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Remarks on The Library of Congress accepting the Distinguished Award for the Advancement of the Field of Conservation
In 2017, the Library of Congress was recognized by the American Institute for Conservation for its long-standing program of educating conservators and supporting professional development. I was honored to take part in accepting this award and give some remarks at a celebration:
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Spem in alium: Orchestrating preservation
[These remarks were delivered to the Preservation Administration Interest Group at the American Library Association’s 2017 Annual Conference in Chicago, IL. By way of context, it was just announced that I was taking up the position of Director for Preservation at the Library of Congress. I spoke about preservation in libraries, but I believe that…
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Two Holes in the Wall
This is going to end up being a post about preservation management with an epilogue on equitable access and shared collections, but it starts with some rough building trades-work and a visit to a notable internet site’s headquarters. In planning the trip, I’d asked something about energy consumption for their data center. That led someone to mention a clever…
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Think Like a Computer, Part II.
Part of my day with the AAPB National Digital Stewardship Residents has been added to the WGBH Forum Network. The idea behind this lecture is to “[l]earn the history of computers and computing in the same way that conservators learn the history of book and paper making, writing, and printing to care for physical collections. A…
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Comprehensive Preservation Environments, IFLA 2016 Satellite Meeting.
I had the honor of presenting a paper for the International Federation of Library and Archives satellite meeting at the Library of Congress. This meeting of the Preservation and Conservation Section together with the Preservation and Conservation Strategic Programme focused on on high density storage for library materials. The paper, “Comprehensive Preservation Environments: Site-wide Resource Management and Conservation…
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Think Like a Computer
I gave a talk at ALA 2016, in Orlando, Florida, describing some of the approaches I’ve used in teaching digital preservation for libraries. My slides from the talk are posted here, and if the date is later than September 1, 2016 and you’re reading this, please do send me a reminder to post the edited…
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Protected: How to Think Like a Computer
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
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Commitment Day
Twenty-seven years ago today, March 7, 1989, a group of authors and publishers signed a Declaration of Book Preservation, saying “We, the undersigned authors and publishers, hereby declare our commitment to use acid-free paper for all first printings of quality hardcover trade books in order to preserve the printed word and safeguard our cultural heritage for future…
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The Destruction of Libraries: Book Reviews
[Written at the request of my alma mater for their project, “Books and Destruction: Honoring Banned Books Week,” during August 2015.] Libraries and archives are frequent targets in war and conflict. Institutions that support the rule of law, encourage the exploration of ideas and identity, and stand for intellectual freedom are a grace threat to regimes…
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Early Career Residencies
I was invited to present a short talk for the 2016 ALCTS President’s Symposium, Re-envisioning “Technical Services” to Transform Libraries, and to expand on this in an ALCTS Webinar. This post follows the basic train of my remarks (as of 25 January 2017) but expands on a few points and has been updated to weave in ideas that came up in the…
