Records of the Barbara Goldsmith Preservation and Conservation Department
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Abstract
This collection contains the records of the Barbara Goldsmith Preservation and Conservation Department. The mission of the Barbara Goldsmith Preservation Department is to preserve, protect and thereby extend the usable life of the NYU Libraries' collections. The materials concern a variety of preservation and conservation initiatives, including specific grant projects, as well as work involving bindery operations, deacidification programs, preservation microfilming and photocopying projects, preservation supplies, audio/visual preservation, digitization projects, photograph and music research collections, and conservation training. These projects also include efforts to conserve materials held by NYU special repositories. The collection also includes records documenting the department's administrative activities, such as strategic planning documents and job descriptions.
Historical Note
The mission of the Barbara Goldsmith Preservation Department is to preserve, protect and thereby extend the usable life of the NYU Libraries' collections. The department pursues this objective in accordance with the mission and goals of the Libraries, and in conjunction with the University's research mission.
The Preservation Department is responsible for the following activities: commercial binding, conservation treatment, reformatting, disaster preparedness, staff and patron education, and a program to monitor climate control in the Library. In addition, department include programs for moving image and sound preservation, as well as digital conversion. The conservation treatments used in the conservation lab include rebinding, recasing, rebacking, boxing, deacidification, paper cleaning, washing and, mending, as well as other minor repair work in order to preserve collections for current and future scholars. Conservation treatments preserve the physical object through professionally accepted treatments that prolong the life of the materials.
Reformatting techniques are used for books and archive materials that cannot be physically repaired because the paper is too brittle to sustain conservation treatment. These techniques include preservation microfilming and preservation photocopying. In addition, special grant-funded preservation projects are conducted on an ongoing basis within the department to preserve damaged and deteriorating non-book materials, such as, photographs, music scores and audio/visual materials. Moving image and sound preservation are designed to provide collections care, such as proper housing, and reformatting for these rapidly deteriorating collections. The department also administers digital conversion projects that include a preservation component.
Arrangement
Material in this collection is arranged by general subject/topic and thereunder chronologically. This collection is arranged into 11 series, two of which have been further divided into subseries. The series and subseries arrangement is as follows:
Series I: New York State Aid, 1984-1985
Series II. New York State Aid Projects, 1986-2014
Series III: Preservation Meetings, 1988-1993
Series IV: Great Collections Microfilming Projects, 1989-1996
Subseries IV.A: Project II (GCMP II), 1989-1993
Subseries IV.B: Project IV (GCMP IV), 1993-1996
Series V: Archives Preservation Microfilming Project (APMP), 1985-1994
Series VI: Bindery, 1981-1986
Series VII: Association of Research Libraries (ARL), 1984-1995
Series VIII: Conservation Documentation, 2004-2020
Subseries VIII.A: Conservation Logbooks, 2004-2005
Subseries VIII.B: Conservation Documentation, 2004-2020
Series IX: Department Administration, 1986-2000
Series X: National Endowment for the Humanities, 1984-1999
Series XI: GRAMMY Foundation, 2005-2007
Scope and Contents
This collection contains the records of the Barbara Goldsmith Preservation and Conservation Department from the period 1981-2020, including conservation documentation from the period 2004 through 2020.
The materials concern a variety of preservation and conservation initiatives, including specific grant projects, as well as work involving bindery operations, deacidification programs, preservation microfilming and photocopying projects, and preservation supplies.
Specific preservation projects encompass efforts related to map preservation, student newspapers, a preservation video entitled "Murder in the Stacks," acetate audio recordings, digitization projects, photograph preservation, music research collections, and conservation training. These projects include coordinated programs with other institutions such as Columbia, Cornell and Syracuse Universities, as well as efforts to conserve materials held by NYU special repositories such as Tamiment Library, the Wagner Labor Archives, and Fales Library. A significant amount of material deals with the Research Libraries Group (RLG) Great Collections Microfilming Projects (GCMP).
The collection consists of correspondence, grant applications, annual reports, and meeting records, as well as records documenting the department's administrative activities, such as strategic planning documents and job descriptions. Funding documentation relates primarily to New York State aid, as well as National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) awards. Conference materials cover New York State preservation meetings, and meetings of the Eleven Comprehensive Research Libraries.
In accordance with the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) code of ethics, conservation documentation is maintained in order to establish the condition and aid in the care of cultural property. Conservation documentation relates to treatment of items in the NYU Bobst Special Collections (The Fales Library & Special Collections; Tamiment Library & Wagner Archives; University Archives), the Stephen Chan Library Collection (Institute of Fine Arts), the Ehrman Medical Archives, and the Courant Institute Library.
Conservation documentation consists of logbooks used to track the movement of collection materials in and out of the lab, as well as reports of examination and treatment of items. Some treatment reports include images of the item before, during and after treatment.
Subjects
Organizations
Conditions Governing Access
Administrative records and unpublished reports of New York University are closed for a period of 20 years from the date of their creation. Access to files spanning multiple years will be opened to researchers based on the date of the most recent materials. Board of Trustees records are closed for 35 years from the date of creation. Materials related to personnel, grievances, job and fellowship searches and applications, and all files that fall under the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) are permanently restricted. Additional restrictions may apply to other materials in this collection. For questions regarding specific restrictions, please contact the University Archives.
Conditions Governing Use
Any rights (including copyright and related rights to publicity and privacy) are maintained by New York University. Permission to publish or reproduce materials in this collection must be secured from the University Archive. Please contact university-archives@nyu.edu.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Records of the Barbara Goldsmith Preservation and Conservation Department; RG 38.24; box number; folder number or item identifier; New York University Archives, New York University.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
This collection was transferred to the University Archives from the Barbara Goldsmith Preservation and Conservation Department. The conservation documention for the years 2004-2009 was transferred to the University Archives from the Conservation Lab in December 2011. An accretion was donated by Lou Di Gennaro in 2019, the accession number associated with this transfer is 2019.096. A further accretion of born-digital files were transferred by Laura McCann in March 2022; the accession number associated with this transfer is 2022.011. Laura McCann transferred additional administrative documents in October 2024; the accession number with this transfer is 2024.076.
Born-Digital Access Policies and Procedures
Advance notice is required for the use of computer records. An access terminal for born-digital materials in the collection is available by appointment for reading room viewing and listening only. Researchers may view an item's original container and/or carrier, but the physical carriers themselves are not available for use because of preservation concerns.
Appraisal
In 2025, Laura McCann and Lili Abikoff reviewed the collection and made appraisal decisions. All files with private personal or financial information were removed from the collection, along with other materials deemed out of scope, including worksheets, forms, receipts, financial printouts, and notes from professional conferences or readings. Drafts and duplicates of paper records were removed, as were physical conservation records that duplicated electronic records. Records documenting preservation efforts related to the New-York Historical Society library were removed. Final versions of applications, reports, and other records were retained.
About this Guide
Processing Information
Decisions concerning the arrangement, description, and physical interventions taken on this collection prior to 2024 have not been recorded.
In 2024, an accretion of administrative records was added to the collection as Boxes 7-8, and intellectually incorporated into the existing Series II and IV. New series were established for departmental administrative records (Series IX) and specific granting agencies not already documented in the collection were added to the collection (Series X and XI).
In 2025, materials were deaccessioned from the collection. Some box, folder, and series numbers were changed to reflect the removal of materials.