Partnering with Senior Engineering Students: Design & Prototype building of Document Encapsulator

Encapsulation of flat paper collection items, such as documents, between polyester film is standard practice preservation strategy. Equipment currently available on the market for encapsulation either employ heat or an ultrasonic welder to create the seams in the polyester film. This equipent is only produced by limited sources and can be cost-prohibitive. Each year, the Engineering College calls for project proposals for Capstone projects, a senior class project designed to have students work with a client to design and complete, mimicking the real world. The Preservation unit submitted an open proposal to design and build an encapsulator and was selected by a mechanical engineering team. Working with a team of five senior students, the project took place in two phases, over the course two semesters. The TAMU Encapsulator design includes several innovations including an off-the-shelf removable ultrasonic welder locally sourced, an interchangable welder tip, a digital control box to adjust percent strength of the weld, and additional seam types.With a budget of $15k provided by the Library, these students were able to build a working prototype from off-the-shelf components and came in under budget. The prototype was presented in the Annual Senior Showcase, competeing with all Enginneering specialties and awarded Second Place.This poster describes the collaboration between the Preservation Unit of the Texas A&M University Libraries and a team of senior undergraduate students from Texas A&M University College of Engineering to design and build a prototype of document encapsulator. Presented at the 47th Annual Meeting of American Institute for Conservation (AIC), New England 2019.Texas A&M University Librarie

Acquiring From Secondary/Used Sources: Money Saver or Time Sink

Between 2004 and 2008, Morris Library’s monographic budget has been reduced by over $400,000, a fifty percent reduction between those two years. The increase in serial prices forced the shifting of monograph funds to the serials budget. Despite this shift, the increase in serials costs combined with an otherwise flat budget resulted in two serials’ cancellation projects in a span of four years. Faced with these economic realities, the acquisitions unit at Southern Illinois University’s Morris Library has sought alternative schemas to save money. One decision was to consider purchasing materials from secondary and used-book sources. For FY09, a database was constructed of purchases to track how much money was saved buying from these resources versus buying from commercial vendors. The authors then tracked how often the preservation unit within the library was consulted to determine whether the materials were in acceptable condition and/or could be reasonably repaired. From this tracking, we hoped to determine and evaluate the trade-offs between the money saved and the additional burden placed on Preservation resulting from this approach to purchasing

Buying from Secondary Markets: Acquiring Dollars and Sense

Between 2004 and 2008, Morris Library’s monographic budget was reduced by over $400,000 representing a fifty percent reduc- tion. The increase in serial prices forced the shifting of monograph funds to the serials budget. Despite this shift, the increase in serials costs, combined with an otherwise flat budget, resulted in two serials’ cancellation projects in a span of four years. Faced with these economic realities, the acquisitions unit at Southern Illinois University’s Morris Library has sought alternative schemas to save money. One decision was to consider purchas- ing materials from secondary and used-book sources. For fiscal year 2009, a database was constructed of purchases to track how much money was saved buying from these resources versus buying from commercial vendors. The authors then tracked how often the preservation unit within the library was consulted to determine whether the materials were in acceptable condition and/or could be reasonably repaired. From this tracking, we hoped to deter- mine and evaluate the trade-offs between the money saved and the additional burden placed on Preservation resulting from this approach to purchasing

History on the Move: Relocating Special Collections and Archives

As anybody who has moved from one house or apartment to another knows, moving is hard work. It requires physical strength, to be sure, but it also demands mental strength since any move will cause a mixture of excitement, frustration and anxiety. The most crucial step to minimize mental stress is planning, which should be started as far in advance as possible. Because every move offers its own challenges, communication, coordination and flexibility are also essential. The same principles apply to moving an academic library‘s special collections. The focus of this article is on the preparation and execution of a move. In it, we highlight the level of attention to detail entailed, which in turn necessitates an amazing amount of planning. And even then, contingencies arise. We share experiences that demonstrate the likelihood of obstacles along the way, problems to be resolved and the potential scope of post-move recovery projects. A successful move will ensure that the collections are undamaged by either the move or their new surroundings and that they are available to researchers as soon as possible. While the goal is straightforward, the reality can be a challenge for any special collections center

Partnering with Senior Engineering Students: Design & Prototype building of Document Encapsulator

Encapsulation of flat paper collection items, such as documents, between polyester film is standard practice preservation strategy. Equipment currently available on the market for encapsulation either employ heat or an ultrasonic welder to create the seams in the polyester film. This equipent is only produced by limited sources and can be cost-prohibitive. Each year, the Engineering College calls for project proposals for Capstone projects, a senior class project designed to have students work with a client to design and complete, mimicking the real world. The Preservation unit submitted an open proposal to design and build an encapsulator and was selected by a mechanical engineering team. Working with a team of five senior students, the project took place in two phases, over the course two semesters. The TAMU Encapsulator design includes several innovations including an off-the-shelf removable ultrasonic welder locally sourced, an interchangable welder tip, a digital control box to adjust percent strength of the weld, and additional seam types.With a budget of $15k provided by the Library, these students were able to build a working prototype from off-the-shelf components and came in under budget. The prototype was presented in the Annual Senior Showcase, competeing with all Enginneering specialties and awarded Second Place.This poster describes the collaboration between the Preservation Unit of the Texas A&M University Libraries and a team of senior undergraduate students from Texas A&M University College of Engineering to design and build a prototype of document encapsulator. Presented at the 47th Annual Meeting of American Institute for Conservation (AIC), New England 2019.Texas A&M University Librarie

When a Repository Is Not Enough: Redesigning a Digital Ecosystem to Serve Scholarly Communication

INTRODUCTION Our library’s digital asset management system (DAMS) was no longer meeting digital asset management requirements or expanding scholarly communication needs. We formed a multiunit task force (TF) to (1) survey and identify existing and emerging institutional needs; (2) research available DAMS (open source and proprietary) and assess their potential fit; and (3) deploy software locally for in-depth testing and evaluation. DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM We winnowed a field of 25 potential DAMS down to 5 for deployment and evaluation. The process included selection and identification of test collections and the creation of a multipart task based rubric based on library and campus needs assessments. Time constraints and DAMS deployment limitations prompted a move toward a new evaluation iteration: a shorter criteria-based rubric. LESSONS LEARNED We discovered that no single DAMS was “just right,” nor was any single DAMS a static product. Changing and expanding scholarly communication and digital needs could only be met by the more flexible approach offered by a multicomponent digital asset management ecosystem (DAME), described in this study. We encountered obstacles related to testing complex, rapidly evolving software available in a range of configurations and flavors (including tiers of vendor-hosted functionality) and time and capacity constraints curtailed in-depth testing. While we anticipate long-term benefits from “going further together” by including university-wide representation in the task force, there were trade-offs in distributing responsibilities and diffusing priorities. NEXT STEPS Shifts in scholarly communication at multiple levels—institutional, regional, consortial, national, and international—have already necessitated continual review and adjustment of our digital systems