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Assessment and Prioritization:
Recent and Current Research and Development Projects
Part Two - Prioritization
Special Collections Material
Survey InstrumentJanet Gertz
Columbia University
In 2005 the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation generously provided support to the Columbia University Libraries for a two-year project to develop and test a survey instrument to inventory and assess the physical condition and intellectual control of audio and moving image materials.
The tool provides a mechanism for (1) recording quantities and types of materials in detail, (2) documenting physical condition, (3) collecting information about intellectual control and intellectual property rights, and (4) evaluating potential research value.
Both survey-wide reports and collection-specific reports can be generated, as well as reports ranking collections by research importance, degree of physical damage, and lack of intellectual control, and a preservation priority ranking based on these factors to enable institutions to set priorities and establish long-term plans.
The survey instrument is being thoroughly tested in a survey of all the rare and unique audio and moving image materials held by Columbia. As of March 2007 almost 26,000 items had been surveyed. Janet Gertz will discuss the logic behind the tool as well as her experience in using it since 2003. She will also walk the audience through the use of the survey tool and exhibit its features and functionality.
Janet Gertz
Janet Gertz has been Director for Preservation for the Columbia University Libraries since 1989. Prior to that, she was Head of Reformatting for Columbia. She has an MLS from the University of Michigan and a PhD from Yale University in Indo-European Linguistics. Janet spends much of her time managing projects to digitize, reformat, conserve, or otherwise preserve books, archival collections, and audio materials. Outside of Columbia she has served on committees and task forces in many preservation-related organizations, including the Research Libraries Group, the Digital Library Federation, and the National Information Standards Organization. She has served on many American Library Association committees and task forces, recently as Chair of the Recording Media Committee, and she is a past Chair of the Preservation and Reformatting Section. She teaches preservation for the Long Island University Palmer School of Library and Information Science, is a member of the NEDCC School for Scanning faculty, and over the past twenty years has written and spoken on many aspects of preservation.
