"Staff will continue to serve as the first and best line of defense to ensure a viable and effective security environment that adheres to established security rules and regulations."
—Library of Congress Security Policy Statement, February 1997
With a theme of "Safeguarding the Collections: We Are the Key," the Library of Congress launched a staff collections security awareness poster campaign during National Library Week, April 15-21. The purpose of the campaign is to remind staff of their privilege and responsibility in safeguarding the Library's collections—the largest and most comprehensive in the world—for current and future generations.
Speaking about the role of staff in securing the Library's collections, Jeanne Drewes, chief of the Binding and Collections Care Division in the Library's Preservation Directorate, said, "We are the key in the way we handle materials carefully every day; in the way we protect materials every day through our security controls by tracking materials as they move through the system; in the way we are watchful of preventing damage by ensuring that book trucks do not tip over as they are moved into elevators; of protecting materials from the elements such as rain and dirt, as we move materials from one location to another; in the way we identify damaged pieces that need treatment or special handling."
The Collections Security Oversight Committee, chaired by Ken Lopez, director of the Library's Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness, is sponsoring the campaign with input from a subcommittee composed of representatives from each of the Library's service units. The hallmark of the campaign is a series of four posters (the first pictured below), with the themes of protecting, handling, storing and communicating about the collections.
For more information about collections care, go to www.loc.gov/preserv/careothr.html.
