Surveying the Museum's Library and Audiovisual Archive

FAIN: PG-50605-09

Plimoth Patuxet Museums, Inc. (Plymouth, MA 02360-2429)
Karin Goldstein (Project Director: May 2008 to October 2010)

Hiring a consultant to conduct a general preservation survey of the library and archival materials, and the purchase of environmental monitoring equipment as recommended by the consultant. The library collection consists of rare books, maps, periodicals, and reference materials that serve as a resource for researching 17th-century life, and audiovisual collections that document Plimoth Plantation's 60-year history. Particularly notable is the documentation of the changing image and perception of the Pilgrims and Wampanoag over those decades.

Plimoth Plantation requests a grant of $5,197.13 to survey the museum's library and its audio/visual archive. The grant will support a consultant's single-day visit to survey the storage conditions, policies and practices surrounding these collections. It will also support four days of time to write a report on those conditions with recommendations for improvement. The report will be used to help with long-range planning. Additionally the grant will fund the purchase of three dataloggers and software to record temperature and relative humidity in the storage areas.