Margaret Chase Smith Library
Newsletter
A Newsletter for Friends of the Library
Vol. 39, No. 4
As we head into winter, the staff of the Margaret Chase Smith Library is working on many exciting events! National History Day in Maine planning is underway, we continue to update the facility with new storage materials, our annual fund drive is happening, and the twenty-eighth annual Margaret Chase Smith essay contest is now open. We hope everyone continues to be safe and healthy during this holiday season.
In this issue, you will learn about our recent library activities, educational opportunities, and various researchers and visitors. Each staff member has written what they have been doing over the last few months. Be sure to scroll all the way down and check out our up coming events section to see what’s on the horizon.
Directions
by David Richards
It has been a busy fall at the Library. You will read about many of the projects the staff has been working on in the updates to follow from my colleagues. One of the tasks occupying my time has been the annual fund drive. We are grateful to our donors. Their support gives life to many of our programs. The Margaret Chase Smith Foundation, which provides the funding for the Library, budgets up to $6000 per year to cover the cost of school field trips. Another $2000 funds prizes for the annual Margaret Chase Smith Essay Contest open to Maine high school seniors. Getting out the mailing for this competition has been another fall project. The topic for 2024 will be how to protect the safety and privacy of young people on the internet.
The Library is also fortunate to have had several named bequests established over the years to support specific programs. The Colonel Paul D. LaFond Fund set up by his family defrays the expenses of the Maine Town Meeting held each spring. The Leeke-Shaw Lecture on International Affairs held in the fall is named after two friends and supporters of Senator Smith, Ada E. Leeke and Captain Evelyn H. Shaw.
The Library recently hosted another Leeke-Shaw Lecture. It featured Prof. Daniel Sandweiss, who is an archaeologist at the University of Maine. He spoke about the long-term effects of climate change on the Andean region of South America, specifically in Peru. You can watch a video of his presentation on the Library’s YouTube channel by clicking here.
Recent annual fund drives seeded the establishment of the Merton G. and Harriet P. Henry Memorial Leadership Fund. It has been supplemented by a significant bequest from Capt. Georgia McKearly, Senator Smith’s dear friend and a founding director of the Margaret Chase Smith Foundation. The 2022 annual fund drive brought the promise of another bequest from an admirer of Senator Smith.
We are honored by all this generous support. It makes the Library’s work possible. If you would like to help carry on Margaret Chase Smith’s legacies of civic engagement, personal civility, and democratic service, at a time when these values have never been more sorely needed in our nation’s history, you can mail a donation to the Margaret Chase Smith Foundation at PO Box 4510, Portland, ME 04112-4510. I extend our thanks to those of you who have already made a contribution to the 2023 annual fund drive and wish everyone a happy holiday season. I hope to see you at the Library sometime in 2024!
Capt. Evelyn Shaw with Margaret Chase Smith and Mert Henry (1990).
Prof. Daniel Sandweiss presenting at the 2023 Leeke-Shaw Lecture.
Col. Paul LaFond at the 2006 Maine Town Meeting.
Communication Corner
By John Taylor
National History Day in Maine 2024
As we settle into the winter months planning for the upcoming National History Day in Maine season continues to roll on. Lots of changes are coming in 2024!
My colleague Nicole Rancourt from the Maine Humanities Council and I have visited multiple parts of the state looking to expand the program. Thanks to a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities we took a trip to the County, Machias, and Farmington. All meetings were productive, but one has shown some real promise. We met with educators, librarians, and museum directors in Presque Isle to discuss the possibility of establishing NHD in the area. I am pleased to announce that plans are underway to create a revolving program where University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI) preservice teachers will serve as ambassadors and mentors for NHD and help introduce it to educators and students throughout Aroostook County. We hope to begin training and implementation in the fall of 2024!
Furthermore, after five years working with Maine MILL in Lewiston, we made the difficult decision to move our southern regional contest to Portland. Our partnership with the Maine MILL has been fruitful, but we have outgrown the facility 's resources. With the help of our friends at the Osher Map Library and the History Department at the University of Southern Maine we are jazzed about our new collaboration with USM. A contest date has not been set, but I will be visiting campus this month to finalize the details. We look forward to this partnership and think it will not only benefit the University of Maine system, but also provide better opportunities for students and teachers alike.
Registration for all contests will open on January 3, 2024. A call for judges will be going out at that time. If interested please contact me at john.m.taylor@maine.edu. I will gladly put you on my mailing list. Remember, you do not have to be an expert. Librarians, historians, archivists, educators, and armchair historians are all welcome to participate. We will provide an orientation on contest day and supply you with the necessary tools for judging as the event approaches. As of this writing, the contest dates are as follows:
Southern Regional (Portland)-TBD
Northern Regional (Bangor)-March 30
State Contest (Orono)-April 27
National Contest (College Park, MD)-June 9-13
2024 Margaret Chase Smith Library Essay Contest
In other news, our annual essay contest has begun! This year we are asking Maine high school seniors to write about the impact of technology on privacy and safety.
In 1964, Senator Margaret Chase Smith discussed the “very profound changes that science and technology have brought upon our way of life.” She noted that the “probable future effects” of technology on civilization was “breathtaking” and “awesome,” but to some “downright fearful.” The Senator described these skeptics and their “moral faintheartedness” as apprehensive people concerned that new technology would cause our society to become “automated, mechanized and synthesized.” She further emphasized that she did not share in their pessimism that computers would dominate “the thinking of our society that we will become a ‘robotized’ society dominated by a mental laziness that not only lets the machines do, but ultimately dominate, our thinking.”
Sixty years later, Senator Smith could not fathom the role technology plays in our daily lives. Today teenagers use technology, more specifically the internet and social media, for a multitude of reasons. The benefits include creating relationships with people and developing personal identities through social networking and messaging, playing online games, and virtual learning. On the contrary, potential risks for adolescents consist of cyberbullying, trolling, isolation, and access to inappropriate material or relationships. In a recent article the American Psychological Association quoted Mary Alvord, PhD saying “Just as we decide when kids are old enough to drive, and we teach them to be good drivers, we can establish guidelines and teach children to use social media safely.” The Margaret Chase Smith Library invites students to recommend what guidelines we as a society should establish for teenagers concerning their use of technology to ensure their personal safety and privacy.
For more information and contest guidelines you can click here. Please pass this along to any high school seniors you may know. Essays are due April 2, 2024. First prize is $1,000!
Maine Archives and Museums Annual Conference
I have proudly served on the board for Maine Archives and Museums for nearly four years. The organization’s annual conference took place in October in Presque Isle. As chair of the Board’s Technology Committee, a few colleagues and I were tasked with maintaining a hybrid option for conference attendees. It was a bit of a challenge but was a success in the end. I enjoyed many talks ranging from volunteer recruitment to emergency planning, and an amazing keynote address from Dr. Paul Buck on the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 which established the boundary between British North America and the United States. I have already begun adapting what I learned into best practices for the Library.
United State Senate Youth Leadership Program
Finally, every year we have the privilege to host ten of the brightest high school juniors and seniors in the state for the United States Senate Youth Leadership Program. This year was no different. Director David Richards along with representatives from both Senator King and Senator Collins’ offices served as judges interviewing the students and assessing their impromptu speeches to determine which two will receive $10,000 scholarships and an all expense paid trip to Washington, DC to see how the government works. Personally, it’s one of my favorite days. I wrote this year’s speech prompt asking students to create a fictional political party and its platform. I also spent time giving a small lecture on the effect of third parties in presidential elections and educating them about the life and career of Margaret Chase Smith. Already looking forward to hosting once again in 2024!
Nicole Rancourt and John Taylor visiting with educational leaders in Presque Isle to begin NHD planning.
This year’s finalist for the United States Senate Youth Leadership Program.
John Taylor working hard at the annual Maine Archives and Museum’s annual conference.
learning Lounge
by Kim Nelson
For the fifth year, my colleagues honored my request that we combine our money to purchase books for the annual Skowhegan Public LIbrary Fall book drive. We were able to purchase 5 books. When picking out the books, I am mindful of Senator Smith and try to pick books that might have some meaning or connection to her or to Maine. I highly recommend you to check out your local library and see if there is an item missing from their collection that they might want.
This year the staff was once again unable to participate in the local trunk or treat event. We were able to donate candy for the event. Community involvement was important to Senator Smith and something I take seriously when having the library participate in events. Not only are we representing her and her library but we are helping our fellow community members which brings me a source of gratitude.
I have been steadily cataloging photographs and am excited to see the end in sight. Once this first go through is complete, a more hands on portion will begin. This will be physically looking at each photograph to measure its size, check on its condition, and note any further information that can be put in the catalog to make the record as complete as possible. Having as complete a record as possible is my goal as a librarian. One of the things I love about being a librarian is working in the details in a catalog knowing I am assisting patrons as well as assuring the information is preserved for future reference.
This year’s book donation to the Skowhegan Free Public Library.
Library staff participating in the Skowhegan trunk or treat event in 2021. We hope to take part in the event once again in 2024!
Organized by the Skowhegan Bankery staff, we were happy to be one of the sponsors for this year’s trunk or treat.
Research Roundup
by Nicole Potter
Attending the NEMA Annual Conference
In November I had the opportunity to attend a portion of the New England Museum Association (NEMA) annual conference held in Portland, ME. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet with colleagues from across the region and the programming was excellent. I sat in on sessions about exhibition development, digital preservation, and creating accessible collections. Additionally, I was able to attend Cheyney McKnight’s keynote address, A Post-Mortem on Museums and the Summer of 2020. This address was a highlight of my time at the NEMA conference, I certainly came away from it with a lot to consider. I look forward to attending more NEMA events in the future and growing my connections with cultural heritage institutions throughout New England.
Updating Collection Storage
The Margaret Chase Smith Library houses over 4,000 unique objects, the majority of which are stored in the Library’s basement collection storage room. These objects can be broken down into the three categories - three dimensional objects in a range of sizes, textiles, and framed artwork/photographs/works on paper - although there are some outliers. After long consideration how best to ensure the preservation of and access to these objects, the Library staff have decided to update the Library’s collection storage.
The goals of updating the Library’s collection storage are to eliminate storage conditions that contribute to the deterioration of objects, to make objects in storage more accessible to Library staff, and to maximize the space available in the basement storage room. With this in mind several new pieces of collection storage furniture were purchased - two new clothing racks, an additional chrome plated steel cart, and two units of compact storage comprised of chrome plated steel shelving. Compact shelving, also known as high-density storage systems, are useful for collection storage areas with space limitations.
Before the new collection storage furniture can be assembled, objects had to be moved into temporary storage elsewhere in the Library’s basement. This temporary move has allowed for an opportunity to inventory and conduct a condition survey of the collection. At the time of this newsletter we have almost completed moving all the objects into temporary storage and both the inventory and condition survey are in process.
Our next step will be to remove the old storage furniture from the room. This is done to create room for assembly of new collection storage furniture, in particular the Library’s recently purchased compact shelving units. The Library chose compact shelving units with five ranges of shelving that slide along a floor track. They are comprised of open chrome-plated steel shelves, which are durable, provide good air circulation, and are most suited to objects housed in archival grade boxes. These shelving ranges compact together and can be moved apart for the retrieval of objects then moved back together again. Each shelving range can support up to 2,000 pounds and the shelves are all adjustable to suit the Library’s collection storage needs.
Once the compact shelving is assembled, objects will be moved out of temporary storage and into new permanent storage on its shelves. The other collection furniture, clothing racks and carts, will also be filled and placed back into the basement collections storage room. This is a very exciting project for the Library to be undertaking and one I look forward to updating you all on in 2024!
Storage space is getting harder to come by as more and more of the collection is moved to make way for assembly of the new shelving units.
Nicole Potter stands with the final black metal cabinet to be taken out of the storage area.
Shelving that will soon be replaced.
Upcoming events
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