Amy Pinc

LIS701
10/27/15

Library Visit to the Newberry: Where Collections and Conservation Meet

The Newberry Library is unique in that it is a research library open to the public.

From its founding the library was meant to be a free and public library for the community

that housed a non-circulating collection dedicated to research. My visit and subsequently

this paper focus on two areas of the library, which help further its mission, the

Conservation Department and the Modern Manuscript Department. Both of these

departments are concerned with preserving the collections to further learning and foster

knowledge. The Modern Manuscripts division is directly responsible for furthering the

Newberrys mission to advance knowledge, improve and preserve collections, and serve

the public. It was interesting to look at these two departments because they compliment

each other and both have the responsibility to preserve history, in albeit different ways.

The idea of the Newberry Library began with Chicago businessman Walter L.

Newberry, who provided around 2.2 million dollars to build a free public library on the

north side of the Chicago River, if his two children died without issue.1 His will

supplied the money to build the library and its collection. It was decided the library

would benefit research and reference while still being a public library. The Newberry was

founded on July 1, 1887 and was opened later that year, however the library did not have

a permanent building or a large collection. The building it currently resides in was

opened in 1893. Now that the library had a permanent building, it could begin to establish

a collection. The Newberrys first librarian, William Frederick Poole is credited with

1
History, the Newberry, accessed October 10, 2015,
https://www.newberry.org/history.
creating its collection and, setting the direction the librarys collection would grow.2 The

Newberry initially and today is comprised mostly of manuscripts and archives that cater

to research in the humanities. This is not a coincidence, there was an agreement between

the Newberry, the Chicago Public Library, and the John Crerar Library, which set the

subjects the libraries, would collect. 3 This idea made sense because the libraries

wouldnt be competing for the same collections and all of the materials, in the Chicago

land area, pertaining to a certain subject would be housed at the same location. The

Newberry continues to collect items for its core collection, which includes the modern

manuscripts.

The Newberry was established as a research and reference library, however it is

still a public library, which means it has to cater to the public. The public aspect of the

library is as important as its research collections The library is free to use, as long as one

signs up for a readers card. The Newberry has held exhibitions open to the public of its

collections since 1896.4 Today it also holds workshops, seminars, and classes open to the

public that concentrates on areas the library excels in and its core collections.

The Newberry has four research centers, History of Cartography, American

Indian and Indigenous Studies, the Renaissance, and American History and Culture,

which also house the core collections and academic strengths of the institution. The core

collections include American History and Culture, Chicago and the Midwest, History of

the Book, cartography, Music, American Indian and indigenous studies, Genealogical and

2
History, the Newberry, accessed October 10, 2015,
https://www.newberry.org/history.
3
History, the Newberry, accessed October 10, 2015,
https://www.newberry.org/history.
4
History, the Newberry, accessed October 10, 2015,
https://www.newberry.org/history.
local history, manuscripts and archives, Medieval, Renascence, and Early Modern

studies, and religion. All of these areas of study are in the humanities and seem to

interweave when looking at the actual collections. Because the Newberry has many rare

books and manuscripts to support research, the collections development and conservation

departments are extremely important. This paper focuses on the Modern Manuscript

Department and the Conservation Department, because both work to fulfill the

Newberrys mission in different and interesting ways.

During my visit to the Newberry, I spoke with Martha Briggs. She is the Lloyd

Lewis Curator of Modern Manuscripts for the library. All manuscripts dating from the

early 18th Century until the present, the Midwest Manuscript collection, the Midwest

Dance collection, the Ayer Modern Manuscript collection, and the Newberrys institution

archives fall under her jurisdiction.5 She has an MLS degree and a MA in history. It was

extremely interesting to interview her because her job has a wide range of responsibilities

and she takes care of such large and varying collections. When I spoke with Martha, she

explained her job consists of both a public and private side of collection management.

She is responsible for the people who work in her department and assigning them tasks

that further the institutions mission. The non-public aspect of her position is to work

with donors, purchase items, process collections, writing grant proposals, collection

preservation, create programing and exhibits, and manage the collections.6 The public

visage of the Modern Manuscript Department is the creation of online finding aids and

collections abstracts and to help patrons find materials.

5
Staff Biographies, the Newberry, accessed October 20, 2015,
https://www.newberry.org/staff-biographies.
6
Martha Briggs, interview by Amy Pinc, Chicago, October 19, 2015.
 A large part of Marthas job is interacting with donors and acquiring manuscripts

and collections. The main way the Newberry increases its collections is through

donations. Part of Marthas job is to reach out to donors and manage donation requests. I

was surprised that most of the collections consist of donations. I was more shocked to

learn the Newberry also rejects donation and gifts, if they do not fit with the core

collections. Martha said a large part of her job is understanding the Newberrys

collections and its mission statement to make sure the gifts fit with both. She also said, as

a policy the Newberry tries to keep collections as whole as possible. Even if a donor is

giving away part of a collection that is in the librarys collecting areas, the library wants

all of the collection if possible.7 Donors usually want to spread their collection around

thinking they are doing the most good that way, it is Marthas job to inform them, that is

not the case. Additionally, if a donor wanted to donate material that was better suited for

a different library or museum it is her job to inform the donor of this and recommend a

different institution. Martha gave the example of a donor wanting to give a collection full

of archival material about the North East and sailing, she recommend they give it to a

library in Boston who has a large collection in that area.

A large part of her job and anyone responsible for developing collections is to

know the institutions research strengths and collecting items that will improve the areas

of strength or help in areas the library is trying to develop. Martha says when deciding to

accept a gift she has to see if the collection or manuscript would enhance the Newberrys

collection. This can be decided by knowing the collections strengths and knowing if the

7
Martha Briggs, interviewed by Amy Pinc, Chicago, October 19, 2015.
library is trying to gain material in a certain humanities area. Another way is to look at

the mission statement for the library and see how the collections correspond.

A large part of modern manuscripts is to process the collections and create finding

aids so people can see what the Newberry offers. There is a large initiative to digitize

manuscripts and archives to let as many people as possible view the information.

Digitizing is also good because it helps preserve the primary source by decreasing the

amount the use the actual item receives. This is important, especially if the book is rare or

old. The Modern Manuscripts Department joined Explore Chicago Collections, which

collected digitized archival material from many museums, libraries, and special collection

from around Chicago. The department had to decide if joining the ECC would better

serve the institutions mission, which it does. The Newberrys mission statement says it

promotes and provides for their [the collections] effective use, fostering research,

teaching, publication, and life-long learning, as well as civic engagement.8 Digitizing

and allowing for the most amount of people to view the material caters to this mission.

The mission statement goes on to promote intellectual pursuit in an atmosphere of free

inquiry and sustains the highest standards of collection preservation, bibliographic access,

and reader services.9 Besides digitizing documents that can be used by anyone, one way

to cater to the mission statement is by creating finding aids and abstracts to inform

patrons of material in the collections. Modern Manuscripts creates these, because the aids

tell people what is available for what subjects and are especially important for archival

collections. Since archives are sorted by collection and not individual piece, it is

extremely important to have a detailed finding aid that informs the patron of what the

8
About, the Newberry accessed October 14, 2015, https://www.newberry.org/about.
9
About, the Newberry, accessed October 14, 2015, https://www.newberry.org/about.
collection covers and if it is useful for his or her research. In addition to finding aids,

abstracts of archival collections are equally important. Martha took me on a tour of where

the archives are processed and stored. During the tour, she showed me what processed

collections looks like. Everything was neat labeled and in acid free boxed and folders.

Then we got to the unprocessed collections, which were a mess and in the original boxes.

The unprocessed collections seemed to far outweigh the processed ones. Although the

archival collections are not all processed the staff working with the collections make a

detailed abstract of what they contain, even if they cannot be organized at that time, so

that even unprocessed collections are searchable in case a patron needs to use them.

Martha also talked about the departments commitment to the public. During the

interview, Martha asked me to excuse the mess in her office because she had just finished

preparing an exhibit downstairs. The department used its recourses and materials to

create an exhibit that educates the public, even if they do not have a readers card to

access the rest of the library. Additionally, there is a program coming up in November

that focuses on artifacts from the Midwest Dance collection that is under Marthas

jurisdiction, which is open to the public. The program will discuss the growth and

changes dance in the Midwest, and specifically in Chicago, went through during the 20th

century and there will be a performance inspired by material in the collection. Martha is

responsible for creating opportunities for people to learn new things from the collections

she manages.

From my discussion with Martha, I learned one of the most important tasks in the

Modern Manuscript Department is preservation. Although there is a specific

Conservation Department at the Newberry, it is still the individual departments duty to

look after the collection. The main way Modern Manuscripts preserves documents is by

storing them correctly, in acid free folders or acid free boxes. Additionally, they are

responsible for reviewing the conditions of new acquisitions and deciding if there is a

conservation need. Another important aspect of manuscript preservation is keeping the

temperature and humidity and constant levels and knowing what documents can

withstand a slight change in conditions going from the stacks to the reading room. This is

important because some manuscripts and ephemera can become damaged even from a

few degree change in temperature or a few percent change in humidity. Caring for the

collection is one of the curators main tasks.

The Conservation department at the Newberry has a long history that grew with

the library. The Newberry had a bindery in the building since 1893. In conjunction with

binding and rebinding, people in the department would repair damaged material with the

means of the day.10 This continued from the late 19th Century until the 1964 when the

Newberry became among the first libraries to hire a conservator for manuscripts. His

name was Paul Banks. From then onward, the Newberry has been focused on conserving

and preserving its collection. Aside from helping to create the conservation lab, as it is

known today, Paul Banks was largely responsible for the design of the Stack building,

which holds most of the Newberrys collections.11 He was concerned with the

preservation of the material and creating an environment that helped keep the collections

well maintained.

10
Lesa Dowd, interview by Amy Pinc, Chicago, October 25, 2015.
11
Conservation Department, Conservation at the Newberry, Newberry Library.
 During my visit to the Newberry, I also interviewed Lesa Dowd, who is the

Director of Conservation Services, and as such is responsible for the conservation

department. She has a background in chemistry, which really surprised me because I was

not aware that science was so important to book conservation. Lesa said all conservators

must to have an understanding of chemistry because of the materials they deal with for

conservation. An example she gave was past conservators, with the best intentions,

repaired manuscripts and other documents with the tools of their time, which in a many

cases meant scotch tape, when it came out. So to try to conserve items further, the

conservation department now has to undo those types of quick fixes, which means the

conservator needs to know how to find what kind of adhesive was used, its pH, and what

kind of solvent is needed to remove the tape or adhesive.12

The conservation department is interesting because while it is its own department

it is responsible to all the other sections of the Newberry. The first thing Lesa mentioned

in the interview is the Newberry is focused on conservation of manuscripts not in

restoration. She said the conservation teams job is to repair or fix a manuscript so that it

can be used, not to make it look brand new. To this effect, the staff try to do as little as

possible when fixing a manuscript. The conservation department works very closely with

the curators of collections to come up with the best treatment for the materials.

In addition to conversation of individual items, the conservation department is

responsible for the larger preservation of the entire collection. They have policies in place

to protect the collections, hopefully, to limit the need for repair. They carefully observe

the environment in the reading rooms and the stacks, monitoring the humidity and

12
Lesa Dowd, interview by Amy Pinc, Chicago, October 15, 2015.
temperature. One interesting aspect of preservation is pest control. The conservation

team spends about half of the day monitoring environmental data, which includes setting

traps and seeing what type of vermin and bugs are caught. The conservation department

is responsible for trapping critters because the type of pest that is trapped is helpful to

detect a problem in the environment and form a solution. The department also speaks

with the other departments and librarians, especially those who work in the reading

rooms, about how to preserve their collections and review basic preservation techniques.

It is important that everyone dealing with the collections understands how to properly

care and preserve them.

My visit to the Newberry was very informative. I initially chose the Conservation

Department and Modern Manuscripts because I am interested in those fields for a

possible career. However, I was interested to find how well they both compliment each

other. Both departments are well established at the Newberry, are interested in preserving

the collections, in one way or another, and in doing their work they preserve history. Lesa

Dowd made an interesting statement when I told her I was also talking with Martha

Briggs. Lesa said she actually gets to touch the history on a daily basis, but Martha, and

her department, interact with it and understand its importance.13 It seems that

Conservation and Modern Manuscripts are linked with each other and with preserving the

past so, others can understand it.

Bibliography

13
Lesa Dowd, interview by Amy Pinc, Chicago, October 15, 2015.
Briggs, Martha. Interview by Amy Pinc. Chicago, October 19, 2015.

Conservation department. Conservation at the Newberry. Newberry Library.

Dowd, Lesa. Interview by Amy Pinc. Chicago, October 15, 2015.

Newberry Library. About. The Newberry accessed October 14, 2015,

https://www.newberry.org/about.

Newberry Library. History. The Newberry. Accessed October 10, 2015,

https://www.newberry.org/history.

Newberry Library. Staff Biographies. The Newberry. Accessed October 20, 2015,

https://www.newberry.org/staff-biographies.