Preservation & Conservation

This week I visited the preservation and conservation of the library’s collections. When people think about preservation, they usually imagine books, but the work here goes far beyond that. It includes a wide range of formats and materials, especially historical media related to the university. Because technologies and formats appear and disappear so quickly over time, preserving these materials has become much more complex than I had expected.

I also visited the Oak Street Library, which functions as a high-density preservation storage facility, as well as the conservation lab. Similar to what I observed during the visit to the University of Chicago, I was once again impressed by the scale and level of advancement in these preservation systems. Beyond simply collecting and operating libraries, I was deeply impressed by how much effort is put into maintaining collections and preserving institutional history in less visible ways.

The Oak Street Library is not just a storage facility. It is also involved in initiatives such as the Google Books project and the Shared Print Repository project with several major research libraries. Rather than simply storing books, these collaborations aim to manage collections more efficiently and improve accessibility across institutions. In Korea, there are similar efforts such as shared print journal services like FRIC and document delivery systems, but it was especially impressive to see this level of coordinated preservation work among large universities.

The concepts of preservation and conservation also reminded me of the HathiTrust initiative I learned about during my visit to the iSchool. Ultimately, all of these efforts share a common goal: preserving knowledge and improving access to it through different approaches. With the growth of data-driven research and text mining, preserved materials are no longer static records. Instead, they continue to “live” and generate new value through technological development.

Evidence Synthesis

Although I had previously heard about systematic literature reviews, I had not seen many institutions in Korea actively providing related services. When they do exist, they are often limited to medical libraries, which led me to think of it as a specialized area mainly for health sciences librarians.

However, here I learned that librarians are deeply involved in evidence synthesis processes as research partners across a wide range of disciplines. They participate in research question development, study quality assessment, search strategy design, and evidence evaluation. This work is no longer limited to medicine but has expanded into engineering, social sciences, and other fields.

I also gained a better understanding of how AI is influencing this area. Various tools and methods for systematic reviews are rapidly evolving alongside AI development. At the same time, I realized that no single tool—no matter how advanced—can fully replace the role of a trained librarian in conducting a rigorous systematic review.

As science and technology continue to evolve, it becomes necessary to learn and adapt to new tools. At the same time, this experience reinforced the importance of human expertise and professional judgment in research processes.

Springfield Trip

Following visits to Ohio and Chicago, this week’s field trip took us to Springfield, the capital of Illinois. It is strongly associated with Abraham Lincoln, who developed much of his political career there—truly a city shaped by Lincoln’s legacy.

This visit felt especially meaningful as it took place during the week of Juneteenth. I also had the opportunity to view the original signed copy of the 13th Amendment by Abraham Lincoln, which made the experience even more memorable.

In Springfield, we visited the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum as well as the Illinois State Library. Both institutions are deeply connected to Lincoln’s life and legacy. Unlike Korea, where the concept of a presidential library does not really exist, these institutions integrate research, archives, and museum functions into a single system. Apart from the Library of Congress, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library holds one of the largest Lincoln-related collections.

At the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, I learned about the “Papers of Abraham Lincoln” project, which continues to collect and digitize materials related to Lincoln. Recently, they have also been discovering Lincoln-related historical materials from other countries. Through documentary editing processes, I could see how history is continuously reinterpreted and brought to life through modern perspectives and technologies.

The Illinois State Library also reflects a structure that does not exist in the same way in Korea, but fits well within the federal system of the United States. In addition to preserving government documents, it supports more than 1,800 libraries across the state through various programs and services, including Talking Book services operated with the Library of Congress. Interestingly, Abraham Lincoln was recorded as the first official user of the Illinois State Library, which makes it even more fitting to call Springfield the city of Lincoln.

SILL Workshop

Earlier in the program, we attended a DISC leadership session, and this week we participated in a SILL leadership workshop focused on library leadership. The program materials are available on the Mortenson website, and the workshop itself is designed with various activities that could be adapted for small libraries to run their own leadership training programs.

We were introduced to a two-day structure that includes self-assessments and group activities. Due to time limitations, we were not able to complete the full program, but it still provided valuable insights into different leadership and communication styles.

TACTIC in Libraries

One of the central themes of this Mortenson program has been AI. While everyone recognizes the importance of AI, it is still difficult to find structured education on what AI actually is, how to use it properly, and how to apply it in real library services.

In Korea, professional training programs exist, but they often emphasize the importance of AI rather than building practical, hands-on competencies. In contrast, I was introduced to an online training program designed to help librarians become not just AI users, but AI creators and active participants in developing AI-related workflows in library settings.

I was able to explore two modules from the program. One of the tools introduced was OpenRefine. At my home institution, we currently use RefWorks for citation management, but OpenRefine seemed like a useful tool worth further exploration. It is web-based and free, which makes it highly accessible. I also thought it could be introduced to engineering students, although I would need to further check how well it supports Korean-language data.