APA Library & Archives Receives Grant to Preserve Unique Collection

There are approximately 1,800 volumes in the APA Foundation’s (APAF) Melvin Sabshin, M.D. Library & Archives. The collection chronicles the history of the profession of psychiatry, the creation and advancement of APA, and the key figures that have shaped the field. To help preserve that history, the library has been awarded a $10,000 Preservation Assistance Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

“Our collection is incredibly valuable,” said Librarian and Archivist Deena Gorland, M.S.L.I.S. “This grant will allow us to understand what we need to do to preserve our volumes, which offer a unique window into the history of our understanding of mental illness over the centuries.”

The grant allowed APAF to hire a conservator, Bexx Caswell-Olson, M.S.L.I.S., to assess the condition of the library’s collection and make preseveration and conservation recommendations. Caswell-Olson is the director of book conservation at the Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover, Mass. She visited the library in late January and selected titles to evaluate with an emphasis on the library’s oldest and rarest volumes.

“I’m looking at a wide variety of elements, including the temperature, the humidity, the lighting conditions, and just generally the environment that the books are being stored and used in,” Caswell-Olson told Psychiatric News during her visit. “But I’m also taking a closer look at the collection as a whole to get a better sense of what condition the books are in and what the biggest needs are.”

Preservation Assistance Grants are awarded to small and midsize institutions to help improve their ability to preserve and care for their humanities collections, with the help of conservators like Caswell-Olson.

APAF’s collection boasts a wide variety of works, including 15th and 16th century volumes, which chronicle witchcraft, superstition, and demonology. It includes, for example, a copy of The Malleus Maleficarum, which is often translated as “The Hammer of Witches” and was originally published in Germany in 1486.

Altogether, the collection includes rare books, personal papers and manuscripts, audiovisual media, and oral histories that document both the history of the field of psychiatry as well as APA’s origins, development, activities, and achievements. The collection provides glimpses into the earliest mental illness treatments, as well as examples of advocacy, Gorland said.

Caswell-Olson is working on a report detailing her suggestions as to how APAF can ensure the library’s longevity. She called the library “a beautiful, well-designed space” and noted that some books could use some special attention. Not only do some of the oldest volumes need additional preservation work, but so too do the volumes that date back to the late Victorian era. “The quality of materials they used then was not particularly good,” Caswell-Olson explained. “The industrial era was all about trying to make things faster and cheaper, and those books tend to fall apart as they age.”

Gorland said her hope is that Caswell-Olson’s assessment will provide a roadmap that APAF can follow to protect and preserve the collection for generations to come. APAF’s Adopt-a-Book program for APA members was developed with that same goal in mind—to support the preservation of specific volumes while providing funds for the library to maintain and conserve its collection.

Caswell-Olson pointed to the frequently used adage “preservation is access.” Without preserving the volumes in collections like APAF’s, future generations will lose access to a wealth of knowledge and irreplaceable items.

“This library is part of this organization’s history and cultural heritage,” she said. “Preserving these works and making them available for continuing use, not just for the present but for the future as well, is hugely important.” ■