[Ohiodig] Seeking collaborators for RBMS19 panel on preserving/promoting collections containing climate change/environmental impact

[Carleton, Janet]

Dear Colleagues,

We are seeking collaborators for a panel for the ACRL RBMS19 Conference, Response and Responsibility: Special Collections and Climate Change to be held June 18-21 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Proposal deadline 8/24.)

This panel will discuss how repositories meet the challenges of preserving and promoting collections that tell important stories of climate change and environmental impact, especially when working under imperfect conditions and with limited resources. We are envisioning a panel presentation, during which each presenter briefly discusses the particular specifics and challenges of their collections along with plans for future work, followed by time for discussion and suggestions from the audience. We would also be open to a lightning round if there are a lot of you out there ready to talk about this subject! More detail about what the Ohio University Libraries portion of the presentation would entail is outlined below.

This panel presentation would address how librarians meet the challenges of preserving and promoting collections that tell important stories of climate change and environmental impact, especially when working under imperfect conditions and with limited resources. The Ohio University Libraries holds several manuscript collections documenting over one hundred years of the history of coal mining in southeastern Ohio and its lingering effects on the Appalachian region. These collections contain papers, maps and plans, photographs, and audiovisual materials and cover topics including daily life for those working in or living near (or on top of) mines, labor organizations and mine workers' rights, health and safety concerns, and short and long term effects on the climate and environment. When viewed as a whole, the personal stories illuminated in these disparate collections reveal issues of national environmental importance. We feel a responsibility to preserve and actively share this history with our community and the larger public, but there are several gaps in description, preservation, and access that prevent us from doing this as fully as we would like. Improved housing, enhanced inventories, and more comprehensive finding aids are critical for reading room access, while digitization projects and a more unified web presence for these collections would help us reach patrons virtually. We would also like to promote engagement with these materials through exhibits and other public programming, along with developing partnerships with interested faculty in order to promote use in the classroom. In our presentation we will discuss our plans to prioritize and address these issues while working within the confines of our limited staff and budget.

Please contact Miriam Intrator (intrator at ohio.edu<mailto:intrator at ohio.edu>) asap if you are interested!
RBMS19: Proposal Deadline Extended to August 24: http://rbms.info/blog/news-events/announcements/announcement-rbms19-proposal-deadline-extended-to-august-24/

Sincerely,
Miriam Intrator & Stacey Lavender, Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections
Miriam Nelson & Karmen Beecroft, Preservation and Digital Initiatives
Ohio University Libraries


______________________________
OHIO University

Janet Carleton | Digital Initiatives Coordinator | Preservation and Digital Initiatives | University Libraries | 1 Ohio University | Alden 322 | Athens, Ohio | 740.597.2527 | carleton at ohio.edu<mailto:carleton at ohio.edu> | Pronouns: she, her, hers | https://www.library.ohio.edu/about/collections/digital-archives/  | @jcarletonoh<https://twitter.com/jcarletonoh> | @AldenLibDigital <https://twitter.com/AldenLibDigital> | http://ohiou-digital-collections.tumblr.com/ | http://pinterest.com/OhioDigiArchive/

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