2024 Core Forum

In the rapidly evolving digital landscape, the significance of preserving digital materials extends beyond merely storing bits and bytes; it is about safeguarding and providing access to our cultural heritage, scientific data, and governmental records for future generations. This introductory session on digital preservation aims to provide participants with a comprehensive overview of the principles, practices, and challenges of digital preservation. Through this session, attendees will gain insights into the strategies and technologies employed to ensure the long-term accessibility and usability of digital content.
Participants will leave the session with a solid understanding of the basics of digital preservation, awareness of the challenges faced in the field, and knowledge of the tools and strategies available to tackle these challenges. They will be equipped to begin thinking critically about digital preservation in their own contexts and how they might contribute to preserving digital heritage. This proposal outlines a session designed to introduce attendees to the foundational concepts of digital preservation, highlight the challenges faced, and explore practical solutions. It aims to cater to a broad audience, providing a valuable learning experience for those new to the field as well as offering insights for professionals looking to enhance their digital preservation strategies.

Registration:
Core Members - $119
Minnesota Library Association Members - $119
Non-Members - $149

The session will discuss ongoing work to streamline a workflow for preparing collections for digitization. In managing the digitization workflow, preservation staff noted that substantial time was spent on resolving vendor and staff questions caused by lack of sufficient detail in the minimal metadata spreadsheets prepared pre-digitization. At the same time, digitization projects were experiencing setbacks when condition issues with the original material were not addressed early enough in the project. It became apparent that improved metadata and preservation planning would result in a more efficient workflow overall.

Streamlining the workflow has also facilitated goals beyond meeting the requirements for successful digitization. Revisiting pre-digitization metadata creation has helped ensure that this work aligns with digital collections metadata requirements, thereby improving the usefulness of the spreadsheets beyond managing digitization. Revising the workflow also offered a chance to incorporate basic preservation activities and advocate for larger improvements for the original material as part of digitization projects. The poster will discuss the collaboration between departments in Preservation and Cataloging & Metadata Services to improve the digitization workflow as well as how lessons learned continue to revise the workflow.

Recent research in the cultural heritage conservation field has identified arsenic and other toxic heavy metals in pigments used in 19th century book bindings. How hazardous are these materials, and what should libraries do if they have 19th C. items in their collections? This presentation will provide background information on this growing field of interest, and a broad overview of some of the research to date. We will also provide a case study of the ongoing research project at the [UNIVERSITY] Library, testing for the presence of arsenic, cadmium, chromium, mercury, and lead in pigments used to color bookcloth and paper. We will describe our planning process, communication plans, the current state of our findings, what we've learned so far, and outstanding questions. Not every library has the staff or funding to undertake a large-scale research project, so we will also provide tips to identify potentially problematic pigments, as well as things to consider when handling or providing access to these materials.