March 23, 2017 “Expanding the Cultural Emergency Preparedness Community” Lecture, April 25
Press Contact: Donna Urschel (202) 707-1639
Public Contact: Mary Oey (202) 707-8345
Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov
The Library of Congress will celebrate Preservation Week by hosting a lecture, “Open Arms: Expanding the Cultural Emergency Preparedness Community,” on April 25.
Tom Clareson, a senior consultant for Digital and Preservation Services at LYRASIS, will present the lecture at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, April 25, in the Mary Pickford Theater on the third floor of the Library’s James Madison Memorial Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C. The lecture is free and open to the public, and tickets are not needed. The event will be webcast live to all who pre-register at loc.gov/preservation/outreach/tops/clareson/index.html.
According to Clareson, new projects in the cultural-heritage and performing-arts communities are prompting a variety of organizations to look at collaborative emergency preparedness in a wider perspective. He will present details on a variety of new initiatives aimed at broadening cooperation in disaster planning and recovery.
LYRASIS, a non-profit membership organization established in 2009, partners with member libraries, archives, museums and other cultural heritage organizations to create, access and manage information with an emphasis on digital content. The organization collaborates with members to enrich, expand, acquire, digitize, host, support, manage and share their important, and often unique, collections.
At LYRASIS, Clareson consults and teaches workshops on preservation, disaster preparedness, digitization, digital preservation, special collections/archives, remote storage, funding, strategic planning and advocacy.
Clareson received the 2014 George Cunha and Susan Swartzburg Award from the American Library association, recognizing the recipient’s career work in cooperative preservation. Lead consultant on 17 IMLS “Connecting to Collections” statewide preservation planning grants, he also led six implementation projects.
Previously program director for new initiatives at PALINET and global product manager at the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), Clareson also held program-management positions at Amigos Library Services. He was acting president of Heritage Preservation in 2015, after serving on the organization’s board for 15 years. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works.
Clareson has taught graduate-level preservation courses for the University of Texas at Austin, the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Preservation Week—a nationwide initiative supported by the Library of Congress, the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services of the ALA, the American Institute for Conservation, the Society of American Archivists—encourages libraries and other collection institutions to connect to our local communities and inspire action to preserve our collective heritage.
The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States—and extensive materials from around the world—both on site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov, access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov, and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov.
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PR 17-033
2017-03-24
ISSN 0731-3527