Oregon State Library's Oregon Collection Preservation Re-Housing Project

FAIN: PG-233638-16

Oregon State Library (Salem, OR 97301-3929)
Marjorie Harrison (Project Director: May 2015 to March 2018)

The purchase of furniture and supplies to rehouse nearly 4,000 items in a collection of more than 70,000 titles pertaining to Oregon’s history and culture. Books, periodicals, pamphlets, maps, and audiovisual items constitute the library’s collection, which is regularly used to support research by state agencies and the general public. Ongoing work supported by the library includes research on historic structures and landscapes for preservation and design projects, as well as scholarly research on topics that range from the history of African Americans in Oregon to the daily life of pioneers on the Oregon Trail.

The Oregon Collection at the Oregon State Library, Salem (OSL) is one of a handful of research-level collections on the history and culture of the Beaver State and the Pacific Northwest region. The collection contains more than 70,000 items, including books, periodicals, pamphlets, maps and audio-visual items. In the Fall of 2009, the library hired a conservator to perform a preservation collection assessment. She recommended that items in the collections that were stored in acidic envelopes and wrappers be re-housed. From 2012 to 2014, the Oregon Collection was inventoried and analyzed in preparation for it to be moved to a new space in the library. Nearly 4,000 items in the Oregon Collection were discovered to be in danger of deterioration due to acidic enclosures. This grant would pay for archival, acid-free, lignin-free envelopes and pamphlet binders to be used to properly house items in the Oregon Collection.