Preservation Assessment of Local History Collection

FAIN: PG-50528-09

Starkville Oktibbeha County Public Library System (Starkville, MS 39759-2955)
Carolyn B. Reed (Project Director: May 2008 to May 2010)

A preservation assessment, staff training, and the purchase of environmental monitoring equipment to ensure proper care for the library's special collections, which include historical periodicals, scrapbooks, voting records, newspapers, church congregation minutes, and architectural blueprints documenting Mississippi's Oktibbeha County from the pre-Civil War era to the present.

The focus of this project is the Christopher Randolph Stark and Annie Reynolds Stark Annex which houses the library's genealogy and family and local history materials, especially those pertinent to Oktibbeha County. The Annex, which opened four years ago, has never had the formal, written expertise of a preservation specialist to advise in the arrangement and management of its archives and other collections. In order to assess the current practices and to lay a knowledgeable foundation for preservation management from this time forth, if funded, a preservation services librarian has committed to making an on-site visit during which she will conduct a preservation assessment, instruct the staff in the basics of dataloggers, and within three months thereafter, prepare a written plan with short and long-range recommendations and strategies for care of the holdings. The staff will also pursue further recommended education in preservation techniques and management.