On March 7, 2017, DVAG had its general meeting. The topic was reading room policies and practices. There were three different speakers as well as a discussion of the results of the DVAG Reading room policies survey previously sent out to DVAG members. Here’s a summary of what you missed, as well as some resources provided at the meeting.
Sarah Heim, Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Sara Heim opened up by telling the story of the infamous rare document stealing duo, Barry Landau and Jason James Savedoff. This pair visited numerous repositories and museums to steal rare documents by having one partner distract staff, while the other smuggled materials. One of the targets of the pair was the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Heim went on to discuss how the HSP attempted to increase the security of their reading room while balancing budgetary and physical constraints. She shared some policies that were developed, including the installation of a turnstyle to ease the bag check process. She also shared some Resources for archives security.
Josué Hurtado, Temple University, Special Collections Research Center
Josué Hurtado discussed how Temple University’s Special Collections Research Center has integrated Aeon into its reading room workflow. He addressed some challenges with the Aeon’s invoicing system and also talked about the advantages of having a record of where materials are physically located.
Sarah Horowitz, Haverford College
Sarah Horowitz discussed the student centered culture of the Haverford College library. She managed to touch upon a few different issues, including: staff constraints resulting in increased reliance on student workers, a refusal to over-emphasize silence in a collaboration heavy environment, and the need to further think about how I.D. requirements may be another way of enforcing privilege within the library/archive world. See more of what she discussed in her presentation slides: HorowitzUserCenteredReadingRoom
DVAG’s next meeting will be May 24, 2017.
It will be a two-part event, featuring early afternoon tours of CCAHA and followed by a general meeting held at the nearby Curtis Institute of Music.
An RSVP will be required for the tours of CCAHA, which will be conducted closer to the event date. (Tours are limited to the first 45 guests)
When and where:
PART I – Tours: 1:30pm – 3:00pm
Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts
264 S 23rd St, Philadelphia, PA 19103
PART II – General Meeting: 3:30pm – 5:30pm
Curtis Institute of Music
1720 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
Topics:
Conservation, Preservation Fundamentals, and Disaster Preparedness
Speakers:
Dyani Feige, Director of Preservation Services, CCAHA
Susan Duhl, Paper Conservator and Collections Consultant
Refreshments will be served!
Questions or concerns? E-mail vicechairDVAG@gmail.com
Your DVAG Programming Committee:
Kenneth Cleary, Vice-Chair
Kelsey Duinkerken, At-large member
Chrissie Perella, At-large member
Delaware Valley Archivists Group 