General Preservation Assessment of Adams Library Special Collections at Rhode Island College

FAIN: PG-280605-21

Rhode Island College (Providence, RI 02908-1940)
Molly Bruce Patterson (Project Director: January 2021 to October 2022)

A general preservation assessment and training for staff to care for 4,000 cubic feet of materials, including rare books, archival records and manuscripts, photographs, audiovisual materials, objects, and ephemera documenting the history of Rhode Island from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Highlights of the collection include records from the college’s founding in 1854 as the state’s first teacher training school, as well as the personal papers of Nancy Elizabeth Prophet (1890–1960), a renowned American sculptor of African-American and Native American descent, and Dr. Carl Russell Gross (1888–1970), an African-American physician in Providence who chronicled the accomplishments of Rhode Island’s Black professionals in the fields of law, medicine, education, and the arts. The assessment and training in emergency preparedness and environmental monitoring for collections storage would provide the college a roadmap for the long-term preservation of the materials, thereby ensuring their ongoing research and educational use.

General Preservation Assessment of Adams Library Special Collections at Rhode Island College

Associated Products

Report of a Preservation Needs Assessment: Special Collections at the James P. Adams Library, Rhode Island College, Providence, RI. (Report)
Title: Report of a Preservation Needs Assessment: Special Collections at the James P. Adams Library, Rhode Island College, Providence, RI.
Author: Elena Cordova
Author: Northeast Document Conservation Center
Abstract: Between January 3, 2022 and January 13, 2022 , paper-based, audiovisual, and photographic materials housed in Special Collections at the James P. Adams Library at Rhode Island College were assessed for preservation planning purposes by Elena Cordova, Contract Preservation Specialist for the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) in Andover, MA. The assessment, which was funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities Preservation Assistance Grant, evaluated the buildings and environments as they relate to the preservation needs of the materials; examined current policies, storage, and handling procedures; and assessed the general condition of materials. Observations and recommendations are based on a pre-site visit questionnaire, a site visit, and discussions with Digital Archivist and Special Collections Librarian, Molly Bruce Patterson; Digital Initiatives Coordinator, Andrew Davis; and Carissa DeLizio, Library Director.
Date: 03/11/2022
Access Model: n/a - unpublished report for internal use

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