Preservation Management Institute

Rutgers' Preservation Management Institute offered with local and
national scholarships available

"It would be hard to make this program better."  "Unbelievable
experience."  "Tremendous amount of practical advice."  "Well worth
the time and money to participate."  These are just some of the
comments made by recent attendees of Rutgers University's
Preservation Management Institute.  The Institute, offered since
1998 and designed for library and archives staff who have some
preservation responsibilities, combines intensive classroom learning
with guided preservation planning activities that participants
complete at their home institutions.

The next cycle of the Preservation Management Institute will begin
in fall 2004.  Participants will spend a week at Rutgers University
in central New Jersey during the week of  October 25, then a second
week in mid-April 2005, and a final week the following September.
Class sessions will cover the range of preservation management
issues, including environmental controls and monitoring, pest
control, preservation surveying, microfilming, the nature of paper,
preservation issues of photographic materials, care and handling,
collection conservation, exhibiting valuable material, selection for
preservation, commercial library binding, holdings maintenance,
disaster preparedness and recovery, digital imaging and
preservation, preservation policies and planning, resource
allocation and funding, and grant-writing.

The fifteen days of classes include instruction by Evelyn Frangakis,
Preservation Officer at the National Agricultural Library and former
head of preservation at the University of Maryland Libraries and
Preservation Program Director for the Society of American
Archivists.  On about half of the days there are presentations by
guest speakers who are experts in their fields, including William
Lull of Garrison/Lull, Inc. (environmental issues), Anne R. Kenney
from Cornell University (digital issues), and Christine Ward of the
New York State Archives (management and planning). There is also one
field trip each week so participants can see a microfilming and
digitizing lab in action, a regional conservation lab, and a
large-scale library preservation program.

Preservation Planning Activities: Classroom learning is only half
the value of the Preservation Management Institute.  The program
offers staff and their institutions help with building their own
preservation program.  After the first week of class, which includes
instruction on preservation surveys, participants return home and
have three months to conduct a preservation survey of their
institutions.  They submit the surveys to the head instructor who
gives them specific, individual feedback.  After the second week of
class, participants draft or update their institution's disaster
plan, which they will submit and get feedback on so that the plan
can be implemented. Participants will also have the opportunity to
consider their institution's resources and operations to begin
setting priorities for a preservation program.  At the end of the
year, each participant will have done the equivalent of two graduate
courses in preservation management and taken concrete steps in
developing a preservation program for their institutions.

Certification: Participants who complete all the work for the
program will earn a certificate in preservation management from
Rutgers University's School of Communication, Information and
Library Studies (SCILS).  Rutgers SCILS is home to one of the
nation's top-ranked MLIS programs, one of the largest continuing
education programs associated with a library school, as well as a
PhD and other undergraduate and graduate programs.

Who Should Attend: Fifty-two people from 23 states, Washington,
D.C., and Jamaica have attended the Institute during the three times
it has been offered, and they have come from all types of libraries.
Not surprisingly, about 45% of the attendees have worked in academic
or research libraries with history or other special collections.
About 25% have come from local historical societies and other
special facilities, and 15% have come from public libraries with
local history collections.  The remaining 15% came from K-12 schools
(generally private schools with their own archives), industry (since
legal regulations in some industries require maintenance of lab
notebooks and other documents for long periods), or master's
programs in library and information science.

Registration and Scholarships: Due to the nature of the program, the
Institute it limited to about 20 participants in each year.  The
cost of registration for 2004-05 is $4,075.  Travel and overnight
room reservations are not included in the registration fee.
Recognizing the importance of making this unique program available
to small and mid-size institutions, Rutgers has secured funding for
two types of scholarships to the Institute.  The National Endowment
for the Humanities has funded a number of scholarships for
individuals who work in institutions with historically valuable
humanities collections; these scholarships cover the entire
registration fee and a portion of the travel.  The New Jersey
Historical Commission has funded scholarships for registration for
individuals who work in institutions with New Jersey history
materials.

Details about the Institute and the scholarships available, as well
as application and registration forms, may be found at
<URL:http://scils.rutgers.edu/pds/pmi.jsp>

Questions can be addressed to Karen Novick
<knovick [at] scils__rutgers__edu>

Karen Hundert Novick
Director of Professional Development Studies
School of Communication, Information and Library Studies
Rutgers University
4 Huntington Street
New Brunswick, NJ  08901-1071
732-932-7169
Fax: 732-932-9314


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 17:54
               Distributed: Wednesday, February 18, 2004
                       Message Id: cdl-17-54-020
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