Preservation Program 

Established in 1987, the University of Rochester Libraries' Preservation Program coordinates comprehensive preservation services for the River Campus, Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) and Miner Libraries. The Sibley Conservation Lab oversees the repair and reformatting needs of the Eastman School of Music collection. 

The Preservation Program integrates a variety of activities including: physical conservation, disaster preparedness planning and response, reformatting, grant project development and management, staff and user education, collection management projects (e.g. stacks cleaning and re-housing) and environmental monitoring. All preservation services have been carefully developed to address the varied needs of each of the Libraries on the University's campuses. The Preservation Program, headed by a Preservation Librarian, provides advice and assistance to members of the University and local communities and serves as a resource to libraries, repositories and individuals outside the University seeking conservation guidance. 
 

 

Special Projects 

The Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation Department is heavily dependent on grants to provide support for staff salaries and annual operating expenses, as well as providing funding for special preservation projects. 

Past grant projects have made possible the preservation of glass-plate photographic negatives and prints, spoken word recordings, music scores, and other historic items from the Libraries' Special Collections: a historic photographs duplication project produced several thousand copy negatives, contact print copies, and new archival masters for three historic collections -- Ward's Natural Science Establishment Collection, the Herman LeRoy Fairchild Collection, and the University Archives. The spoken word project resulted in the re-recording of 900 hours of oral histories and University recordings and included the Rochester Oral Jewish History Project, the Rochester City Club lecture series, and interviews with 20th-century composers from Sibley Music Library's Ruth Watanabe Special Collection. A five year mass deacidification project involved the deacidification of acidic music scores at the Sibley Music Library. All projects have resulted in enhanced public access as well as improved protection for valuable, unique originals.