Historic Scrapbooks in Libraries and Archives – the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Anybody who works in or with library and archival collections knows that historic scrapbooks are some of the most engaging and personal materials found in our collections. However, they are also one of the most challenging to care for and provide access to. This talk offers a brief history of scrapbooks, their structure and materials, as well as examples of what makes them so special. Jennifer Hain Teper then offers a series of case studies of how several challenging scrapbooks and photo albums from the Gwendolyn Brooks Papers were approached for conservation and digitization as part of a Save America’s Treasures Grant at the University of Illinois Libraries from 2020-2023. Jennifer Hain Teper serves as the Velde Professor and Preservation Librarian at the University of Illinois Libraries overseeing conservation, collections care, digital preservation and digitization services throughout the library system. Before her current position began in 2009, she served as the head of conservation at the University of Illinois libraries from 2001-2008. Jennifer graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in August of 2000 with a MLIS and Certificate of Advanced Study in the Conservation and Preservation of Library and Archival Materials. She teaches several preservation and conservation related courses in the Graduate School of Information Science at the University of Illinois and also serves as an instructor at the Center for Collections Care. Her current research interests focus on the prioritization of preservation actions in academic and research libraries relative to holdings in shared print repositories and DEIA efforts within conservation education. She is a Fellow of the American Institute for Conservation.