The Library of Virginia Newsletter

May 2020 Newsletter

Governor Appoints New Members to Library Board

The Library is pleased to announce that Governor Ralph Northam recently appointed three new members to the Library of Virginia Board. Laura Blevins, of Abingdon, a former director of outreach and special projects for the Mid-Atlantic Broadband Company, currently serves as regional director of the Office of Senator Tim Kaine in southwestern Virginia. Maya Castillo, of Falls Church, who was outreach librarian for many years at Pima County Public Library in Tucson, Arizona, is now the political director of New Virginia Majority. Leonard Tengco, of Vienna, who earned his law degree from Michigan State University, is litigation counsel for Shapiro & Brown, LLP. We are delighted to welcome them to the Library Board.

back to the newsletter

VIRTUAL VISITS
Weekly Live Videos Share Staff Favorites from the Collection

Join us on Tuesdays at 1:00 PM for a virtual visit! Get a peek at the Library's fascinating collections through five-minute Facebook Live videos. Each week a Library of Virginia staff member will share and discuss a favorite item from our archives. A post-event Q&A session will follow each video, with questions answered within the comments by a Library staff member. The videos remain available for viewing on the Library's Facebook page for those who miss the live events.

Recent videos have included Librarian of Virginia Sandra Treadway showcasing the last entry in the Virginia House of Burgesses journal, dated May 6, 1776, and senior manuscript, maps, and rare books librarian Audrey McElhinney sharing a beautifully illustrated 18th-century work from the Rare Book Collection entitled A Voyage to the Islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica.

back to the newsletter

The Library Can Help with Your At-Home Learning Needs

A new At-Home Learning web page from the Library's Education Department provides parents, caregivers, students, and lifelong learners with a comprehensive listing of online offerings. From primary source activities to documenting pandemics to online exhibitions, there is a range of resources for all age groups! With this site as a starting point, you can navigate through free, digital content from the Library.

Feeling creative? Download coloring pages inspired by items in the Library's collections. Need a family project? Begin your genealogy journey with helpful starter tips and beautiful family tree templates. If your household is looking for new discussion topics, explore the questions, documentary film recommendations, and reading lists on our Civic Conversations pages. You can even contribute to the Library's collections by helping to make historical materials more accessible through crowd-sourcing projects like Making History: Transcribe.

back to the newsletter

May Is Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month by exploring a wealth of new online resources on the history of Asian Pacific Islander Desi Americans (APIDAs) in Virginia. A research guide, two bibliographies, an education resources page, a series of blog posts, and even a virtual display of archival items are just a click away.

These new resources are located in the Guides and Indexes section of the Library's website under Using the Collections.

Look for related posts on the Library's blog, The UncommonWealth: Voices from the Library of Virginia, each Friday in May, as well as the first installment linked here. View a virtual snapshot of a display in the Library's Local History and Genealogy Room featuring Cambodian refugee Kuy So, South Korean immigrant Barbara Ann Hunt, and their unclaimed property records from the Department of the Treasury.

APIDA items in the archival collections include a South Vietnamese flag, records of indentures of Chinese and Indian boys bound as apprentices in 1860, World War II military naturalization records of Chinese immigrants, and a 1950 booklet printed in Chinese, English, and Tagalog.

Please join us in virtually celebrating Virginia's APIDA community!

back to the newsletter

NEW COLLECTING PROJECT
Signs of the Time: COVID-19 in Virginia

The Library of Virginia is collecting images of COVID-19-related signage from the public through a "Signs of the Time: COVID-19 in Virginia" Tumblr page.

In the midst of the current pandemic, many Virginia businesses are shutting their doors to slow the spread of COVID-19, while others remain open with reduced hours to provide essential services. It can be a challenge to convey information to the public in such quickly changing circumstances. Often created in haste, these impromptu paper signs are taped to doors and shop windows indicating where to collect or drop-off products, reminding people to practice social distancing, and communicating other safety best practices.

Community photos of these temporary signs will help future generations visualize how Virginians' public lives were impacted by COVID-19 with the halting of regular business and social interaction. The Library is not encouraging people to leave home in order to take photos, but rather to help us document signs you might see as you venture out for supplies or takeout food in your Virginia communities.

Photographs of storefronts and signs can be submitted via desktop or mobile device by clicking the "Submit" option in the menu on the Tumblr page. For more information, contact Dale Neighbors, the Library's visual studies collection coordinator, at dale.neighbors@lva.virginia.gov or 804.692.3711.

back to the newsletter

PROTECTING FAMILY & HEIRLOOMS
Safe-handling Tips for Books, Photographs, and Paper During the Pandemic

During this time of home confinement, many of you may have decided to launch into one of those time-consuming projects that you never had time to do before the pandemic. Maybe you are going through old family photos and memorabilia for the purpose of making a scrapbook, or doing a scanning project. Or maybe you just got back into reading some old favorite books from your collection. While we are all becoming pros at keeping ourselves and our families safe from COVID-19, there are some things to consider to protect your family heirlooms during this time as well. Here are a few tips:

  • A study conducted by the Library of Congress has shown that handling colored paper and cloth after using hand sanitizer containing alcohol will damage these materials. If you have been using hand sanitizer, be sure to wash it off before handling family papers, books bound in cloth or paper, and books with paper dust jackets. This study did not include photographs, but you should always wash your hands before handling photographs anyway.

  • Do not attempt to clean or sanitize such materials. If you are worried they have been handled by someone who may be sick, isolation is the best way to make them safe for handling again. Current guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tells us that porous objects like paper and cloth can only maintain active virus contamination for 24 hours. Because some book covers contain plastic coatings, we recommend that you adhere to CDC guidelines for isolating plastics, which is 72 hours.

  • Isolation does not mean that you need to put your materials outside on a porch or in a basement or garage. Just put them in a box or bag and set them aside somewhere inside a climate-controlled area of your house or apartment. The spring weather brings very wide fluctuations in temperature, which are not good for paper-based materials, especially older ones.

For additional guidance on your personal books, photographs, and digital files, please explore these helpful links.

back to the newsletter