5. Preservation Profiles


such as the Society of Southwest Archivists, the Texas Association of Museums, the Archivists of the
Metroplex (Dallas/Ft. Worth) and the Alliance for Higher Education of North Texas.

In addition, there is an informal network of preservation information and formal education resources
which includes the University of Texas at Austin General Libraries Preservation Department, the
Preservation and Conservation Studies Program now at the University of Texas-Austin, the Harry
Ransom Humanities Research Center at UT-Austin, and the University of North Texas.

The preservation program at Evans Library, Texas A&M University, was formally established in 1981.
Currently 13.0 FTE staff are involved in the library-wide preservation program including staff in
Binding, Preservation, and The Cushing Library which contains special collections, manuscripts and
archives. The staff of the Cushing Library carry out both collection level and item level treatments, such
as the re-housing and storage of the Krueger collection of paintings and the protective enclosure of
special collection items. Minor repairs through full-scale conservation binding are also performed. Total
preservation expenditures for the current year are $352,476, which includes salaries of preservation staff,
preservation supplies, and the binding and rebinding of 22,401 volumes by Heckman Binding in Indiana.

A major renovation of Evans Library is under construction over the next few years and will result in new
facilities for preservation and conservation activities.

Texas A&M USAIN Project Staff

Texas's participation in the phase 2 project will be co-managed by Dr. Rob McGeachin, Assistant
Professor and Agriculture Reference Librarian, and Ms. Suzanne Gyeszly, Professor and Social Sciences
Collection Development Librarian and Preservation Librarian. Dr. McGeachin was responsible for the
phase 1 project to identify the universe of materials and select the most important for preservation. He
was assisted in the development and preparation of the bibliography by Ms. Sharon Sandall, a visiting
Reference Librarian at the West Campus Library. Upon completion, the bibliography was referred to a
scholarly review panel to rank the titles according to their importance as research resources for
humanities studies.

Ms. Gyeszly will be responsible for the preservation phase of the project. She will oversee the work of
the microfilming agency, including verifying compliance with standards and guidelines. Cataloging and
technical staff, the Senior Library Specialist for Preservation, and student assistants will help with project
tasks, including, but not limited to, conducting on-line searches, cataloging books and serials to be
microfilmed, pre-filming preparation (retrieving and preparing materials for filming and preparing the
targets), and checking the microfilm for quality and accuracy. Serving as a resource person and assisting
where needed will be Dr. Kathy Jackson, who coordinated an earlier southwest regional microfilming
project.

Texas A&M University secured three bids for the preservation microfilming of the Texas materials for
the History of Agriculture and Rural Life Project. Only one of the three companies, Southwest
Micropublishing, Inc., would be able to provide direct transportation for materials at a reasonable cost.
This was an important consideration, because some unique project materials could not be shipped via
commercial services. Southwest Micropublishing, Inc. has filming laboratories in Arlington and El Paso,
Texas and is the major producer of high quality microfilm in Texas. The company has experience with
other preservation projects, including the ongoing NEH-funded Newspaper Preservation Project for New
Mexico and Texas. Southwest's bid was the lowest when the cost of transportation was added to the two
other bids.