Preservation of a Library Collection

FAIN: PG-252751-17

City of San Jose (San Jose, CA 95112-3580)
Erin Herzog (Project Director: April 2016 to June 2019)

The purchase of protective enclosures, light-filtering window film, and environmental monitoring equipment for the California Room collection documenting the history of the first civic settlement on the West Coast, its adjacent mission, and the agricultural region known as The Valley of Heart’s Delight.  Materials include 4,421 books, including publications of local San Jose area authors; personal photo and travel books of area residents; 300 books of California poetry ranging from 1866 to 1920; local yearbooks and city directories; and 1,288 maps documenting the growth of Santa Clara County from 1781 to 2004.

The California Room, a unit within the San José Public Library, a department of the City of San José, holds many unique materials chronicling the development of Northern California, emphasizing Santa Clara County and the City of San José. This project focuses on our most highly used collections supporting history, anthropology, political science, urbanization and geology research. Materials range from photographs and ephemera to government records dating from the late 1840's. Materials include; maps (street and subdivisions, Sanborn books, block books, city and county, 1837-2004), directories (the most extensive collection of Santa Clara County and San José City Directories, 1870-1970), and books (including local poets and authors published in San José, 1767- present). Custom protective enclosures for those materials in fragile condition will be provided, and two environmental concerns will be addressed: light exposure and temperature and humidity controls.