Rachel Deblinger
Director, Modern Endangered Archives Program
University of California Los Angeles
Todd Grappone
Associate University Librarian for Digital Initiatives and Information Technology
University of California Los Angeles
The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted so much about our lives, work practices, and personal commitments. For those of us at the UCLA Library working to preserve cultural heritage globally and construct digital libraries that openly share knowledge, we are lucky, knowing that our work remains vital in these times. In fact, the need for digital access to primary source collections is more important than ever as researchers, teachers, students, and community members are at home, unable to travel and access libraries, archives, museums and their collections. Moreover, COVID adds to the already precarious environmental, political, and historic conditions of archival collections; intervention feels more urgent. While the UCLA Library has been working to create Open Access collections through post-custodial partnerships for the past decade, we have been forced to reimagine parts of this work in the time of coronavirus. This Project Briefing will offer an update on two UCLA Library Projects—the Modern Endangered Archives Program and the Sinai Library Digitization Project. Both efforts connect the UCLA Library with repositories, libraries, and unique collections around the world and rely on UCLA expertise and infrastructure to preserve at-risk materials. During the pandemic, our team has continued to support projects by navigating a range of challenges—from safeguarding the health of aged monks at Mt. Sinai to brainstorming shipping routes that will allow project teams to secure necessary materials such as cameras, scanners, and acid-free file folders. Our presentation will share strategies for sustaining relationships, leveraging resources from a large campus, addressing logistical and technical challenges, and adapting to the ever changing landscape of the new work environment.
https://meap.library.ucla.edu/
https://www.library.ucla.edu/partnerships