Trustees meet with archival expert

Virginia Antonucci-Gibbons, the Regional Archivist for the Long Island Library Resource Council (LILRC) visited the Annie Cooper Boyd House as a guest of our Archives Consultant Jackie Marks. Jackie asked Virginia to meet with SHHS to help us learn more about the best ways to store our archival collections.

We have embarked on a big project this past year to begin to inventory our collections, and to develop more formal policies about our collections. As part of that, we're also reviewing the best way to store the items and papers in the SHHS collections.

SHHS Trustees, including Tucker Roth, who has diligently spent the last several years working on SHHS's grant applications, joined Jackie Marks for the meeting with Virginia Antonucci-Gibbons.

Ms. Antonucci-Gibbons complimented SHHS's Dorothy Zaykowski's files, initial collection inventories, and the organization of the SHHS office. She encouraged SHHS to find a way to seal the wooden walls in some of the areas where archival materials are stored to create a more preservation-safe enviorment for papers and fabrics. She also tried to help SHHS figure out how to make metal shelving work in the space we have, since metal shelving is the preservation standard. Her recommendations will influence Tucker Roth's upcoming grant applications.

She also asked us important questions about what parts of our collection are most in-demand, to help us focus our collecting policies.