class 1 lesson plan

Introduction

Taking It Further — Beyond the Primary Lesson

Additional Topics for Discussion

The additional topics described below could be the subject of classroom discussion and activities if more time is available, or they could be incorporated into the primary lesson as desired, depending on the instructor’s interests and background. Topics and activities are divided according to the three main parts of the primary lesson, and additional readings for students (upon which the discussions/activities are based) are provided.

Part I: Overview

• Historical Background: additional topics that could be discussed include:
• Early impulses to preserve
  The Renaissance and the rise of artists and works of art
  The Enlightenment and the Encyclopedists
  The Romantic movement’s imperative to preserve
  The 20th century and the rise of professionalism

Part II: Prolonging the Life of Cultural Heritage Collections

• Mission and Collecting Policy. In an ideal world, a basic statement of a repository’s mission and collecting goals would be put together before actually identifying and acquiring collections. In reality, however, at least some collections may have been gathered haphazardly over time. Devising a mission statement and collecting policy can help an institution look critically at all the materials it holds and decide whether they really belong in the collection.
• Activity: Brainstorm a mission statement for a library/archives/historical collection (use a real situation or a case study).
• Intellectual Control. Depending on the background of the students in the course, some may be unfamiliar with methods for organizing archival collections. Discuss standard procedures for arranging archival collections and for producing finding aids and MARC records for these collections.
• Activity: Show examples of online finding aids produced using the Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Standard.
• Selection for Preservation. Explore in more detail the various criteria to consider when selecting collections for preservation action. In many cases, libraries have chosen to preserve only those collections that are circulated and used. But the library community has also realized that research libraries have a responsibility to preserve collections that may be important for research in the future, even if they are not currently used. Thus, strategies have also been developed to select collections for preservation according to their quality and importance.
• Activity: Provide a case study that illustrates different types of collections, devide students into groups, and ask them to brainstorm which collections should have priority for preservation, and why. Share the answers with the rest of the class.

Suggested Further Readings

Overview

Crowe, William. “Verner W. Clapp as Opinion Leader and Change Agent in the Preservation of Library Materials.” Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, 1987.

Higginbotham, Barbra Buckner. Our Past Preserved: A History of American Library Preservation, 1876–1910. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1990.

Ogden, Sherelyn. “The Impact of the Florence Flood on Library Conservation in the United States of America: A Study of the Literature Published, 1956–1976.” Restaurator 3 (1979).

Roggia, Sally. “William James Barrow: A Biographical Study of His Formative Years and His Role in the History of Library and Archives Conservation from 1931 to 1941.” Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1999.

Prolonging the Life of Cultural Heritage Collections

Boles, Frank. Selecting and Appraising Archives and Manuscripts. Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2005.

National Archives and Records Administration. Intrinsic Value in Archival Material. Staff Information Paper 21 (1982), revised 1999. http://www.archives.gov / research / alic / reference / archives-resources / archival-material-intrinsic-value.html

National Park Service. “What Makes a Book Rare?” Conserve O Gram 19/1 (July 1993). http://www.nps.gov/history / museum / publications / conserveogram / 19-01.pdf

Schellenberg, T. R. “The Appraisal of Modern Public Records.” In A Modern Archives Reader: Basic Readings on Archival Theory and Practice. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Service, 1984.

Task Forces on Archival Selection. The Preservation of Archival Materials: A Report of the Task Forces on Archival Selection. Washington, DC: Council on Library and Information Resources, April 1993. http://www.clir.org / pubs / abstract / pub36.html