Catalyst Fund grant will increase accessibility of Emory audiovisual preservation projects

Emory Libraries has been awarded a 2023 Lyrasis Catalyst Fund Grant. The Catalyst Fund is an award program that provides support for new ideas and innovative projects from members of Lyrasis, a non-profit member organization serving the global landscape of academic and public libraries, scholarly research, archives, museums, and galleries. With a theme of community-driven Read More …

The value of a library preservation program

Similar to the way museums are required to preserve works of art and sculpture, libraries are facing increasing challenges with physical collection media. Despite the best preventive storage practices, paper deteriorates, photographs fade, and audio and visual media degrade and lose fidelity over time. Like museums, libraries are stewards of information as well as hubs Read More …

Emory Libraries Preservation Office receives equipment donation from Georgia Pacific

This spring, the Preservation department received an extensive donation of large audiovisual equipment from Georgia Pacific Studios (GP Studios). This donation expands the range of audiovisual formats that may be digitized by our department. As well, it brings greater efficiency and flexibility to our use of space in the audiovisual labs. Transportation of the equipment and Read More …

Preservation Week at Emory Libraries 

April 25 through May 1 is Preservation Week. An initiative of the American Library Association-Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALA-ALCTS), Preservation Week is a time when institutions across the country highlight at-risk collections and share knowledge about the work of caring for these collections and making them accessible. At Emory Libraries, activities currently underway or recently completed by Preservation and Digitization Services include:  annual updating of emergency preparedness and disaster response documents for all Emory University Libraries and the Library Service Center  removing Read More …

From Art Studio to Digitization

When the call went out from Emory Libraries to work remotely due to COVID-19, I took home my computer and a flatbed scanner, the one normally used for scanning book foldouts. Here at home, this scanner has become my only tool for digitizing all types of books. Although I miss the speed of our higher-quality Read More …

Adapting Through Adversity: Keeping Productive (and Sane) During COVID-19

2020 has been anything but normal. Entering the eleventh week of work from home and social distancing practices, we have all experienced impacts to our lives, both professionally and personally. It is very easy to become overwhelmed by the growing uncertainty and conflicting reports about our world returning to some form of stability. At Emory Read More …

Building A Home Digitization Station

How are we continuing to digitize Emory Libraries audiovisual material during COVID-19? By building a home digitization station, of course!  Although our audio and video digitization workstations have many parts, their core components are actually quite portable. Taking cues from resources in the moving image archives community (in particular, Ashley Blewer’s Minimum Viable Station and Read More …

Preserving the Telugu Manuscript

Emory Libraries recently acquired the Kōṭikalapūḍi Vīrarāghavakavi (1663-1712) manuscript. The online edition of this book is in the public domain, not protected by copyright, and has been made available by Emory University. The text is a work of poetry based on the Udyoga Parva of a Telugu Mahabharata by Kotikalapudi Viraraghavakavi (1663-1712). The Mahabharata is Read More …

First African American Reporter on Nashville Newspaper: Conserving His Scrapbook

By Kim Norman, Conservator, Emory University Libraries Preservation Office Rare scrapbooks that document African American life in the United States from 1890-1975 are being preserved with support through a “Save America’s Treasures” (SAT) grant. The project is a collaborative effort with the Emory University Preservation Office, Digitization Center, and the Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Read More …

Emory Contributes to Digital Civil War Portal from ASERL

Emory Libraries has contributed 430 digital items/objects to the ASERL Civil War digital project.  The “Civil War & the American South:  Primary source materials from the Southeast’s leading research libraries.”  Emory's contributions to the site can be found under “MARBL” under “contributing institutions.”  You can limit your search to collections at select institutions, including our Read More …