Click images to view full-sized with captions Herbaria, are instutitions that collect and preserve plant specimens from various regions. Some are international, and attempt to have comprehensive collections, while others are national, local, or more specialized. I found the process of learning about herbaria to be fun and I appreciated the experience. These collections serve as a store of reference material for researchers who can study specimens over long periods of time. Herbaria are vital to medical, and environmental research and can also serve as seed repositories for rare specimens. My classmate, Kelsey, who serves on the board of the student chapter of the Society of American Archivists with me, was also really interested in the topic. Together we created a slide presentation you can view here: http://bit.do/herbaria. We visited the Joseph F. Rock Herbarium, here on campus, and had an excellent tour provided to us by Dr. Michael B. Thomas, the Collection Manager. He walked us through the history of herbaria, the various herbaria in Hawaii, answered questions about preservation challenges, and also showed us the process that their specimens go through once they're collected in the field and then brought back to the facility. All the photos above were taken during our site visit. The video below, from Kew Royal Botanical Gardens, was really neat to watch as I neared the end of my research assignment about herbaria. The assignment was part of my LIS 620, Conservation of Library & Archival Materials, course, taught by Deborah Dunn.
0 Comments
Today, members from the UHM Society of American Archivists student chapter, went to the Hawaiian Historical Society for a stack cleaning service project. Housekeeping is important for any collection -- dusting and checking for mold and pests helps to preserve the collection, and should be done regularly. We started out replacing burnt-out fluorescent bulbs (that were 8 feet long!) and applied UV filters to any that needed it. Some bulbs had an existing glass UV filter tube around them, which we simply slid the bulbs in and out of. The UV film sleeves, came rolled up and were wrapped around the bulbs. Read more about the damaging effects of UV light and the importance of applying UV filters to protect your collection(s), at the Northeast Document Conservation Center's website. While dusting the collection, we checked for signs of mold, or frass (that's bug poops for you non-library peeps). We often found ourselves distracted by the awesomeness of the collection! A big MAHALO to Nicki and Jennifer from the HHS, who were so thoughtful and fun to work with! They reimbursed anyone who drove for the cost of their metered-parking, and provided a great lunch of Chinese food, and made us take all the leftovers since they said they remembered being starving grad students. lol! I had a great time working with everyone, and such a special collection. Last semester, my LIS 615 Collection Management class, was fortunate to have Nicholas A. Basbanes as a guest speaker. (Thanks Dr. Wertheimer!) I ordered his book, On Paper-The Everything of its Two-Thousand-Year History, that night, and thoroughly enjoyed it -- especially the parts at the end, which address the tragedy of 9/11, and paper's role. It was quite moving, and I teared-up a bit while reading it. If you're interested in librarianship or archives, I highly recommend you read this, as paper is a medium you will encounter throughout your career (despite technology). It shows how society has affected paper / manufacturing, and vice-versa. I felt a strong reverence for the medium as I read the book. In the summer of 2014, I visited the 9/11 memorial in NYC. It was a solemn and beautiful memorial and seeing all the lives lost due to the events of that day, was heartbreaking. As I continued towards Washington DC, I asked my friend if we could stop at the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation Memorial, located at the campus of the National Emergency Training Center, in Emmitsburg, MD (thanks to my Yelp app). These photos donʻt do the memorials justice... Click images to view full-sized with captions:
Tonight, was my first day of classes for the fall 2015 semester. I'm taking LIS 620: Conservation of Library and Archival Materials, with Deborah Dunn, and it was a fun first night! We started off with introductions, the syllabus, and went into the lab to work on processing incoming pamphlets for the library's collection. We were re-introduced to some tools seen in LIS 619 (pre-requisite for LIS 620). If you're interested in Archiving and attending the UHM LIS program, LIS 619 and 620 are both required courses and aren't offered every semester, or concurrently, so it's always recommended to register for them when they appear on the schedule if you haven't taken them yet. We also have some Museum Studies students joining us since these classes count as electives for the MS certificate, and a couple of the people in LIS are looking into doing a Museum Studies certificate concurrently. It's always neat to see multiple sides of a process. I encounter many items bound that come from the Preservation lab when receiving monographs and serials at my job in the Pacific Collection. Placing these pamphlets in archival pamphlet binders, provides prolonged access to patrons. I decided to write about this in part to solidify it in my mind while still fresh, but also to give a glimpse of the work we're doing in class. Steps taken tonight to house pamphlets in binders
On Friday, August 14th, officers from the UHM Society of American Archivists student chapter (SAAsc), met with Hawaiian Historical Society (HHS) Preservation Librarian - Nicki Garces, and Executive Director - Jennifer Higa, for a tour and discussion about the upcoming Fall 2015 semester. The SAAsc, is fortunate to have the HHS as our sponsor site this semester, and there will be monthly events happening for members of the SAAsc! The HHS is a non-profit organization that provides public access to their library, where anyone interested in researching Hawaii and the Pacific is able to visit. They do welcome donations as well. For more info on the HHS, please visit their website: https://www.hawaiianhistory.org/ The SAAsc is looking forward to working with fellow LIS students, archives professionals, and the HHS this fall! Nicki gave us an awesome tour of their library and showed us so many interesting things. Some other pictures taken during out visit. It was a great day! Click images to view larger On July 28, 2015, The Association of Hawaii Archivists (AHA), held a site tour at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Daniel K. Inouye Regional Center. The facility, is located on Ford Island, and it's an impressive structure, that repurposed two old hangars, by linking them together with a central complex built between them. It is a Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Gold building.
There were beautiful exhibits featuring marine wildlife and coastal environments near the entrance, and one of the first things we were shown, was a giant white sphere hanging from the ceiling, called Science on a Sphere (SOS). Patty performed a demonstration on how they use it as an educational tool. She could track the movement of weather systems, as well as flight paths, and also fun stuff they do with the kids, like make it look like a giant eyeball. The library is on the first floor and run by one librarian named Ani. Her primary patrons are scientists, so she does not do much reference work, since many of the scientists already come to her with specific resources they'd like to obtain for their research. Ani said she does a lot of document delivery for these requests, and also works with updating their database (they use Oracle) and digitization. It was interesting to hear a federal librarian speak about her experiences, which made me realize yet another interesting area of librarianship! Another, separate repository, was located upstairs: The International Tsunami Information Center, which housed pamphlets and ephemera, books, maps, etc. and it was interesting to see pamphlets in multiple languages with different target audiences. Both are open to the public. At the end of the tour, Chad, a Marine Biologist shared some stories and information about the work they do, and in particular, how the public can help when they spot a monk seal, by calling NOAA right away, and not trying to assist the animal themselves. He said hooks that get caught in a monk seal's throat are one of the most difficult types of surgical procedures to perform. To report stranded / entangled marine mammals:1-888-256-9840 I am really happy AHA extends these amazing opportunities to its members. On Saturday, March 28th, 2015, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to visit the Scottish Rite Cathedral as a member of the Association of Hawaii Archivists. I had no idea there was a library inside this beautiful building, nor did I really know much about the cathedral, except that it was an impressive and mysterious building. Along with the cathedral itself, we also toured the Masonic Library located within. Our guide, William "Pete" Holsomback, gave an excellent and fascinating tour of the facilities, patiently fielded many questions from the group, and provided us with a lot of interesting historical info. Adding to the mystique surrounding Masons in general, we learned the group is not Scottish nor is it connected to Scotland in any way. In Hawaii, one of their most visible works, is the Shriners Hospital for Children in Honolulu. There were many interesting photographs, memorabilia, and books. They also publish some pamphlets and books of their own available for sale. Interesting to note for any library buffs out there: the library is open to the public. I wish I'd written this post sooner, like right after the site visit, but I didn't have my website up and running at the time. I will post more photos from the day below. |
Dropping Mad Library Science!Here is where I write about everything library and archives related going on. Categories
All
Archives
September 2020
|