NEH | Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

Award brings conservator to UNCW to survey unique library collections

On the ladder, in the stacks of the Gillen Collection

Randall Library won a grant award from the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) allowing Special Collections and University Archives to bring a preservation specialist to UNCW to assess these unique collections. The Preservation Assistance Grant (PAG) for Smaller Institutions paid for Matthew S. ("Matt") Johnson of Etherington Conservation Services (ECS) to spend March 17-21 in Special Collections and University Archives for the survey. Next Mr. Johnson will produce a written report of his findings and recommendations for improving collection care.

Mr. Johnson, Senior Rare Book Conservator at ECS in Browns Summit, NC, has been with the company since 1993. He is a 1991 graduate of UNC-Greensboro, where he earned a BFA degree in Design and Printmaking. He trained directly under renowned conservator Don Etherington. Mr. Johnson's responsibilities include staff training, project management, and advanced conservation.

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) logo

The NEH PAG for Smaller Institutions helps small and mid-sized institutions—such as libraries, museums, historical societies, archival repositories, cultural organizations, town and county records offices, and colleges and universities—improve their ability to preserve and care for their significant humanities collections. These may include special collections of books and journals, archives and manuscripts, prints and photographs, moving images, sound recordings, or architectural plans and maps. UNCW was awarded $6,000 in January 2014 to fund the preservation assessment.