Caring for America's Library
Keeper of the Collections, 1940-63
The next major advance in collections care and preservation came in June 1940 when Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish created the position of Keeper of the Collections.
At first the responsibilities of Alvin W. Kremer, the person appointed to this position, encompassed only "custodial care of the collections of the Reading Rooms."
In
1944, Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish, center, with David
C. Mearns (Reference Department), left, and Verner W. Clapp (Acquisitions
Department), right, examining Thomas Jefferson's rough draft of the
Declaration of Independence, which had just been returned to the Library
from safekeeping at Fort Knox
Gradually, over the next 17 years of his tenure, the custodial duties for all of the collections were centralized and brought under the administrative control of the Keeper's Office. This office also had administrative responsibility for the binding and repair activities staffed by GPO.12
Document restorers were engaged to preserve some of the Library's precious documents, while a new crew of workers was instructed in maintenance procedures such as cleaning books and stack areas. Stack inspections were undertaken to evaluate (and subsequently try to remedy) existing and potential fire hazards. Investigations of commercial binding methods were undertaken in cooperation with the GPO in order to upgrade binding specifications for the LC operation.
In addition, research programs into methods of document lamination were co-sponsored with other government agencies. The first significant effort at independent research into preservation of audiovisual materials was carried out in the 1950s when the Library commissioned a study into the preservation of sound recordings. This resulted in the 1959 publication Preservation and Storage of Sound Recordings.13
Notes:
12. Note, however (see below), that the Library did not gain full control over the methods and materials used in conservation until 1968.
13. A.G. Pickett and M.M. Lemcoe. Preservation and Storage of Sound Recordings. Washington, D.C.:Library of Congress, 1959.