Jim Reilly receives Banks/Harris Preservation Award

The award jury for the Paul Banks and Carolyn Harris Preservation
Award is pleased to share the following news:

James M. Reilly, Director of the Image Permanence Institute IPI

    <URL:http://www.imagepermanenceinstitute.org>

at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), is the recipient of
the 2014 Paul Banks and Carolyn Harris Preservation Award.

Reilly joined the RIT Department of Photographic Technology in the
late 1970s.  In 1984 he became the director of the newly formed RIT
Photographic Preservation Laboratory, which became the Image
Permanence Institute.  Through nearly thirty years under Reilly's
direction IPI has expanded its mission; today its work has an impact
on almost all heritage collections, both nationally and
internationally.  Out of early studies on storage for film and
photographic material, Reilly initiated the concepts of the
"Preservation Index" and the "Time-Weighted Preservation Index," a
calculated number from combined temperature and relative humidity
measurements that gives conservators, collection managers, and
administrators a simple language with which to compare storage
environments.  This research led to his team's development of the
widely popular PEM data loggers and Climate Notebook software,
specifically addressing the needs of collection managers.

   "This computer tool revolutionized how preservation professionals
    utilized temperature and relative humidity data, which used to
    languish on strips of paper from the hygrothermograph." observed
    Tara Kennedy, Preservation Services Librarian at the Yale
    University Library.  "For the first time, we could analyze
    temperature and relative humidity data from data loggers into
    meaningful reports; finally, we were able to use environmental
    data to start to make real improvements in our collection
    storage spaces."

Most recently Reilly has led IPI through a series of investigations
on sustainable environments for cultural collections, which have
demonstrated that responsible care of collections can also be green.
Through laboratory experiments and practical assessments on site at
libraries he has moved a whole generation of preservation
professionals away from rote demands for "70 deg. F and 50% RH" to a
more nuanced understanding of what collections can tolerate and what
conditions are necessary, at significant savings on fuel costs.

Especially notable throughout his career has been Reilly's
commitment to sharing technical information in a way that is
accessible to people who manage collections.  His 1986 book Care and
Identification of 19th-Century Photographic Prints is a classic
itself and has inspired the format of numerous subsequent guides by
others exploring the technology and preservation of specific media.
The IPI Storage Guide for Acetate Film (1993) set a new standard for
preservation guides: firmly based on scientific research but short,
direct, and practical in its advice.  In 1997 he was awarded a
Technical Achievement Award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences for his leadership in the development of the "AD
Strip"--a simple tool that helps those holding collections of motion
pictures identify and prioritize deteriorating cellulose acetate
based film before its deterioration causes irreparable damage.  For
decades Reilly has been a high-demand teacher, speaker, and author.
Now in the digital world his projects and reports are shared widely
on the Internet and his seminars have become Webinars viewed by
thousands.

The Paul Banks and Carolyn Harris Preservation Award, established in
the memory of two early leaders in library preservation, recognizes
the contributions of professional preservation specialists.  The
award, a citation and a $1,500 cash grant donated by Preservation
Technologies, L.P. <URL:http://www.ptlp.com>, will be presented at
the 2014 American Library Association Annual Conference in Las
Vegas, Nevada, at the Association for Library Collections and
Technical Services (ALCTS Awards Ceremony and Membership Meeting.

    <URL:http://www.ala.org/alcts/Awards>

The Banks/Harris award is administered by the ALCTS Preservation and
Reformatting Section (PARS)

    <URL:http://www.ala.org/alcts/mgrps/pars>

2014 Banks/Harris Award Committee
Andrew S. Hart (chair)
Julie Arnott
Janet Gertz
Shannon Zachary

Andrew Hart
Head, Preservation Department
CB#3910, Davis Library
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
919-962-8047
Fax: 919-962-4450


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 27:32
                Distributed: Thursday, February 20, 2014
                       Message Id: cdl-27-32-001
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