Implementing Recommendations for Preserving Humanities Collections

FAIN: PG-50033-07

University of Richmond (Richmond, VA 23173-0001)
Rachel Frick (Project Director: May 2006 to October 2007)
James R. Rettig (Project Director: October 2007 to September 2008)

The purchase of environmental monitoring equipment for the university's general and special collections in the humanities and the training of staff in collections care procedures. Among the special materials housed at the library are Confederate imprints and Virginiana, including maps, 19th-century newspapers, and ephemera.

In 2006, Boatwright Memorial Library of the University of Richmond received an NEH Preservation Assistance Grant to hire an expert consultant to conduct an assessment of preservation needs for the library's humanities collections. The library has begun to implement the consultant's recommendations and requests an additional Preservation Assistance Grant to maintain that momentum. The proposed project emphasizes additional staff training and acquisition and installation of additional environmental monitoring equipment. A major project currently underway is renovation of the two floors of the library housing most of the humanities collections. Installation of the environmental monitoring equipment will complement the aesthetic and functional improvements to these floors.