Professional Development

NCPC Annual Conference Fundraising for Preservation
Nov. 13, 2009 Friday Center Chapel Hill, NC

As NCPC President, I had the pleasure of welcoming 50 attendees and talking about NCPC projects and grants in the past year. NCPC gave over $6,000 in grants last year, two of which were to institutions in Forsyth County (WFU Museum of Anthropology and Forsyth Co. Public Library). I was also able to meet two colleagues from the WFU Anthropology Museum who attended the conference .

The first speaker (who once worked at Wayne State) was:
Diane Vogt O’Connor- Chief of Conservation, Library of Congress
“Finding Funds to Conserve and Preserve your Collections:
Diane has written over 25 successful grants in her career.
Her key points were:
• Everyone needs money these days
• Start by getting permission from your organization
• Identify and sell the CONCEPT(who it affects) not the BRAND (how you will do the work)
• Tell your grant funder what will happen if the project isn’t funded-you are answering the question-why bother with this project?
• Research where the easy money in your community is. Look for groups that share your interests and concerns, and look for what they have funded in the past
• Network and make contacts, so they know who you are and what you do…schmooze
• Know what’s hot and what’s not-select projects that are trendy, new technologies
• Pre-plan your project completely
• Avoid the obvious sources of funding and look at foundations nationally and locally
• NC grant sources- Duke Endowment, Foundation for the Carolinas, Janirve Foundation, Lowes Foundation
• Become a grant reviewer to learn what grant funders are looking for
• She recommended this book-Foundation Grants for Preservation in Libraries, Archives and Museums-Library of Congress, Foundation Center(2009) ISBN 978-1-59542-210-1
• A good application includes:
• Strong statement of who the project audience and stakeholders are
• A clear explanation of why the project is necessary
• A succinct statement of what will happen if the project is not funded
• A brief overview of all project staff members
• A summary of what the project results will be
• A statement about how the project results will be measurable and how they will be disseminated
• A brief project methodology
• Coherent budget and resources list
• List of endorsing individuals
• Staff and contributor resumes, CV’s, etc.

Kristen Laise, Heritage Preservation, VP Collections Care Programs
“Raising Funds for Collections Care”
• Few institutions have a budget for conservation/preservation and many do not raise funds for this purpose. Some do not have time, are unaware of sources for funding or said preservation was not a priority. Preservation awareness (programs, web site, exhibits, etc) is also not often used to raise awareness about this issue.
• Create a line item in the budget for collections care
• Give a presentation to trustees on collections care needs
• Apply for smaller grant to begin with
• Create an exhibit area to feature preservation progress/process
• She recommended- NEH Preservation Assistance grant($6000)-consultations for assessments from a professional

Dwain Teague, Director of Development, NC State University Libraries
Dwain raise funds and courts donors for the NCSU Library. His brief presentation had these ideas:
-they have designed a small booklet with naming/gift opportunities
-hosting a meet -and- greet or VIP tour
-listen to donors for subtle hints of areas they might be interested in supporting
-utilize volunteers/friends groups- they have contacts you can use
-Cross Cultivation- use the campus fund raisers to work together to raise funds-ask them to bring people by library on tours
-Let development people know what is going on in preservation so they can use it in their work raising funds
-Aladdin-Academic Library Advancement Development Network- listserv of museums and libraries discussing fundraising
-Find out what ‘floats the donor’s boat’ and see how that can mesh with your preservation needs

Nancy Odegaard, Head of Preservation Division, Arizona State Museum
“Saving a Southwest Collection at the Arizona State Museum”
Nancy put together an array of donor gifts, grants and local funding to generate a huge project for her museum:
• The museum has a large collection from 100 years of collecting-mostly anthropological pieces-mostly pottery. Nancy discussed the problem of soluble salts in their collections. Their collections actually absorb salts from the environment and are then deteriorated by these salts. This is caused by dry, arid environment.
• The Pottery Project received federal funds in the Save Americas Treasures Program. Jointly funded by several local Indian tribes in Arizona, Governor Janet Napolitano, NEA, National Science Foundation and other groups, this program resulted in a $3.5 million 3000 sq. ft. climate-controlled storage vault, a state of the art conservation lab and a new pottery exhibit gallery. She discussed the collaborative efforts to get funding, consultations with Indian tribes, marketing and some of the problems they encountered.
• They got state-of- the-art temperature, humidity and light controls. New labs for working, new offices, exhibit hall, better security, lecture space and marketing and memberships as a result of this project.

Susan Mathisen, President of S.A.M. Fundraising Solutions
“Where to find individual fund Raising Sources”
Susan is an individual fund raiser and advises institutions on getting donations:
• 75% of capital giving comes from individuals-they have none of the restrictions that foundations have
• Where do you find them? Look within to those who have an existing connection to your institution: members, alumni, frequent users, donors, etc. Cultivate relationships with them, take them out to dinner, invite them in and show them what you do, and what needs to be done. Tell a story about your collections and how the donor’s gift can preserve it.
• People don’t want to be asked to donate by a development director, but by one of their peers.
• It takes about 18 months from beginning to end when asking a donor for money
• Look for those who give to similar causes and lists-colleagues, organizations
• Try teaching philanthropy to a group of kids and have them do a fund-raising project for you
• Develop a list of potential donors and study them: FIND, CULTIVATE, MOTIVATE
• Asking- is often the hardest part
• Stewardship- continue the relationship with the donor after the gift. Let them see how well their money is being spent with their gift.
The NCPC Conference this year featured five expert speakers and was filled with great information. Fund raising is a timely topic for these days of tight budgets. I learned a lot, got some good ideas, and feel like the participants did as well.

May 9-15, 2010 is the first National Preservation Day

Tom Conroy gave the first session of the second day on repairing tools. Tom is a book restorer and fine binder who spent 7 years in formal training under Anne and Theodore Kahle and also earned an MLIS from Berkeley. Tom currently teaches at the American Bookbinders Museum in San Francisco. Tom spent several hours talking about removing rust from clamps with citric acid (what you call Sprite), repairing wobbly brushes, and re-seating gouges. He explained how various files are made and how to use them. He led an engaging conversation about scissors (who would’ve thought?) and sharpening them using a file. He also repaired several finishing presses as we watched.
I think almost everyone at ZSR has seen my board shear-the large deadly looking cutter with a wooden table as you enter Preservation. Tom insisted the best way to sharpen that tool was to cut a piece of thin brass sheet with it. I looked at the conservator sitting next to me and we both sort of said…what? Not everything in bookbinding is intuitive I guess.

The afternoon session was led by Dominic Riley on Cloth Rebacking. Cloth rebacking is creating a new spine piece for a book using cloth (as the name implies). Dominic was a delightful speaker and in my case-the best was saved for last. Dominic is a bookbinder and film-maker who spent 10 years studying in San Francisco and then moved back to his native England. He has won several top prizes from the Guild of Bookworkers equivalent in the UK-the Designer Bookbinders. He taught a session on creating an invisible repair to a cloth binding which was practical and engaging to all present. He seemed to know everyone by their first name and carried on a light-hearted repartee as he worked.
He lifted the cloth and split the boards to attach color-matched cloth and end-sheets to create-as he described it, an invisible repair. We were also treated to film trailers of two films Dominic has made-one called “Seventy Years in Bookbinding:Portrait of Bernard Middleton” . This film may be on the Preservation “wish list” soon.

All in all, this gathering of the Guild was engaging and has made me want to get more involved in this organization. I was able to meet many nice folks in this gentile crowd who offered information, encouragement and opportunities for the future.

I woke at 4:30 am, arrived at Greensboro PTI in time to see WXII send off the Flight of Honor, checked my bags, went through security and boarded the plane for Philadelphia. The plane left the terminal and the pilot abruptly announced we would be sitting there on the runway in Greensboro for an hour because of delays in Philadelphia. Great luck! But in the end, by some miracle, when I arrived in Philadelphia, I had just enough time to hit the restroom and walk briskly to check-in. I made it just in time for my flight to San Francisco!

The Guild of Bookworkers is an old organization going back to 1906. Every bookbinding “rock star” is a Guild member. The group is made up of conservators, binders, printers and book artists. Each year, the Guild has a conference with demonstrations by its’ members entitled: Standards of Excellence Seminar. To begin the conference, all the conference attendees were bused to the San Francisco Public Library for a reception and showing of the Guild’s exhibit of books entitled: “Marking Time”.

The first demonstration was by Tatiana Ginsberg. She gave a presentation called “The Tradition of Traditionally Dyed Japanese Papers. Tatiana studied at the University of Iowa Center for the Book and received a Fulbright Research grant to study traditional dyeing in Japan. She demonstrated the steps of brush dyeing using natural dyes which she cooked right in front of us.

The next demonstration was Carolee Campbell, owner of Ninja Press. Carolee has designed, printed and bound all the work from Ninja Press since 1984. She primarily designs books featuring contemporary poetry featuring unique bindings that she prints on her Vandercook letterpress. Carolee discussed her process of designing each book using examples she brought with her.

Scott Adair, Ellen Daugman and I attended a webinar on Tuesday, Oct. 27th from Lyrasis. The title of the class was Planning for a Service Disruption and was taught by Dan Wilson, Associate Director of Access Services and Collection Development at UVA Medical Sciences Library. The key concept of this class was protecting core resources and continuity of core services. Dan likened our work in disaster preparedness to a lighthouse-and said we should think of ourselves as theoretical lighthouses who protect our resources just like a real lighthouse protects ships from running aground.
We completed three risk assessment exercises to try to determine what our key services were in varying emergencies, such as flooding, a power outage and a cyber-terrorism attack. We also spent some time discussing H1N1 and it’s affect on libraries. Few libraries in our group have been affected to any degree either in staffing or services by H1N1.
Dan had several ideas for operating remotely during an emergency including using Skype to deal with patrons. His library uses Skype for this purpose as a remote service desk. The other good idea he offered was establishing a partnership with a fellow library who would serve as your backup. UVA has this relationship with UNC-CH. The way it works is if UVA must shut down, they can use Illiad as a transparent interface for ILL services and UNC-CH can just pick up this service for UVA without patrons realizing it. I think this idea of a “Back up Library” is excellent and one ZSR might consider implementing. Locating a remote server is another idea Mr. Wilson discussed. With a remote server in place, web based services can be continued and this service is “always on”. UVA Medical Science Library has a pocket sized response plan for emergencies- whatever form they take. This plan can be carried easily by library staff and referred to during emergencies.
Our Disaster Committee is in the midst of developing such a plan for service continuity and this webinar was helpful in helping us to realize where we are and giving us ideas we can add to our existing strategy.

This forum was organized by Heritage Preservation to organize community groups to respond to disasters. First responders and cultural preservation groups from federal, state and local entities joined in the forum. This was the first such forum in North Carolina and focused on responders in the Triangle area. It was good to see fellow Preservation Librarians Andy Hart(UNC-CH) and Winston Atkins(Duke) before the event. During the morning break, I met with Alix Bentrud, Preservation Services Librarian for Lyrasis. She and I had corresponded about developing the ZSR Continuity of Operations Plan. We discussed our plan and what ZSR is trying to accomplish. Alix is mulling over the idea of a Lyrasis class on this topic, so I passed a copy of our template along to her. This was a good contact and discussion. Each presenter had only 15 minutes- so it was quick and dirty disaster preparedness all day.

Robert James, Executive Director of the NC Preservation Consortium led off welcoming everyone and thanking Heritage Preservation for their sponsorship. Larry Wheeler, Director of the NC Museum of Art also welcomed the crowd and talked about the new NC Museum of Art building (opening in April, 2010).
David Brook, Director, Division of Historical Resources, presented on “Why Protect Cultural Heritage?” He gave an overview of our cultural resources-their value and the threats to them.

Dr. Marty Matthews, Curator of Research, NC Historic Resources presented on “Triangle Cultural and Historical Treasures.” This was a quick summary of cultural resources in libraries, archives, museums, monuments, and State Historic sites in the Triangle.
Jane Long, VP of Emergency Programs, Heritage Preservation presented on ‘Risks and Response: How Emergency Systems Work.” The Alliance for Response initiative was formed to bring together cultural and emergency professionals before disasters occur. These meetings have been held in 9 cities since 2003. It consists of educational programs and training, and networks and policies are developed- (listservs, alert systems and contact systems).

Joshua Creighton, Dir. Wake Co. Emergency Mgt. and John McGrath, Chief Raleigh Fire Dept. presented on “How Emergency Systems Work.” Creighton spoke on threats- natural, technological and man-made; how you must evaluate your threats, and reduce risks to threats and overcome vulnerability. He said we must work with local responders. Chief McGrath spoke about the incident command system during a response to an emergency. He made the same point Creighton did: You have a place at the table during the emergency by interacting with the liaison officer. You should identify yourself to the scene commander, account for all personnel and mechanical operations. After the emergency, those with subject matter expertise must help establish salvage priorities. The Fire Dept. actually provides equipment-including breathing apparatus to allow trained staff into the structure for recovery.

April Cummings, Environmental Historic Team lead-FEMA presented on the federal response to a disaster. FEMA provides individual and public assistance and hazard mitigation after a disaster is declared. Assistance, insurance, disaster, housing assistance, and small business loans are provided. The National Historic Preservation Act takes into account the effects of their undertakings on historic properties. FEMA funding for historic sites- reviews the scope of the work, and determines eligibility prior to work beginning. Have a disaster place in place to minimize damage and coordinate response.

Martha Battle Jackson, Curator, NC Historic Sites, presented on” Disaster Team Roles.” She reviewed the ideas of Preparedness(ready at all times, prepare in advance, stockpiling equipment, practicing); Response (fac. Mgt, communication, security, data collection-photographing the recovery process, logging the images, etc. ) and Salvage (review functions, sorting, recording, packing, develop a tracking system).

Bill Gentry, Program Director, Community Preparedness and Disaster Management School of Public Health, UNC-CH presented on “Health and Safety following a Disaster.” He urged us to follow safety personnel after a disaster-do not assume the building is safe, use common sense. Hazards can be electrical, structural, mold, hydration for workers, air pollution/residue, mental health concerns and stress.

Elaine Wathen, Asst. Director, Information and Planning, NC Emergency Management presented on preparedness training. The NCEM provides training: exercises, elaborate discussions, or full scale role playing in a scenario.

Sarah Koonts, Head of Collection Management, NC State Archives presented on bringing people together to protect our vital records and archival treasures. Preparation before a disaster is key and helps during an actual disaster. Council of State Archivists took the lead role in planning how to protect vital records after Katrina and developed new methods and procedures. IPER-developed after Katrina, is web based training and support.

Darryl Aspey, NC Protective Security Agent, Department of Homeland Security presented on strengthening the infrastructure of the state against threats. Homeland Security has developed the National Infrastructure Protection Plan to detect threats, mitigate outcomes and recover. Their plans include protection plans for water, dams, monuments, state and federal facilities, etc. Protective Community Advisors advise local communities.

Carolyn Freitag, Emergency Management Assistance CompaCoordinator (EMAC) presented on mutual aid agreements in NC. All 100 counties have signed agreements supporting aid and assistance among local governments. EMAC is a national agreement developed after Hurricane Andrew. It facilitates efficient sharing of resources between member states during times of disaster or emergency. This is done with response teams.

David Goist, a professional conservator presented on model networks for cooperation and response. He introduced AIC Collections Emergency Response Team (CERT). This group advises on disasters.

Frank Thomson, Curator, Asheville Museum of Art and Andy Hart, Preservation Librarian, UNC-CH, discussed their networks: MACREN(Mountain Area Cultural Resources Emergency Network) and the Triangle Research Libraries Network Disaster Team. These networks respond to emergencies in their areas to recover cultural materials.

It was a day that covered so much, it was hard to absorb it all. The concept of a response team is a great one and I hope the Triangle area is successful in establishing a team.

LSAT Outreach Grant -Day 2- Digitization- Pilot Training

The session today concentrated on digitization. Giz and Audra taught the basics of digitization, along with lots of discussion with the group. Each group has unique materials and needs, so the questions help them sort out their individual questions.

Giz taught Image and Slide Scanning, and Digitizing Video
• Reasons for digitization- fragility, providing access to rare materials
• Equipment description, problems associated with digitizing video/audio-file size, resolution
• Scanning photos on the large bed scanner- resolution of images and what resolution to use for each application: web (100 dpi), print (300 dpi), etc. File formats: jpg, tiff, gif, etc.
• Scanning and saving images onto the computer and saving to external devices
• Scanning slides- file size, resolution, etc.
• Digitizing video- demonstrating EZ Video Converter and the digitization process, saving the file as an mp3
• Using Audacity to edit and digitize audio

Audra taught using Youtube to upload video, Flickr to upload images, and Scrbd for documents.

The group all appreciated the sessions and seemed optimistic about their future projects.

After weeks of planning, the first session of the pilot program for the LSTA Outreach grant was held today.
Giz Womack, Audra Eagle (FCPL) and Craig Fansler are leading a 2-day program which covers preservation concepts, hands-on training and digitization. There were participants from the Forsyth County Public Library and YWCA (both men!).

The morning session covered the basic tenets of preservation:
o Why preservation is important (with focus on light/RH/pests/mold/acidity)
o Preservation terms/concepts
o Environment
o Inventorying
o Organization
o Preservation assessment
o Storage

The afternoon session convened in the Preservation Lab and covered hands-on training: tipping in loose pages, heat set tissue repairs to torn pages, paperback book repairs and storage (enclosures, envelopes, sleeves, boxes).

Kathleen Wheeless, Reference Supervisor from FCPL then spoke on grants and their new Nonprofit Resource Center. It was a full day, and the classes seemed to be helpful to all the attendees. Tomorrow, Giz and Audra teach digitization of photographs, video and audio. When the kinks are ironed out after the pilot phase, four classes will be offered to the public in Forsyth County. The first public session will be held on November 21.

On Tuesday, October 20th, I sat in on an online chat from ACRL. The topic was H1N1 and how libraries are responding to this issue. The chat was led by Marcia Thomas, Director of Collections & Technical Services, Illinois Wesleyan University and Meg Miner, University Archivist & Special Collections Librarian, Illinois Wesleyan University. Lots of the attendees were from schools in Florida, but also Oberlin, SUNY-Albany, Univ. of N. Texas. This was an informal Q&A session-the leaders asked general questions a the 10 or so attendees answered in piecemeal fashion.

As to the issues we covered:

• They asked how many people had H1N1 in their workplace-I mentioned the occurrences here and our Continuity of Operations plan development.
• Lots of schools had issues- not enough vaccine at some. Many universities had H1N1 sites at their university. I mentioned Wake Forest’s site.
• Some universities had H1N1 plans-but one other university left their library out of the plan
• H1N1 Plans on the website?-most said yes
• Extra measures- hand sanitizer, cleaning, hand washing encouraged, signs, staff encouraged to stay home
• Reports of more hand washing, sanitizing, etc by students
• Some actually referred students to health services
• Most students seem to be aware of healthy practices
• The idea was put forward of the library as a refuge if everyone else went home
• Some thought that the library is one of the places on campus that people look to for help
• Most libraries are developing H1N1 plans

I got the distinct feeling the libraries on campuses across the country are often taking the lead on these health related issues. That said, I think ZSR is at the forefront of the current health crisis planing how to continue operations if we have a full or partial campus shut down.

I attended the Handheld Librarian Online Conference on Thursday, July 30th and heard a presentation by Tom Peters. Peters is CEO of Tap Information Services and has 20 years experience in academic libraries. His presentation was entitled: “Mobility and Singularity: People, Communication, Information, Information Objects, and Information Services in Motion.” Peters began by stating that the use of mobile phone technology is a huge, rapid and global technology with an adoption rate that rivals toilets and toasters. According to Peters, 60 countries had a 100% adoption rate of mobile phones (not the U.S.) Peters had three areas to address in his talk: Mobility, Singularity and Our Sense of Place.

Peters addressed the numerous ways handheld devices can be used: gaming, phone, information (dedicated reading devices), communication and entertainment (portable music/media player). For libraries, these devices are being used for any type of content that can be delivered with this device: access to library collections via the catalog, library web site, reference services, tours, and to “push” out information such as coming library events or services. Peters stated (and I’m not sure I agree) that in the future, we will travel less, not because fuel is expensive, but because we don’t need to. Peters believes that mobile phone technology is an entirely different way of creating, interacting with and using information. Shoutbomb is software that enables “dumb” cellphones to send and receive information from online catalogs. This technology could function in a number of settings.

Peters argues that “we will revive a forgotten sense of rootedness and sense of place.” He thinks our fingers will do all our walking for us using handheld devices-and this will be the reason for a decline in mobility (again, I question this idea.) Peters’ idea is that because of handheld devices we will return to a “pre-industrial sense of place” and we will be able to focus more on our relationshsips. More engagement in local surroundings and a fundamental shift in the way we view our relationships with others is a lot to place in the lap of handheld devices. According to Tom Peters, however, these devices will fundamentally alter our sense of place.

Craig Fansler

I volunteered to help with the Inspiration, Innovation, Celebration: an entrepreneurial conference for librarians held at UNC-G. As it was, they had a plethora of volunteer, so I was able to simply attend. However, by the time my dentist was through with my on Thursday, I was only able to attend 1 1/2 sessions.
I hear the conclusion of the session- Horses and Hoops: New Approaches to Oral History in a Digital Environment” given by Doug Boyd from the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky. Mary Beth wrote about this session, which showed an innovative oral history software tool- OHMS- which allows keyword searching. some day, this kind of thing may filter down to us mortals- hopefully after further improvements to voice recognition software. This session was fascinating.
The closing keynote was from Stephen Bell, Associate University Librarian from Temple University in Philadelphia. Bell is considered a rock star of sorts in certain corners of the library world. He was a dynamic speaker and had a lot to say. Bell started by telling us about his Dad, a car mechanic who”could fix anything”. Bell’s Dad devised a way to keep his boisterous kids from accidentally opening the rear door of his 1958 Cadillac by removing the door handle and installing sharp pins (ouch!) in it’s place. I guess this device worked-and I guess it was innovative………you decide.
the next part of Bell’s lecture was video of him asking librarians if they knew any ‘library entrepreneurs’. No one did. They had heard of Bill Gates though, whom most of the video-ees named as an ‘entrepreneur’.
Bell next got to the pith of his presentation and named 7 characteristics of successful entrepreneurs:
1. Opportunistic- example- Israel recycles 70% of it’s waste water
2. Creative Genius- example- intermittent windshield wipers
3. Customer Focus- example given was Zappos shoes
4. Persistence- example- the guy who invented hyperlinking
5. Connect the Dots- ie. spot trends
6. Passion- example- The Blended Librarian community
7. Risk Taking- I can’t remember the example Bell gave-but it might have been his Dad’s back seat child-proofing device

Bell next mentioned a number of ‘design thinkers’. among those mentioned:

Dan Heaton- mountain unicycling
Deep Dive videos- IDEO corporation
Chip and Dan Heath- Made to Stick: Why some Ideas Survive and Others Die
Daniel Pink- A Whole New Mind-Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future
Seth Godin- This is broken
To Improve what you Do- Study People- ACRLog, May 15, 2006

Finally, Bell listed 10 tips for “Library Entrepreneurs:

1. Listen/Observe- keep your antennae up
2. Accept hard work
3. Something is better than nothing
4. Break some rules
5. Ask open questions
6. Balance risk and evolution
7. Develop sticky ideas
8. Take time for getting ideas- Google Wave!
9. Keeping up with new ideas outside of librarianship
10. Use the ‘zoom out’ lens look at the big picture
11? (He said there were 10, but…) Know your core values

Bell is intriguing because he is interested in the future of libraries and where we’re goon. I was glad to realize that ZSR is already THERE on many of the points Bell mentioned.

Craig Fansler