Preservation Committee Meeting: April 18, 2025

Conference Call / Zoom

Members attending:

• Liz Bloodworth, Illinois Wesleyan University
• Patti Gibbons, University of Chicago
• Stephanie Gowler, Northwestern University
• Gabriel Hamer, Newberry Library
• Bonnie Parr, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, co-chair

Members absent:

• Shelby Strommer, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, co-chair
• Bradley Wiles, Northern Illinois University
• Heidi Marshall, Columbia College Chicago

CARLI Staff attending:

• Elizabeth Clarage
• Nicole Swanson

Tasks Assigned

• Minutes taken by Gabriel Hamer.
• May Preservation Tip will be written by Stephanie Gowler.

Decisions

• March minutes corrected and approved.

Announcements

• Member Announcements:
  • Stephanie Gowler (Northwestern University): The Chicago Area Conservation Group is holding their April 24 meeting at Northwestern University. Topics will include using multispectral imaging to augment digitized West African manuscripts and Revealing 19th century gossamer paintings.  Also, Northwestern University’s Conservation Department is having a Preservation Week Open House on May 1 from 2-4 p.m.
• CARLI Announcements:
  • The committee volunteer cycle is open. There is typically only one person per institution on the committee at a time. Volunteer applications are due May 2. Heidi, Bonnie, and Shelby are rolling off the committee.
  • The Archives Committee is holding an in-person, hands-on archival processing workshop on June 6. Registration is available.

Discussion

• Monthly Preservation Topics:
  • Upcoming: May – Stephanie; June - Brad
• Preservation Resource Page Link Checking:
  • The Archives Committee has links to resources on digitizing and preserving scrapbooks on their resources webpage. We’ll link to their page on our Resources page along with a descriptive note.
• Past programming:
  • Preservation Crafts webinar: About 60 attended, about 120 registrants. Video will be posted on the CARLI website once captioning is complete.  
  • InterPARES Trust at AI Symposium: 325 registrants, about 200 attended. Video will be posted on the CARLI website once captioning is complete.  
• Upcoming programing:
  • Ask an Expert, May 1. Be sure to register if you plan to be one of the experts on the call. Not much registration right now but that’s typical for this type of “office hours” event.
    • Good idea to have someone designated as a chat monitor.
  • Documenting Hidden Spaces webinar, May 13. UIUC is now the host.
  • IFSI Burn Simulation and Recovery Workshop, June 9.
    • CARLI’s fiscal officer will review the contract IFSI sent soon.
    • CARLI will work with surplus for shelving units for the burn activity. Contact Shelby to find out how to donate materials to be used in the burn.  Library materials may also be shipped via ILDS.
  • CARLI/FLVC Summer Digitization Series, Wednesdays at 1pm in June and July
    • June 11, 1:00-2:00 p.m. “Yale’s Digital Collections AI,” Michael Appleby/Jonathan Manton
    • July 2: “Digitization Processes” - Laura Perry, University of Florida
    • July 9: Denise Henderson, Chief of Digitization for Research Services from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
    • July 16: Panel I: Stephanie Gowler, Northwestern University and Christina Miranda, University of Chicago
    • July 23: Panel II: Kelsey Wise and Matthew Deihl, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum; Liz Bloodworth and Abby Mann, Illinois Wesleyan University
  • Illinois Digital Newspaper Collection session, summer/fall date TBD
• Other programming
  • Digital POWRR’s grant from the NEH was canceled. Brad will check on the future of this session.
• Preservation Survey Results
  • 70 total institutions responded, higher response rate than last time.
  • Most institutions did not have preservation departments and non-specialists/support staff are often tasked with preservation activities.
  • Needs/interests: staff, training, long-term preservation plans, disaster response/plans, digital preservation, digitization.
  • Most institutions had no dedicated funds for preservation in general, but most respondents said they were able to get funding to attend/travel to professional development events.
  • We will write a report on the survey results, ideally before this term ends on June 30.  Liz suggests assigning different committee members to different parts of the survey and sharing the work.  Bonnie will reach out to Brad to discuss logistics.  Topics will be assigned by the end of May.
  • Online access to the Survey results were shared with the committee.
• Preservation Committee Annual Report due May 30. Bonnie and Shelby will write.

Next Meeting Dates and Deadlines

The next Preservation Committee meeting will be May 16 at 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

Future Committee Meeting Dates:
May 16, 2025, minutes taker: Heidi Marshall
June 20, 2025, minutes taker: Patti Gibbons