The 1930 directory was the first of its kind to be published in New England, and it was born out of a call from the growing Chinese-American community to have a resource that would list Chinese restaurants, stores, and laundries found within individual New England towns. Also found within the pages of both the 1930 and 1931 directory are advertisements, the bulk of which are for Chinese-owned businesses, but there are also a fair amount for non-Chinese owned businesses. This emphasizes that these business owners acknowledged the importance of New England’s Chinese residents as a vital part of the community and economy. And here at the State Library, we appreciate that the directory also includes an image of the State House, and find it fitting that a copy of the directory ended up in the collection here. Read more about these directories in our previous blog post.
To ensure the long-term preservation of these directories – which are approaching their 100th birthday – we have displayed them open to different pages than they were three years ago. This decreases the amount of light damage to the directories, but it should also be noted that our Collection Spotlight case is designed to limit light and UV exposure, thus making it safe to display items. When these items are not on display, they are housed in dark storage in their own enclosures, to ensure that they do not get dusty. In addition to the directories, our display also includes a facsimile of two additional pages from
Preservation Week is an annual event, meant to raise awareness of the preservation work that happens in libraries and archives, as well as inspiring the public to think about the preservation of their own personal collections. The theme for Preservation Week 2025 is “Preserve the Past, Shape the Future,” a mission that we strive for at the State Library. Through our hands-on conservation program, our preservation management activities, and our commitment to digitization, we aim to do our part to preserve materials of the past, and make them accessible to researchers and the general public now and in the future. Since the last time that we displayed the Chinese directories, we are happy to share that they have been added to our digital repository. The directories in their entirety can be accessed here: 1930 and 1931. Links to the directories are also included as a QR code on the case label, so that visitors can access the full directory while viewing our display. There are multiple benefits of digitizing our collection; digitization helps to make our collection accessible to a larger remote audience, and from a preservation standpoint, also helps to maintain the integrity of the physical item because it decreases the use and handling of the physical item, thus also decreasing the likelihood of damage. Each year, we select materials from our Special Collections and Reference collection to either digitize on-site, or if it is a large-scale project, then we work with off-site vendors. We are continuously continuously increasing the amount of materials that are available in digital format.
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Elizabeth Roscio
Preservation Librarian
