Monday, April 18 10:00 AM "50 Shades of Beige" Materials Monday - ... and speaking of contents of vertical files. Among the clippings is an undated article about how to manage a bookmobile service and an undated manual about how to manage a bookmobile service probably written in the mid-to-late 1960s (I love the bookmobile logo); a flyer describing the features of the Blackriver Bookmobile Argosy Mark I (BCL bought one in 1983); a hand-out from the Public Library Section, South Carolina Library Association Workshop about Bookmobiles held on 31 May, 1973; and a County Council Proclamation that May 1983 would be honored as "Bookmobile Awareness Month" - probably because that is when the Argosy bookmobile got on the road.
The Proclamation will show up transcribed on the Connections blog entry for April 21, 2022.
Monday, April 18 3:00 PM "National Volunteer Week:" Meet Beloved BDC docent Laura. I don't know what I would do without her diligent and multi-faceted talents. She has worked very hard for several years on preparing the Wales Journal for digitization. The Susan Wales Journal, 1887 - 1895, is a charming daily record of her time abroad in Europe - which was undertaken on account of an unsuitable (to her father, anyway) suitor according to surviving family members. Most pages contain a small sketch or painting of people, places, things
she encountered that day. We expect this to be our ninth digital project with the Lowcountry Digital Library.
Tuesday, April 19 9:14 AM I think that these images show how much the personality of those in charge can affect a workplace. Former Director Julie Zachowski liked to dress up for children's programs at the Burton Head Start and Staff Costume Day and to give out silly awards at Staff Development Days as these undated images show. (I still have the "Golden Trowel" award that JZ gave me sometime between 2000 and 2007 for something that I was able to find that everyone else thought was lost forever.)
Tuesday, April 19 2:01 PM "National Volunteer Week:" Sometimes former Library colleagues volunteer to help out in the BDC. For example, Kathy Mitchell was in charge of Library financial operations until she retired in 2020. She's now the BDC's obituary indexer - a service that is greatly appreciated by myself and the BDC's customers, both in-person and remote. Work proceeds slowly - but consistently with Kathy now at the helm - with the hope of eventually getting to March 31, 2015 when our newspaper back files on microfilm run out. She told me just this morning that she's getting very close to finishing 1989.
The index is on the Library's website at
Wednesday, April 20 12:01 AM Reminder: All units of the Library are closed today for Staff Development. Regular hours resume Thursday, April 21, 2022.
Thursday, April 21 10:00 AM "National Volunteer Week:" Peggy Scott and Joe Noll are donating their time and talents to different parts of the William Behan Papers project.
The Behan Papers archival collection consists of 4 binders and 2 folders (approximately 1600 pages of material) pertaining to early South Carolina land grants for Granville County (1685) up to the antebellum period. (JSYK: The term "Beaufort District" doesn't come into usage until 1769). These are “land genealogies” of early properties and property owners and their families from the late 17th– early 19th centuries in Beaufort District, SC compiled over 15 years by Behan.
Joe retired from the County's GIS department. Peggy spent her career as a School librarian in several states before retiring with her husband to Dataw Island.
Thursday April 21 3:23 PM Check out the BDC's Connections blog - today - for yet another historical document cared for the BDC staff regarding the Library's long history of service to our community.
Friday, April 22 9:21 AM Pictured here are a few items related to the operation of the J. I. Washington Library from the BCL's own organizational records.
Be sure to set up an appointment to see these and other items in the Research Room: 843-255-6468 or bdc@bcgov.net.
Friday, April 22 4:00 PM Angelina finished inventorying the microfilm on April 13th. She gave me the current number of microfilm reels in the BDC: 1764. That is almost 23% more microfilm reels than when the BDC relocated to the 2nd floor in September 2010.
Saturday, April 23 9:14 AM I chose this particular set of photographs on account of it being "World Book Day" and "National Volunteer Week". Read to the end and you'll see the connection.
Back in the day, North of the Broad Library staff used to host potluck parties in honor of volunteers who donated their time and talents to Beaufort Branch, the BDC, Lobeco Branch and St. Helena Branch during National Volunteer Week or as close as we could make it happen.
If I remember correctly, the cross-branches extravaganzas ended in the early 2000s due to changes in the workplace environment. In all honesty, the parties did take preparation and practice to pull off each year but my! we did have fun and the volunteers seemed to look forward to the occasion.
In honor of "National Volunteer Week" I selected a few images from the 1999 Volunteer Appreciation Day from our own BCL archive - which coincidentally was the first one in which I was a participant.
The third photograph shows the spread that we had. Unfortunately the only person I recognize is Mrs. Mary Polk Logan who volunteered for the BDC. She is the woman in the tropical magenta, purple, turquoise, and black shirt. Before she was a BDC volunteer, Mrs. Logan was the Beaufort County School District Media coordinator. [Looking more closely I also see my daughter Kate, dark brunette hair in a pony tail with the yellow cup near the painting and Mrs. Lucille Hasell Culp, in a beige suit with a black blouse. She later gave the Library our largest archival collection.] 
Photograph 4: Wendy Allen and her husband William examine the books donated to the library in honor of each volunteer. I remember that Wendy took great care to pick a children's book on a topic of interest that suited each individual volunteer. Book plates were printed and a list provided - and I think that I have both the program and the list in one of the many vertical files that relate to the BCL's own history and activities. [Wendy Allen was the Library's Youth Services Coordinator until her final illness. She died in 2012.]There are 15 color photographic prints in all related to this particular Volunteer Appreciation Day in Box 10.
Sunday, April 24 10:00 AM It's Preservation Week, another topic near and dear to my heart as the steward of the materials in the Beaufort District Collection. Visit Connections today for an situation report re: BDC stewardship in 2022.
Monday, April 25 9:45 AM "50 Shades of Beige": The BDCBCL blog is itself colored in tones of beige - and it contains a Finding Aid to the Beaufort County Library's own archive - which by the way was the first Finding Aid I posted to the BDCBCL: LINKS, LISTS, AND FINDING AIDS blog during National Library Week in 2018. The BCL Finding Aid guided me to many of the beige boxes and beige and not-so-beige items that you've seen here on FB this month.
Check out the Beaufort County Library Records Finding Aid and the other 16 Finding Aids at your leisure. Use them to provide a foundation for a future Research Room appointment.
Monday, April 25 3:00 PM PSA: The State Library is offering a free Zoom program that includes Dr. Eric Crawford, author of Gullah Spirituals (BTW: book available at all our locations) the evening of May 5, 2022. More details.
Tuesday, April 26 4:00 PM "Preservation Week:" Photographs tend to fade over time as have these color images most likely taken in 1974 show. I believe these came from a Beaufort Branch Summer Reading Program Puppet show held in the Arsenal courtyard. They are stored in Box 10 behind the "Miscellaneous Photographs - many are undated or unidentified" tab.
The most practical advice I can share about storing photographs at home is to avoid storing them in attics or basements or in close proximity to vents, fireplaces and radiators or along exterior walls or in other locations with high risk for condensation, water leaks, and extreme environmental fluctuations. Also watch for how the sun might hit framed photographs and do not leave the same photograph on display all the time for multiple years at a time.
At my own home, I noticed a few weeks ago that some of the framed photographs that I have on my half wall between our family room and the kitchen catch the late afternoon sun for about 30 - 45 minutes each day - at least given the sun's position right now.
So as a practical preservation measure, I re-arrange the display every couple of days so that it's not always that same photo that gets struck by the sun's rays coming in through that particular window at the present time.
Wednesday, April 27 10:00 AM Another "Black History Note" about the J.I. Washington Library: The Beaufort Gazette published the program for the dedication ceremony renaming the library used by African Americans as the J.I. Washington in its October 27, 1938 issue. Washington had died in January of that year. He had been a staunch and persistent advocate for the establishment of a library facility and staff for African Americans in Beaufort. There's much more about his life in Connections, the BDC's longest running blog.
Wednesday, April 27 3:00 PM All plastics are not created equal - and some are downright dangerous - for protecting your photographs. A vendor prepared this flyer about the chemically inert plastics one should use with photographic materials several years ago.
The BDC uses all three types listed on the chart - depending on the format of the item and my projection of how much a particular item might get used and what that use might be.
For example, the size of a material matters. Most of the BDC's maps are in Polyester enclosures for support. The intended use of a material matters. Most of the Culp portrait gallery photographs are in polyethylene enclosures because there's seldom any information on the back of the images and a lot of the photographic prints are smaller than 4 x 6". The BDC sometimes uses polypropylene enclosures for the smaller sized posters to provide some support and save money. All three preservation plastics will protect precious materials for a very long time in controlled environmental conditions such as are found inside the Research Room.
(Acid-free, lignin-free paper enclosures need to be replaced on a periodic basis as they absorb the pollutants in the environment over time. If I had an assistant, part of his/her job would be testing the paper enclosures of the vertical files for acid absorption and replacing any bad folders with good ones.)
Thursday, April 28 10:00 AM Preservation Week also includes preparing for natural and man-made disasters.
The threat of Hurricane Floyd in 1999 caused all sorts of havoc - including some at the Library. I found a section labeled "Hurricane Floyd Evacuation, 1999" in Box 10. Thank goodness, Hurricane Floyd caused little damage in downtown Beaufort.
That's me pulling down the plastic over one bookcase in the old SC Room, 1st floor, 311 Scott Street in what is now the Beaufort Branch Meeting Room. Dennis Adams is shown removing the Beaufort watercolor painting from behind the Beaufort Branch Reference desk area in 1999 that has become a combined Reference and Circulation area now. The painting still hangs in the same spot. In fact you can see it in the post I made on April 7th.
There are 8 other images relating to the preparation for evacuation. Pictured in those photographs are former Library staff Hillary Barnwell, Dennis Adams, Scott Strawn, and Beloved BDC docent Sherry Puccini.
If I remember correctly, it took 40 hours of labor to get the BDC area back into working order after the evacuation.
Thursday, April 28 3:00 PM PSA: The Reconstruction bloc is co-sponsoring an in-person (or Zoom-in) program on May 4, 2022 about the Freedman's Bank. Presenter is NPS Ranger Chris Barr. [From the image not shown here: "Contact info@gullahgeecheecorridor.org for Zoom info".)
Friday, April 29 10:00 AM Meet Benjamin Bookworm, Beaufort County Library's entry in the 1974 Water Festival Novelty Boat Race. The verso has this stamped as an official US Marine Crops photograph taken by Photographer Berryman on 17 July[19]74 #1738.
It also has a note: "Ret.to SL" - which obviously was not done because I found it in Box 10 behind the "Miscellaneous Photographs - Many are undated or unidentified" tab.
There is no indication of who the Marines rowing Benjamin Bookworm along the Beaufort River are.
Since this is Preservation Week, I'd like to point out that writing on the verso of photographs in magic marker and ink pen is no longer an accepted practice. In person one can see the faint ghosting of both on the photo image.
Friday, April 29 3:00 PM A shout out to Bluffton Branch's Reference Librarian Debra Henderson for the lovely arrangement and visual marketing of the Local History section at her duty assignment. I got to see her work during the most recent Staff Development Day.
Saturday, April 30 10:00 AM I am going to end the BDC's celebration of the Beaufort County Library and its predecessors with the link to the "Library History" page. It is a long and rather distinguished history in support of the people who make Beaufort County home.
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