bottom of the login screen, select New User.
· Enter your email address and select Go.
· Complete your profile. Fields marked with an R are required. The rest are optional. Skip any questions that do not apply. At the bottom of the page, click on Create Account.
· Be sure to take note of the password you create. You will need it to log in to post to the Community.
· Select the Community button after completing your account registration and go back to the Community page. Click on the Communities drop down and you will be taken to the list of all the AIC Communities. Scroll down to Connecting to Collections Care and click on the JOIN button.
2. Set your email delivery preferences. Once you are in the Community, select the Settings button and set your Email Notifications.
You may choose:
· Real-time: sends an email every time a new message is posted.
· Daily digest: sends one email to you each day, consolidating all of the posts from the previous day.
· No Email: allows you to be part of the group without having emails sent to you. You can still post and read others’ messages by logging into the community site.
*Those who are already members of the AIC, may choose to join this Community directly using their ID and password to access the AIC Communities page.
Events & Professional Development Opportunities from Around the Region
Workshops from the Vermont Folklife Center
- Recording Audio for Oral History & Ethnography May 18, 2019
- Storytelling for Community-Based Projects May 25, 2019
- Discovering Community Summer Institute Aug 12-15, 2019
News and Notes from Beyond the State
How Archivists Think About Time Matters
Rydén, R. (2019). Archivists and Time: Conceptions of Time and Long-Term Information Preservation among Archivists. Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies, 6.
Connect with the RI Special Collections Community
- Join the RISpecialCollections@googlegroups.com discussion forum! It's a convenient way to communicate with others who work with special collections and archives in Rhode Island libraries, historical societies, museums, and cultural heritage organizations. Use the link above to subscribe. It's your list, so use it to share what matters to you in the field of special collections and archives!
- To subscribe to Special Collections Roundtable News and Notes newsletter, send an email to Donna Longo DiMichele
RI Office of Library and Information Services
The Office of Library and Information Services (OLIS) strengthens, connects and empowers libraries to advance knowledge, connect communities and enrich the lives of all Rhode Islanders. Funding for OLIS is from the State of Rhode Island and the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Website: www.olis.ri.gov
Location: One Capitol Hill, Providence, RI 02908
Phone: 401-574-9300
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/olisri/
Twitter: @olisri