REopening Archives, Libraries and Museums (REALM) Project

By: Robert Mead, State Law Librarian & Director of the Washington State Law Library, Washington Supreme Court

The Battelle Memorial Institute is a science and technology non-profit with the mission to “translate scientific discovery and technology advances into societal benefits.” This is exactly what they are doing in the REALM Project in partnership with the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services and the OCLC. REALM stands for Reopening Archives, Libraries, and Museums and in the project, the partners produce scientific information about the safest way to handle materials to mitigate staff and patron exposure to COVID-19 in archives, libraries, and museums.

Battelle is conducting the natural attenuation studies to determine how long the virus can survive on different materials found in archives, libraries, and museums. The studies are done at standard room temperature and humidity. They have released four study summaries and are in the process of the fifth study to determine the viability of the virus on leather bookbinding, cotton upholstery and drapes, vinyl upholstery, and nylon webbing.

The results of Test Four were released on September 3, 2020. Battelle determined that stacked books, including hardcover, softcover, and plastic bindings, as well as DVD cases can harbor the SARS-Cov-2 virus for at least six days of quarantine. Stacking prolongs the survivability of the virus.

The previous studies of unstacked materials found virus survival times of 3 to 5 days, depending on the materials. The studies are vital for determining how long to quarantine books and other circulating items after use in order to keep libraries safe as we begin to continue to cautiously reopen.

Preservation Assistance Grants for Smaller Institutions

By: Joe Custer, Director of the Ben C. Green Law Library at Case Western Reserve University

The National Endowment for the Humanities' Division of Preservation and Access has offered Preservation Assistance Grants for Smaller Institutions since 2000. These grants help smaller and mid-sized cultural heritage institutions such as libraries, museums, historical societies, archival repositories, town and county records offices, and colleges and universities to improve their ability to preserve and care for their humanities collections.

These may include special collections of books and journals, archives and manuscripts, prints and photographs, moving images, sound recordings, architectural and cartographic records, decorative and fine art objects, textiles, archaeological and ethnographic artifacts, furniture, historical objects, and digital materials. The most important part of the application process is the description of the humanities collections. The successful applicant must identify the categories of materials in the collections, and indicate, where pertinent, the date ranges and quantities for the majority of the items.

The maximum award amount is $10,000 ($15,000 for projects related to "A More Perfect Union"). In the last five years, the average number of applications was 202. The grant has a funding ratio of 38%, with an average number of awards being 76 per year.

All Preservation Assistance Grants are awarded for eighteen months, although a recipient may complete a project in a shorter period. In your narrative, you should show a schedule for your project activities. You should develop and present a plan that can accommodate unexpected delays that might be encountered during the project. If your project involves a consultant, discuss the time the consultant will need to complete the proposed work.

Applicants must draw on the knowledge of consultants whose preservation skills and experience are related to the types of collections and the nature of the activities that are the focus of their projects. A consultant must provide a two-page résumé and a letter of commitment. The letter of commitment should describe the proposed activity or activities; it should include a detailed plan of work and budget and a preliminary list of supplies that the consultant recommends.

An example of an awarded application to St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, PA, is Melville's Marginalia Online. Herman Melville, the acclaimed writer of Moby-Dick, Billy Budd, Sailor, and other revered American literary works, was also a great reader of books. Yet, even among American literary scholars, few are familiar with Herman Melville's personal library's scope and variety. Although the working manuscripts for most of Melville's major works are either lost or destroyed, one can find valuable clues to his composition process in the margins and endpapers of the books he had before him while he wrote. Melville's Marginalia Online provides users accurate, fully annotated transcriptions of Melville's markings and commentary in the existing books he collected throughout his career. This project makes it possible for scholars to engage in a comparative analysis of Melville's markings in a variety of texts relevant to the manuscript archive and the novels and poetry for which there are no manuscript records.

The program encourages applications from the following sorts of institutions with significant humanities collections: small and mid-sized institutions that have never received an NEH grant; community colleges, Hispanic-serving institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Tribal Colleges and Universities; and Native American tribes and Native Alaskan and Native Hawaiian organizations. More information on the program provided here.

Legal Community Archive of COVID-19 Information

As historical events unfold in connection with the current coronavirus outbreak, it's critically important that we archive now for the benefit of future generations. The digital information produced in response to this crisis is fragile, constantly evolving, and susceptible to loss if not preserved contemporaneously.

LIPA is collecting and preserving law library, law school, and judicial branch responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. To participate in the collection efforts, please submit potential websites for inclusion using the submission form. Alternatively, if you’d like us to link to an existing archive, email the link to Michelle Trumbo.

In alignment with our mission, this collection’s focus is on the legal community’s response and news in connection with the pandemic. Official government and institutional sources of information are the highest priority, but topical social media content is also welcomed.