Tag Archives: preservation

Check this out:, General, Public, Resources, School Media Specialist, Special, Tech

Preservation and Decoding Civil War telegrams

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Preserving telegrams from the Civil War

The Huntington Library in San Marino, CA is working on a project of huge historical significance. They are working on decoding and digitizing 15,971 telegrams from the Civil War that were found hidden in a wooden foot locker for more than a century. This article from the LA Times details the contents of some of the telegrams, which are a window into the war experiences of the Civil War and include disease, fear, humor, and praise of President Lincoln. The telegrams were found to have come from the Union side, but the correspondence was coded for safety. According to the article, this led the Huntington Library to start “a Decoding the Civil War crowdsourcing campaign that relies on volunteers using cipher charts to unravel secret texts.” These volunteers, named “citizen archivists” continue to work through the ongoing task of deciphering the coded messages.

In addition to decoding the messages, the Huntington is working to digitize the documents to make them available online. The library is working with Zooniverse to put the documents online at the Decoding the Civil War website. Using digitization to preserve these formerly hidden documents is important to ensure they continue to provide a glimpse into this country’s history.

Check out the official site of the project for a glimpse into the decoding process, suggested reading, and links to more resources on the Civil War.

 

 

 

General, Special

Preservation in a nuclear bunker

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Packard Campus

When you think of archives, you may picture dusty boxes or dark closets filled with preserved documents or other media. You maybe don’t think of 90 miles of shelves in climate controlled and “radiation hardened” vaults!

However, that is exactly where the Library of Congress is storing its Audio/Visual collection in Culpeper, Virginia. The storage facility is actually a former nuclear bunker that was built during the Cold War to protect huge amounts of money as well as up to 500 Federal employees. This article from the blog Architect of the Capital details the original goal of the bunker structure, pictures and illustrations of the site, and also the end goal of the Library of Congress to eventually digitize their film and video collection.

Watch this video from the Library of Congress that describes the Packard Campus and the process that the digital files go through to record and preserve them at the facility (it includes robotics!):

 

Academic, Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Libraries Aid Preservation

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Image by CharlesCarstensen some rights reserved
Image by CharlesCarstensen some rights reserved

Libraries are repositories of information that are often quickly associated with books, journals, and other tangible resources. However, they are also conduits to preserve community/family stories-some of which have yet to be cataloged (intangible).  This month @ your library, an American Library Association (ALA) campaign, provides a list of resources for libraries to assist patrons in collecting and maintaining  their stories. Included are links to information on how to conduct an oral history interview, ways to research ancestry, develop a family archive and make a time capsule. In addition, in honor of military month this May, a special section has been added for military families.

Tip:  Teachers, with summer approaching, this may be an excellent project for students to work on as they spend time with family on vacation; in the car, at the lake, or around the dinner table.  Additionally, what creative ways does your library encourage/facilitate these conversations?

Academic, Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Feature Libraries: Preservation Week April 21-22nd

Image provided by ALCTS
Image provided by ALCTS

Only recently (2010) has the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) began to observe Preservation Week. This year, during the week of  April 21-27th, take time to highlight your community and other local organizations by promoting preservation at your library.

Assistance on how to celebrate preservation in both big and small ways can be found @ your library or by going to the preservation toolkit developed by ALCTS. You can also peruse the ALCTS event toolkit for additional planning and promotional ideas!

Do you like preservation? Go to ALA’s Facebook and show your support with a simple click!