Kelvin Smith Library will host free events throughout the week to celebrate Prevention Week, which is an annual national event sponsored by the Association of Library Collections and Technical Services (a division of the American Library Association). It was created to increase public awareness of preservation needs and inspire action to preserve personal, family and community collections of all kinds, as well as library, museum and archive collections. Memories and treasures should last a lifetime and be passed on to future generations; Preservation Week is designed to highlight the efforts necessary to do so.
Attend the following events:
Webinar: Moving Image Preservation 101
Tuesday, April 28, from 2 to 3 p.m.
Room LL06 C (lower level)
The webinar will feature Siobhan C. Hagan, audiovisual archivist in the University of Baltimore Special Collections Department:
- Learn tips and tricks to preserve your personal and family film and video moving image collections so future generations can continue to enjoy them.
- Better understand moving-image technology to recognize the most popular formats that are typically found in personal collections.
Webinar: Digital Preservation for Individuals and Small Groups
Thursday, April 30, from 2 to 3 p.m.
Room LL06 C (lower level)
The webinar will feature Mike Ashenfelder, digital preservation project coordinator at the Library of Congress in the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program. Anyone with an interest in preserving their own digital photos, documents, recordings, videos and other digital files can:
- Understand the nature of the digital-preservation challenge
- Learn simple, practical tips to describe and save your digital files
- Discover tools that can be used
Presentation by Gabrielle Parkin: “Feeling Faith: Interpreting Private Lives from Medieval Books of Hours”
Friday, May 1, from noon to 1 p.m.
Dampeer Room (second floor)
Gabrielle Parkin, Case Western Reserve SAGES lecturer, specializes in late medieval English literature and is particularly interested in using goods such as clothing and books to interpret the lives of merchants and artisans in 14th and 15th century England.
Parkin’s presentation will cover the following:
- How do you read a book of hours? Usually seen through glass at museums or in libraries, books of hours are often admired for their beautiful illuminated images. But what were they for? Preserving evidence of use, including inscriptions, fingerprints and even smudges from tears, books of hours can help us to better understand the spiritual and personal lives of the men and women who handled them. This talk will contextualize the production and use of books of hours in Europe during the 14th to 16th centuries to consider what these “primers” can teach us about the past.
- See a “real” Book of Hours and other Kelvin Smith Library Special Collections material from medieval times in the Hatch Reading Room following the presentation.
For more information about these events, contact Sharlane Gubkin, sxg7@case.edu.