preservation

preservation

Preservation Week 2021

Preservation Week 2021

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This week, we celebrate Preservation Week to recognize the billions (at least 4.8 billion!) of items sitting in special collections, libraries, archives, and museums that require preservation and to acknowledge the challenges that these institutions face to reduce the damage to these items and to make them stable enough for use and accessible to the public.[1] This is also a week to highlight that not only do museums and libraries hold valuable collections that are culturally and historically significant, but that there are unaccounted collections and items that are held by individuals, families, and communities; collections that contain books, manuscripts, audiovisual materials, physical objects (textiles, furniture, art, etc.), and prints and drawings.   The theme for Preservation Week 2021 is “Preserving … Continued
Books about Books: Book Art Workshops and Resources

Books about Books: Book Art Workshops and Resources

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As an archivist with a background in rare books and manuscripts, I’ve been interested in learning about bookbinding and book art for several years now. This led me on a search to find classes on bookbinding and last year I joined the Cincinnati Book Art Society (CBAS). They offer a series of beginner bookbinding classes and we meet once a month to learn a new style of book binding. This past week we learned about the Coptic Stitch Binding, both single and double needle techniques. The Coptic binding was used by the Copts, early Christians in Egypt, as early as the 2nd century AD and it is a popular binding style that is still in practice today among book art … Continued
Volunteer from Home – Crowdsourcing Transcription of Historical Documents

Volunteer from Home – Crowdsourcing Transcription of Historical Documents

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This month is Preservation Month (https://savingplaces.org/) and while much of the focus is on the preservation of historic places, the IU East Campus Archives would like shine a light on the preservation of historic documents and how you can get involved with preserving history from the comforts of your couch, desk, bed, or wherever you have access to a computer. Museums, historical societies, libraries, and other heritage sites often have a lot of paper collections that need to be transcribed and made available, but not a lot of funding, time, or staff to go through them all, at least not quickly. However, now thanks to the internet, social media, and other evolving technologies, many of these places are crowdsourcing for … Continued