Spring 2021

Posted February 1, 2021 by William Crouch

The new semester is right around the corner and I just finished up my intensive course this January so I thought it would be a good time to write about it. This January, LIS 439, Preservation Management, was offered as a two-week intensive course instead of taking it the entire semester. Over the past two weeks, our class has met 6 days to learn about and discuss the best practices for preservation techniques in historical institutions and libraries. I’ve learned a lot about what I didn’t realize is necessary to protect our records. For example, we learned about how to store different materials like cellulose nitrate film, which when stored improperly can burst into flames! We also learned about disaster preparation in case our institution is hit with a major disaster like an earthquake or fire and how to recover from that. One of my favorite parts of this class was an assignment that had us find 5 different items we owned that were damaged in some way and analyze the damage, what possibly could have caused it, and how the item was stored. I chose some old books that I had from my grandparents but what my other classmates had was really interesting. One of them had a movie papier mâché prop and we learned about how to store items that could deteriorate rapidly like that if they are improperly taken care of. It’s been a really great class to take and now I’ve got two more this semester to look forward to, History 576 The American Revolution and LIS 448 Digital Stewardship. Throughout this semester I’ll also be brainstorming what to write my History Thesis on in the fall as my last history course here. But for now, let’s have a great spring semester!