Senior photograph conservator Brenda Bernier, curatorial associate Melissa Banta, and photograph cataloger Robert Burton, all of the Harvard University Library’s Weissman Preservation Center, along with Paul Messier, conservator in private practice, jointly presented at the Society of American Archivists’ 72nd Annual Meeting in San Francisco on August 30.

In the session “A New Methodology for Surveying Photograph Collections,” chaired by Burton, Banta provided background on the 2002 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation preservation survey of photographs at Harvard and the resulting publication, A Directory to Photographs at Harvard; Bernier explained how the survey results were used to implement a photograph preservation program at Harvard; and Messier talked about adapting the survey methodology for use at the Library of Congress, the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, and other institutions.

At the same meeting, Andrea Youngfert, photograph conservation technician in the Weissman Preservation Center, presented a poster entitled “Maximizing Efficiency: The Use of Inkjet Copiers to Transcribe Historical Inscriptions.”

In July, Michael Dello Iacono, records assistant, and Darla White, records manager/archivist, of the Center for the History of Medicine, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School, received a Team Award from the Harvard Medical School for outstanding performance. They were nominated for their dedication to an encompassing mission: to assist school employees to create and preserve the records that are critical to the school’s current operations and the future archival footprint. White, formerly librarian/archivist for the Hunt Alternatives Fund, received an MA in history from Simmons in 2005 and an MSLIS in 2003, as did Dello Iacono in 2008.

Marisa Déry, media technician in the Audio Preservation Studio, Loeb Music Library, Harvard College Library, came in second place in an audio enhancement challenge held at the annual Audio Engineering Society conference in Denver in June. Participants had only hours to clean up five audio clips exhibiting noise problems—like cell phone humming, loud restaurant background noise, and Shakespeare recited by a fountain—to make them moreunderstandable. Working alone, Déry used Sound Cleaner software by SpeechPro, and she was beaten only by the expert four-person training team for that particular software. Influenced by her past experience enhancing audio clips of domestic disputes, Déry donated the award money to a battered women’s shelter.

Nancy Hallock, head of the Spanish/Portuguese Division in Harvard College Library Technical Services, prepared a handlist of publications by SALALM (Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials) entitled “SALALM: The First Fifty Years—A Handlist of Publications with Author Index.” It has been published as No. 56 of SALALM’s Bibliography and Reference Series.

Claudia Holguin, special projects archivist in the University Archives, Harvard University Library, attended the first Archives Leadership Institute, sponsored by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission and held at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Library and Information Studies, June 21–28.

Jennifer Jacobsen, collection development/appraisal archivist, and Virginia Hunt, associate university archivist for collection development, both of the University Archives, attended the Society of American Archivists’ Electronic Records “Summer Camp” at the University of California, San Diego, on July 7–11. The workshop focused on building the components of an electronic records preservation program and included demonstrations and technologies used to establish archival repositories and digital libraries around the world.

Leslie A. Morris, curator of modern books and manuscripts, Houghton Library, HCL, along with Joan Winterkorn of Bernard Quaritch Ltd., London, presented a paper on “Collecting Strategies: Working with Private Owners” during the ACRL Rare Books and Manuscripts Preconference in Los Angeles.

Karen Nipps, head of the Rare Book Team in Houghton Library, attended the 2008 annual meeting of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing (SHARP) held in Oxford, United Kingdom, where she presented a paper entitled “The Self-Education of Lydia Bailey, Last of the Widow-Printers.”

Connie Rinaldo, librarian of the Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, presented a poster at the Special Libraries Association in Seattle in June: “BHL, the Biodiversity Heritage Library: Exposing the Taxonomic Literature.” She also presented a paper at IFLA in Quebec City on August 12 with Nancy Gwinn, director of the Smithsonian Libraries: “The Biodiversity Heritage Library: Sharing the Biodiversity Literature with the World.” This paper can be read at http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla74/papers/109-Gwinn-en.pdf.

Mary Sears, head of Public Services at the Ernst Mayr Library, has coauthored an article entitled “Alice Robertson: Educator and Marine Zoologist.” The collaborative work by Sears and Robert M. Woollacott, professor of biology and curator of marine invertebrates in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, was published in the Annals of Bryozoology 2 (International Bryozoology Association, Dublin, 2008). Sears gave a presentation on Robertson at the 14th Conference of the International Bryozoology Association in Boone, North Carolina, in July 2007.

University Archivist Megan Sniffin-Marinoff was guest editor for and wrote the introduction to COMMA 2007, ICA’s Section on University and Research Institution Archives: Selected Dialogue from the Formative Years. COMMA is the principal journal of the International Council on Archives (ICA).

Christina Thompson, editor of the literary journal Harvard Review, Houghton Library, has been awarded the 2008 James E. Conway Excellence in Teaching Writing Award by the Harvard Extension School. Thompson’s students praise her for her ability to establish a “vibrant classroom culture,” for her intellectual rigor, and for her “profound knowledge of the subject.” An instructor in the Division of Continuing Education since 2001, she currently teaches Advanced Narrative Nonfiction and Principles of Editing. The Extension School requires the latter course for its Certificate in Publishing and Communications program, for which Thompson also serves as an adviser.

Andrew Wilson, access services librarian in the Loeb Music Library, has published an article entitled “Great Service Pays: A Model for Service Delivery in an Academic Music Library” in the Journal of Access Services, vol. 5, nos. 1–2. This is the journal’s “Best Practices in Access Services” issue.