News and Events

Preservation Department digitizes important content regarding South Africa and Apartheid

The Manuscripts & Archives’ collection of 2,400 videotapes from the television program South Africa Now has been digitized.  Because of its unique position operating just outside the control of the South African authorities, South Africa Now was able to capture a unique view and in doing so documented the cultural richness of the region.  An enhanced online finding aid will be available December 2012 and will provide more detailed descriptions of the individual episodes.  Streaming digital files of the episodes and file footage will be available to the research community in the Manuscripts and Archives reading room, and copies of the digital files can be made for long-distance researchers.

This project has allowed us to preserve the content of the tapes.   The vast majority of the videotapes in this collection - ninety-six percent (96%) - are in formats that are becoming rapidly obsolete. Digital migration and preservation is the only approach presently available to safeguard this unique collection due to format obsolescence.  Professional analog recorders are no longer manufactured and as time passes, there will be few, if any, experts who can repair those that still exist.  This preservation effort has preserved an important period in South African history. 

For more information on this project, please see http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ms.1818

Recent flash flooding affects library collections; quick action minimizes damage

On Friday afternoon, August 10th, New Haven experienced tremendous rains - over 2 inches in 45 minutes. Combine that with it being high tide, and New Haven was quickly overwhelmed with flooded streets and parking garages due to overfilled storm drains.  Unfortunately, the Yale Library was not spared. 

Quick action and effective emergency preparation aided in preventing damage to the Library in terms of collections: approximately 300 books were sent to be vacuum freeze dried, which is a small number considering the number of libraries that were affected by the storms: Sterling Memorial, Bass, Divinity, Law, and the Beinecke.  Those 300 books – being dried by Belfor, an international company that specializes in document recovery – have returned to the Library in less than three weeks with only minimal signs of water damage. 

Emergency response is a collective, cooperative effort; without the collaborative efforts of Preservation, Custodial Services, Facilities, Risk Management, and the sharing of resources, these types of events could result in far more loss of library collections.  Many thanks to all of those who helped out on that wet Friday!

Conservation Creates Teaching Tools for the Budding Medievalist: Traveling Scriptorium 

Through a series of outreach projects and collaborations with curators, faculty, and other conservators on campus, Yale University Library’s Conservation Services, using its expertise in the areas of book history, materials and techniques, and scientific testing, has reintroduced itself to the campus and community as a partner in promoting teaching and enhancing learning through the study of objects.  Reintroducing conservation as a discipline was an opportunity that culminated in the creation of the Library’s first material culture teaching kit, the Traveling Scriptorium.  

In 2010, the Conservation Services team partnered with curator Kathryn James to seek funding to create a material culture kit based on medieval manuscripts.  The kit was envisioned as a teaching tool and will be used in class sessions for library staff, undergraduate and graduate students, and others.  The Scriptorium’s blog site provides the opportunity to collect audience responses, while also acting as a forum for information, further resources, and an introduction to the kit itself.

The project team solicited input from and worked closely with Yale’s English Department faculty to develop something that would enhance their teaching and use of collections.  Each user of the kit can approach integration into learning, teaching, and course curriculums in different ways.  Faculty advisors for the project were excited to use the kit in their classrooms, but still wanted the option to visit the lab with their students to explore the kit with the Library’s conservators.

The Traveling Scriptorium provides samples sets and didactic panels related to medieval inks and pigments.  The kit includes examples of many raw materials used to create inks such as oak galls, plant matter, minerals, and insects.  There is also a guide with historical ink and pigment recipes.  The kit also includes binding models that are supported by a series of didactic panels that focus more specifically on the characteristic features of the bindings such as sewing structure (supports and patterns), boards (material used, shaping and lacing channels), and covering materials (leather, parchment, tanning, and toning of covering material).

For more information, please see our blog: http://travelingscriptorium.library.yale.edu/  

Past News and Events:

Globe Collection to be Preserved

Last September, The Yale University Library commissioned T.K. McClintock, a private conservator, to conduct a conservation condition assessment of the Map Department's globe collection.  The work was done in coordination with Christine McCarthy, Chief Conservator, George Miles, Curator of Western Americana for the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and Abe Parrish, Director of the Map Department.  The Yale Daily News article can be found here:

http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2012/apr/19/globe-collection-to-be-preserved/

Landmark Gift Establishes Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage at Yale University

Yale University President Richard C. Levin today [June 7, 2011] announced the creation of the Yale Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage, funded by a gift of $25 million from Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin '78. The Institute, to be housed on Yale's West Campus, will unite the vast resources of the University's museum and library collections with the scientific and technological expertise of Yale's academic departments to advance conservation science and its practice around the world.

http://dailybulletin.yale.edu/article.aspx?id=8630