Join us for the next Topics in Preservation Series lecture:

Cartography and Code: Incorporating Automation in the Comparison of Medieval Toponyms Across Maps

Wednesday, May 16, 2018
1:30 pm EDT

Library of Congress James Madison Memorial Building
Pickford Theater (third floor)

Register for the live webcast by Tuesday, May 15 at 5:00 pm. 

Click here for more information and to register for the live webcast.

April 22-26, 2019, the Library of Congress celebrates Preservation Week with programming throughout the week, including behind-the-scenes tours of Preservation at the Library, a Preservation takeover of the Library’s main Twitter account, and tips presented by Library conservators in the Baseball Americana exhibit.

Click here to register for the tours and for more information about the programs to celebrate Preservation Week.

On Friday, June 21st, the Library’s preservation staff will be hosting two (2) behind the scenes tours of preservation labs and services in the James Madison Building. The tour is free, but registration is required and space is limited.

• For the morning tour - Friday, June 21 at 10:00-11:30 am – register here.
• For the afternoon tour - Friday, June 21 at 1:30-3:00 pm – register here.

Click here for more information about preservation programming throughout the week of ALA, including behind-the-scenes tours of Preservation at the Library, an information pavilion at the Exhibition Hall, and an open house in the Jefferson Building.

The Library of Congress Preservation Directorate is excited to present a Topics in Preservation Series (TOPS) for Preservation Week 2020! From April 27-May 1, we are hosting webinars every day at 11am (EST). The five, hour-long webinars will feature preservation related projects conducted at the Library of Congress. Register now for any, or all, of the following webinars at http://LOCPreservation.eventbrite.com or at the links below. For more information and resources related to preservation at the Library of Congress, visit https://www.loc.gov/preservation/

Keeping it Cool – Designing the Library’s New Gutenberg Bible Display Case

Monday, April 27th, 11am – 12pm Register here

The Library of Congress’ Gutenberg Bible is on permanent display in the Thomas Jefferson Building. Even though its three volumes are displayed on a rotating basis, the concerns about the adverse effects of long-term display required the Library’s’ conservation staff to create a purpose designed display case that would mitigate these adverse effects. The speakers will talk about the design process, present various features of the new case, and share with the audience some lessons learned now that the case is fully functioning for a little over a year.

Presented by Elmer Eusman, Chief, Conservation Division and Nancy Lev-Alexander, Head, Collection Stabilization Section

Acquiring and Developing an Offsite High Density Collections Storage Facility

Tuesday, April 28th, 11am – 12pm Register here

In addition to operating state-of-the art preservation quality storage facilities at Ft. Meade, the Library operates a rental property which meets its needs for interim storage.  This webinar discusses the Library’s experience in acquiring and developing this facility.  Cabin Branch (located in Landover, MD) shows a way to control costs without compromising on collections care.  The webinar will explain how the Library of Congress designed an interim storage warehouse with collections safety foremost in mind, while keeping cost under control by working with the developer to focus on the features most critical to safeguarding our collections.

Presented by Steve Herman, Chief, Collections Management Division; Rohn Roache, Assistant Chief, Collections Management Division; Nancy Lev-Alexander, Head, Collection Stabilization Section

Assessing the Condition of the United States National Collection

Wednesday, April 29th, 11am – 12pm Register here

A national research initiative funded by the Mellon Foundation “Assessing the Physical Condition of the National Collection” is undertaking the task to objectively assess the condition of books held in collecting institutions of the United States by performing an in-depth scientific analysis on a representative sample.

The research focuses on analyzing the same 500 volumes from five different research libraries in five different climatic zones through the time period 1840-1940. Research to date has shown some extremely interesting trends. This presentation will focus on the analytical techniques used in the program and show what this means to the preservation of print collections throughout the United States.

Presented by Fenella France, Chief, Preservation Research and Testing Division

Environment, Housing & Building Materials Testing to Protect our Collections

Thursday, April 30th, 11am – 12pm Register here

Challenges to preserving the national collection come from both inherent risks in the collections themselves and from materials in the immediate environment. The Library’s quality assurance program is focused on analyzing all materials that come into contact with collections or are part of the surrounding environment. The quality assurance (QA) program involves testing of materials used for housing, storage, and in conservation treatments, as well as evaluation, definition, and dissemination of standards for the use of these materials.

 This presentation will give specific examples of QA testing, new developments in quantification and identification of volatile organic compounds, fast and accurate test methodologies, examples of collection inherent material challenges, and assessment of off-gassing from potential building and housing materials to determine safety for special collections.

Presented by Dr. Eric Monroe, Supervisory Physical Scientist

Would You Like to Save Your Game?

Friday, May 1st, 11am – 12pm Register here

Libraries, archives and museums are facing an ever increasing amount of interactive media in their collections, including software applications, time based artworks and video games. These materials provide unique challenges in regards to acquisition, description and preservation, and many institutions are working to develop new approaches to ensuring the long term preservation of and access to born digital cultural artifacts. The Library’s National Audio-Visual Conservation Center (NAVCC) holds over 5,000 videogames amassed through copyright deposit and private donation. This collection contains not only a wide array of formats from 5.25” floppy disks to modern console cartridges, but also packaging, documentation, and adjacent materials such as magazines. The Preservation Reformatting Division and NAVCC work together to describe, reformat, and preserve these complex digital objects and preserve this important part of culture. This webinar will highlight different aspects of the preservation workflow.

Presented by Amanda May, Digital Conservation Specialist; David Gibson, Processing Technician; Laura Davis, Project Specialist

Click here for more information about the webinars.

Smartphone makers such as Xiaomi, Vivo and OnePlus plan to absorb the exchange rate impact as of now, with the industry fearing a slide in sales since prices are all set to go up due to increase in goods and services tax on smartphones to 18% from 12%. But they will factor the exchange rate in the pricing of future launches, the executives said.

LG Electronics India will donate products like water purifiers, air conditioners, refrigerators and TVs to the hospitals. Samsung India, on the other hand, will provide preventive kits to hospitals, which includes a surgeon gown, face mask, gloves, preventive eye wear, hood cap and shoe cover.

India’s manufacturing industry does rely heavily on imported components, including semiconductors, smartphone screens, LED screens, sensors and so on.

The company plans to make investments of around Rs 210 crore on infrastructure development of the facility over the next four years. This new manufacturing facility will cater to the domestic and international business for Compaq televisions, for which it holds licence for multiple countries and regions.

Prasad, speaking after a virtual meeting with state IT ministers, also said India needed to capitalise on a huge electronics manufacturing opportunity that has been thrown open, as companies look to move of China in the wake of the Covid-19 virus outbreak.

Both LG and Samsung have opened bookings for various products on their websites for limited periods and are offering gifts of up to Rs 10,000 on pre-bookings made during the lockdown period. LG has opened pre-bookings till May 15 and Samsung by May 8.

After 40 days of lockdown, certain business activities like opening of standalone stores and e-commerce delivery of non-essential items have been allowed in green and orange zones (locations with few or no COVID-19 cases).

Capital infusion to be supported by IDFC limited, ICICI Prudential Life, HDFC Life, Warburg Pincus and Bajaj Allianz

The motor and health segments led the decline in premiums for the industry as the month saw premium fall by 9 per cent.

Private banks put up a better show than other card financiers

The outstanding portfolio of private banks in the credit card space has increased by 59 per cent year-on-year while other issuers saw a 20 per cent growth in 2019 over 2018.

The lender had psoted a pre-tax loss of Rs 2,338.31 crore in the same quarter of previous financial year

The bank saw a healthy growth of 37 per cent in its operating profit at Rs 765 crore compared to Rs 560 crore a year ago.

The rise in currency in circulatiom is perplexing when economic activity has nosedived. Generally, CIC should rise in tandem with growth in economic activities, as people need cash to transact

During March-April 2020, PSBs sanctioned loans worth Rs 5.66 lakh cr for more than 41.81 lakh accounts

Besides SBI, other members of the consortium that has been cheated are Canara Bank, Union Bank of India, IDBI, Central Bank of India and Corporation Bank

State Bank of India, ICICI and some lenders are trying to resurrect the ‘bad bank’ plan.

The borrowers represented the micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs), retail, agriculture and corporate sectors, which was indicative of an economic revival, said finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s office in a tweet on Thursday.

On Monday, the front-month US WTI benchmark crashed into negative territory for the first time ever in history

Brokers urge exchange and Sebi to work out an amicable price, as over 11,000 lots of open interest in the April contract were standing and couldn't be carried forward or squared off yesterday

Move spurred by unprecedented decline in demand; WGC is also working with large institutions for a bullion exchange in India, and with assaying centres to build consumers' trust

Though WTI recovered, investment in alternative fuels like shale has become unviable.

MCX said that it had settled the contract according to the formula in the contract, which has been followed for the last 15 years

Report points to the possibility of grains being hoarded by farmers and traders to be sold at a later date when mandi operations and logistics normalise

RIL's 35.2 million tonnes a year SEZ refinery processed 2.51 million tonnes of crude oil into fuel in March, a drop of 24 per cent year-on-year

Demand continues to remain high, as harvesting and shipping issues hamper supplies

Farmers hold on to stocks due to great demand for high-quality Indian produce

Margin now fixed at 100%, with Rs 95,000 per lot as absolute minimum. So if crude falls below Rs 950, the margin will continue to be based on the price of Rs 950

Record high local prices, coupled with short-term pressure on household finances, could encourage people to sell gold

Physical sales were very limited due to the lockdown and sovereign gold bonds were one of the few avenues available to invest in the precios metal