ALA Annual 2009 - Chicago

I got back from ALA Annual 2 days ago, and I just now have enough energy to process what when on and what I learned. I am writing this in response to a tip I got at the ACRL New Members discussion on publishing. They suggested that I write everyday about my profession until I come with an idea that is worth writing an article about. So here goes...

The first program/meeting I went to was the Preservation Administration Interest Group or PAIG. This was a long one, meeting from 1:30 to 5. PAIG is always very long, but it was pretty interesting this time around so it didn't seem as long as usual.

We started out with a presentation by some Preservation folks from the University of Illinois, I'm not sure which location. They were working on a pretty comprehensive disaster plan and they presented one part of their research. Working with the engineering department at the university, they determined some of the most likely disasters that could occur at their mass storage facility. One of the most likely disasters is accidental or fire-related release of the sprinklers. So the preservation department set out to find out what sorts of damage occur to the the collection when the sprinklers are set off. The sprinklers are heavy duty, meant to extinguish fire, rather than just keeping it contained. So a large quantity of water pours out of the sprinklers in a very short amount of time. Anyway, they set up a test to find out how the water would damage library materials on a typical shelf in the mass storage facility. After the test, they found that the boxes that they stored special collections materials failed completely, basically they turned into pulp. So that was a major concern. Newspapers, of course, acted like sponges, and several of the paperbacks near the edges of the shelves also turned in pulp. Really interesting experiment, wish I could do it justice. Perhaps they will post their handouts on ALA Connect.

Other things we talked about at PAIG were National Preservation Week, which will be in March of next year, IMLS Fellowships at NYPL and Yale, NEH news and grant information, and a program to digitize books through BRC. All interesting, but not quite as interesting at the first presentation.