ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 524 /C& RL News An aw ard w inner brings preservation out off the lab By C o n n ie V inita D o w e ll The John Cotton D ana award spotlights a preservation program I ndiana University Libraries w on a 1993 John Cotton D ana Special Award for their ex­ ceptional public relations program tackling one o f the most difficult issues confronting librar­ ies. Their “Preservation Awareness W eek” fea­ tured sophisticated graphics and creative pro­ gram s to e d u c a te a w id e a u d ie n c e a b o u t preservation issues and to improve the care and handling of its collections. The Jo h n Cotton Dana Awards have been given annually since 1946 by the H. W. Wilson Publishing Com pany and ALA’s Library Admin­ istration and M anagem ent Association’s Public Relations Section. The contest honors the ca­ The slice o f pizza smeared across an open book is every academic librarian’s nightmare. Indiana University Libraries’ Preservation Program’s goal is to encourage care in the use o f their collection. This poster design also appears in table tent form. reer of Jo h n Cotton Dana, an em inent librarian w ho was a p ioneer in using public relations techniques to prom ote library use and support. Sixteen aw ards w ere presented at the 1993 ALA conference in New Orleans. This year’s entries came from 108 public, academic, school, military and special libraries, as well as library consortia, library associations, and other agen­ cies that p ro m o te library services su c h as Friends groups. O f these, only 13 w ere aca­ dem ic libraries and Indiana em erged as the only Jo h n Cotton D ana academ ic w in n er this year. The graphics Many of the problem s of preservation are ex­ tremely difficult to com m unicate to users. IU’s series of su p p o rtin g m aterials (bookm arks, b ook bags, copy card holders, posters and table tents) accom plishes this task w ith clever sophistication. The letter “P” from the pres­ e rv a tio n p ro g ra m a p p e a rs throughout, illustrating every imaginable travesty to library materials. Some “Ps” are dog­ eared, asking library users to please use the bookm ark on w hich they appear instead of folding dow n the corners of pages. O thers sp o rt p a p e r clips and glass rings. A table tent, m ore com ­ m only associated with diners than libraries, was one of the most popular publicity inven­ tions. These stood on library tables and carrels to rem ind patrons that “Food and books d o n ’t mix.” A slice of pizza sm eared over an o p en book dram atized the point. Connie Vinita Dowell is college librarian at Connecticut College a n d a Jo h n Cotton D a n a judge October 1993 /5 2 5 Collaboration betw een the Library Preserva­ tion Committee and an IU School of Fine Arts graphic arts class created the logo, graphic de­ signs and text for these materials. While pro­ fe s s io n a l d e s ig n e r s c o u ld h a v e b e e n used, the commit-tee m ade an extra e ffo rt to w o rk with a graduate student class. This project p r o v i d e d s t u d e n t s w ith an o p p o r ­ tunity t o apply t h e i r skills in a r e a l - w o r l d situ a tio n a n d to gain valuable k n o w le d g e a bout preservation. Samples ot the graph­ ics and a price list may be o b t a i n e d by c o n ta c ti n g Lorraine Olley, Head, Preserva­ tio n D e p a rtm en t, M ain Library E050, Indiana University Libraries, B lo o m in g to n , IN 47405, or olley@ ucs.indiana.edu. The activities—films a n d Dr. Book Indiana’s ambitious program spanned National Library W eek with an impressive num ber of activities. “Dr. B ook” and book preservation demonstrations w ere located in the m ain library lobby, a high traffic area which 5,000 people enter each day. Jo Burgess (“Dr. Book”), head of Collection Conservation at Indiana, attracted the concerned and the curious with her sew ­ ing frame dem onstration and her expert ad­ vice on the proper treatm ent of library and pri­ vate collections. Lorraine Olley, head of the Preservation De­ partment, enjoyed “hanging out at the Dr. Book exhibit and watching people becom e excited about preservation. They w ent away with a bet­ ter understanding of the fragility of library m a­ terials and got a better idea of w hy paper is brittle,” she says. “I think it was very success­ ful, and we'll do som e of these activities again. We have gotten a lot more questions from all over cam pus about preservation. I still see a lot of our posters, b ook bags, and bookm arks around.” O ne of the w e e k ’s most successful offerings w as a series of films on paperm aking and book­ binding, care and treatm ent of materials, and b a sic p r e s e rv a tio n aw areness. Tw elve films w ere show n at five different tim es over four days. A list of nine titles follows this article. O th e r a c tiv itie s during “Preservation A w a re n e s s W e e k ” in clu d e d a talk on new trends and chal­ lenges in library and a r c h iv e s c o n s e r ­ v a ti o n b y Dr. George Cunha, founder and d i r e c t o r These are two o f nine designs that appear on both posters and bookmarks and are part o f the Preservation Program PR at the University o f Indiana Libraries. The back o f the one on the left reads: “More than a quarter o f the books in the world’s libraries will deteriorate before the year 2000. Help preserve our books.” The back o f the other reads: “D ropping books may cause serious damage, especially i f the paper and bindings are already brittle. Here’s what you can do to help . . . ” em eritus of the Northeast D ocum ent Conser­ vation Center in Andover, Massachusetts, and tours of IU’s preservation w ork center. The target audience for these activities was extremely broad: “All those w ho use and sup­ port the Indiana University Libraries’ collections: ucs.indiana.edu 5 2 6 /C&RL News Preservation video film series developed a t IU “Basic Preservation Techniques for Libraries and Archives.” Baltimore, MD: Milton S. Eisenhower Library, Johns Hopkins Uni­ versity, 1988. 70 min. “Caring for Your Microfilm Collection: The next step in preservation.” Ann Arbor, ML UMI Preservation Division. 13 min. “How to Operate a Book.” NY: Book Arts Press, School of Library Service, Columbia University, 1986. 29 min. “Librarian’s Video Primer: Establishing and maintaining your video collection.” Chi­ cago: ALA Video, 1988. 21 min. “Mark of the Maker: Twinrocker Handm ade Paper. ” Chicago: McGowen Film and Video, 1991. 28 min. (This was nominated for an Academy Award.) “Murder in the Stacks.” NY: Columbia Univer­ sity Libraries, Preservation Departm ent, 1987. 15 min. “Providing a Future for the Past.” Ann Arbor, ML UMI Preservation Division. 13 min. “Slow Fires: O n the Preservation of the Hu­ m an Record.” Santa Monica, CA: American Film Foundation, 1987. Two lengths avail­ able: 30 min. and 60 min. “A Tour of Heckman Bindery.” North Manches­ ter, IN: Heckman Bindery, Inc., 1991. (P.O. Box 89, North Manchester, IN 46962) librarians, support staff and student assistants on all Indiana University campuses, teaching faculty and students systemwide (particularly those enrolled in the School of Library and In­ formation Science), Monroe County residents and library donors.” The Preservation Committee, which included four staff and four librarians from a variety of departm ents and branches was chaired by Dee M ortensen, reference and collections assistant for African studies. “Hard work, good timing and bringing preservation out of the labora­ tory,” m ade the project successful according to Mortensen. Ed. note: The 1994 John Cotton Dana Con­ test deadline is February 8. Copies of the entry forms are available by writing The John Cotton Dana Library PR Awards Contest, The H. W. W ilson C om pany, 950 U niversity A venue, Bronx, NY 10452. ■ (At the Crossroads cont.from page 518) academ ics in English Departments. Using hu­ m orous anecdotes, she revealed that faculty colleagues and literary critics frequently devalue w o m e n ’s genres because such literature ad­ dresses nontraditional subject matter (in-depth discussion of personal relationships) and often contains clear thinking and blunt prose, in con­ trast to traditional obtuse academ ic verbiage. The next speaker, Carol Thurston, Austin, Texas, presented her perspective on w om en readers of popular fiction genres, including romances, mysteries, science fiction, and New Age varia­ tions, as well as trends in commercial publish­ ing. She hypothesized that w om en’s genre lit­ erature is influenced by gender bias, and thus has lower academ ic status than male genre fic­ tio n , i.e., w e s te rn s a n d m ysteries. Kristin Ramsdell, California State University-Hayward, provided a brief history of popular romance fiction and current trends. She stressed that the rom ance genre is very diverse, and this creates difficulties for collection developm ent and ref­ erence service. She then discussed ways to jus­ tify purchase of rom ance literature in academic libraries, as well as specific sources, research collections, access tools, preservation issues, a n d p re d o m in a n t p re s s e s . Finally, B onita Corliss, Seattle Public Library, p resented an overview of lesbian popular literature, includ­ ing the genres available and the role of w om en’s presses in the last 20 years. She concluded by discussing unique collection developm ent is­ sues, including those related to access, book jobbers, and personal com fort zones for both library p e rs o n n e l a n d th e g e n e ra l public. — M ary M. Nofsinger, W ashington State Uni­ versity ■ Advertiser index American Psychological cover 2 Blackwell 509 CD Plus Technologies 495 Digital Directory Assistance cover 3 EBSCO 501 Marquis W ho’s Who 503 NOTIS cover 4 PAIS 505 Sociological Abstracts 517 University of Missouri 498 H.W. Wilson 506 WLN 523