1999-2004
Major renovations were undertaken in Widener Library, resulting in the introduction of two new reading rooms, the installation of a new HVAC system, and major improvements to the building’s fire suppression and security systems.260
1999-2000
Due to ongoing renovations at Widener, numerous items needed to be moved. Many fragile materials—pamphlets, for example—were transferred to phase boxes. Conservation staff frequently made enclosures for special materials being transferred to the Harvard Depository.261
1999-2000
The digital imaging studio in Widener DN-90 developed in quality with the acquisition of new equipment and the configuration of four digital image capture workstations. A variety of materials—reports, daguerreotypes, the Harvard Map Collection’s Mercator globes—were scanned or photographed. Preservation microfilming, primarily of brittle materials, remained a major activity of the Preservation & Imaging Department.262
1999-2006
The University awarded Library Digital Initiative grants to libraries throughout Harvard for projects having to do with digital collections. The projects—50 in all—included the creation of metadata and the digitization of analog collections. In addition to making many of Harvard’s unique resources available online, this innovative project laid the groundwork for organizing and preserving digital materials at Harvard. It also educated staff from throughout the Harvard libraries about the technologies and issues involved in digital curation.263
March 20, 2000
The HUL Preservation Center was named for Paul M. Weissman (Class of 1952) and Harriet Weissman. The Center continued to treat rare materials from Harvard’s special collections. It also hosted training programs for the Harvard library community. The staff’s projects included stabilizing illuminations in a 15th-century Book of Hours, lining fragments of deteriorating posters with strong Japanese paper, and manufacturing supports and housings for artifacts in a variety of media. Conservators also undertook condition surveys of several Harvard collections.264
2002
Binding & Shelf Preparation staff moved into renovated space on D-Level of Widener, allowing Conservation Services to become a more integrated unit. A new laboratory allowed the Microfilming Group to film thousands of volumes from Harvard libraries. When a patron requested a microfilm reproduction, the procedure was to produce a master negative and a duplicate negative in addition to positive copies.265
October 2002
The Library Collections Emergency Team organized a full-day disaster simulation attended by 35 staff members. Training sessions on care and handling were also organized for library staff.266
2002-2003
The Weissman Preservation Center surveyed the preservation needs of Harvard's 7+ million photographs. This groundbreaking survey, funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, continues to be emulated by other major institutions.
2003-2004
The Woodberry Poetry Room Collection Library Digital Initiative developed a workflow and technical specifications for audio preservation.267
June 2004
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation provided a major grant to support the preservation of photographs at Harvard.268
2004-2005
The Weissman Preservation Center improved its management of conservation records. Its database stored information about surveys and treatments, saving time and centralizing record-keeping. The Center also assisted specific libraries to develop emergency response plans and established a program to help librarians monitor the temperature and relative humidity of their facilities.269
2004-2005
The “NEDL Push” was a project to transfer materials from the New England Deposit Library (NEDL) to better conditions in the Harvard Depository (HD). In the HCL Collections Conservation Laboratory, tens of thousands of deteriorating sheets of newspaper were microfilmed, mended, and re-housed before transfer to HD. The Lab was involved in several other microfilming and digitizing projects, as well.270
2004-2005
As part of a departmental reorganization, the HCL Microfilming Laboratory was renamed Scanning and Microfilming Services. This title better reflected its reproduction of texts both on microfilm and in digital formats.271
October 2005
Brenda Bernier began to work at the Weissman Center as senior photograph conservator. In 2007, this position was endowed and the title was changed to Paul M. and Harriet L. Weissman Senior Photograph Conservator. A grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation made it possible to focus more closely on photograph preservation in the following years.
2005-2006
Conservation Services advised and assisted several Harvard libraries on commercial binding preparation. In addition to its numerous other projects, Conservation Services provided support for the Smart Barcoding Project, which would help HCL keep track of inventory.272
2005-2006
Four broad HCL collections were identified for digitization by Imaging Services: Widener Library Pamphlets, Historic Photographs of Asia, Music Scores, and Medieval Manuscripts. Until now, microfilming was a major part of the preservation program for HCL’s brittle books. Digitization was now recognized as an alternative to microfilming; books that were copyright-protected or incompatible with the digitization workstations would still be microfilmed. Original paper copies were retained in the Harvard Depository.273
2006
Members of the Library Collections Emergency Team (LCET) presented a program about hurricane preparedness for libraries, in part due to alarms raised by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. A new Wei T’o book freezer was installed on the D- Level of Widener, and repairs were done to the freezer in the Binding and Shelf Preparation office at 625 Massachusetts Avenue.274
May 5, 2006
The Weissman Preservation Center moved to a new facility at 90 Mount Auburn Street. The new laboratory included equipment that would allow conservation staff to provide better treatments to the Harvard collections.275
2006
The Weissman Preservation Center collaborated with the HUL Office for Information Systems to develop specifications for the preservation of digital content. The Weissman Preservation Center continued to provide training programs to the Harvard library community.276
March 2008
A broken drainpipe in Pusey Library poured 500 gallons of water into the Harvard Theater Collection. HCL Operations and the Library Collections Emergency Team (LCET) responded within 20 minutes, worked through the night, and prevented untold damage to irreplaceable collections.277
2009
A team from the Weissman Center began surveying audiovisual holdings in the Harvard University Archives. The survey aimed to identify assets and to assess their condition. This project included the development of a database that would help determine preservation and reformatting priorities, as well as a taxonomy that describes the composition and condition of a variety of audiovisual materials.278
References
260 Beth Potier, “Widener Library renovations: On time, on budget,” Harvard University Gazette, 30 September 2004.
261 Harvard College Library Preservation & Imaging Department, Annual Report: FY 2000 (2000), 1.
262 Harvard College Library Preservation & Imaging Department, Annual Report: FY 2000 (2000), 4-5.
263 Harvard University Library Office for Information Systems, “Digital Projects: List of Projects”; available from http://hul.harvard.edu/ois/digproj/projlist.html; Internet; accessed October 16, 2009.
264 Weissman Preservation Center, Annual Report: FY 2000 (2000), 1-2; Harvard College Library Preservation & Imaging Department, Annual Report: FY 2002 (2002), 5-6.
265 Harvard College Library Preservation & Imaging Department, Annual Report: FY 2002 (2002), 1 and 8.
266 Harvard College Library Preservation & Imaging Department, Annual Report: FY 2002 (2002), 3.
267 Weissman Preservation Center, Annual Report: FY 2004 (2004), 4.
268 Ibid., 1.
269 Weissman Preservation Center, Annual Report: FY 2005 (2005), 3 and 6.
270 Harvard College Library Preservation & Imaging Department, Annual Report: FY 2005 (2005), 1-2.
271 Harvard College Library Preservation & Imaging Department, Annual Report: FY 2005 (2005), 7.
272 Harvard College Library Preservation & Imaging Department, Annual Report: FY 2006 (2006), 2.
273 Harvard College Library Preservation & Imaging Department, Annual Report: FY 2006 (2006), 5-6.
274 Harvard College Library Preservation & Imaging Department, Annual Report: FY 2006 (2006), 3.
275 Weissman Preservation Center, Annual Report: FY 2006 (2006), 1.
276 Weissman Preservation Center, Annual Report: FY 2006 (2006), 3-4.
277 “Synchronized Effort Rescues Collections,” Harvard University Gazette, 13 March 2008.
278 “Harvard’s AV Collections: Searching for Resources at Risk,” Harvard University Library Notes, no. 1349 (May 2009); available from http://publications.hul.harvard.edu/ln_1349/av-survey.html; Internet; accessed 16 October 2009.