California Baptist University Annie Gabriel Library Special Collections Presservation Assessment

FAIN: PG-51898-13

California Baptist College (Riverside, CA 92504-3206)
Steve Emerson (Project Director: May 2012 to August 2014)

A preservation assessment of five special collections, including the university archives, and their storage and environmental conditions at the Annie Gabriel Library of the California Baptist University in Riverside. The collections' focus is on theology, biblical studies, and the history of Christianity and of the Southern Baptist denomination. Of note is a collection of 2,100 volumes of hymnals and hymnological reference works from around the world, many of them rare and unique, collected by Dr. P. Boyd Smith, the university's first president.

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Preservation Assistance Grant will support a survey and assessment of five special collections housed within the Annie Gabriel Library, located on site at the California Baptist University (CBU), Riverside, California. The collections are important in the areas of history, political science, and philosophy. They offer students, scholars, and the public historic, cultural and social information that is unique. Activities will include assessment of the physical collections and their storage conditions as well as environmental conditions of the physical space within which they are housed. The final assessment will be used to prepare short term and long term recommendations for preservation, housing, and to make changes to current environmental conditions. The assessment will be conducted by a consultant from AMIGOS Library Services Imaging and Preservation Services, a professional preservation consultant.