Janice Merrill-Oldham

Janice Elaine Merrill-Oldham (May 10, 1947 – October 5, 2011) was an American librarian and conservator who was a preeminent figure in the field of library binding and conservation.[1][2] She served as Malloy-Rabinowitz Preservation Librarian and director of the Weissman Preservation Center at the Harvard Library from 1995 to 2010. She founded and led the University of Connecticut Libraries' Preservation Department from 1983 to 1995.[3]

Janice Merrill-Oldham
Born(1947-05-10)May 10, 1947
Milford, Connecticut, US
DiedOctober 5, 2010(2010-10-05) (aged 63)
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Alma materUniversity of Rhode Island (MLS)
University of Connecticut (BA)
OccupationLibrarian, conservator
Years active1975–2010

Early life and education

Merrill-Oldham was born Janice "Jan" Merrill in Milford, Connecticut, on May 10, 1947. Her parents were Alice Cecarelli Merrill and James Hersey Merrill. She had one sibling, James Wallace Merrill. She was raised in Milford and spent summers with her grandparents in East Sumner, Maine. She graduated from Jonathan Law High School in 1965 and earned her Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Connecticut in 1969.[2][3]

She began her career as a student employee in the Homer D. Babbidge Library. While employed in the Library's binding department, Merrill-Oldham received a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship at the Yale University Library, where she received six months of formal training in library and archival conservation in 1979. She earned her Master of Library Science (MLS) from the University of Rhode Island in 1984.[1][2]

Leadership and awards

Merrill-Oldham served in leadership roles in the American Library Association's Preservation & Reformatting Section (PARS), the Association of Research Libraries, and other organizations. PARS established the Jan Merrill-Oldham Professional Development Grant in her honor in 2011. The award "supports professional development and involvement by librarians and paraprofessionals new to the preservation field."[4] She was an influential advocate for library conservation, building the Harvard Library's conservation operations until she oversaw one hundred staff and the new Weissman Preservation Center. She was interviewed in-depth by the New York Times in 1986.[5]

Merrill-Oldham authored over forty publications. With Paul A. Parisi, she wrote the eighth Library Binding Institute Standard for Library Binding in 1986. It later became the ANSI/NISO/LBI Z39.78-2000 national information standard. She also coauthored the Guide to the Library Binding Institute Standard for Library Binding (Chicago: American Library Association, 1990).[6][7]

She received several professional awards. She received the Ross Atkinson Lifetime Achievement Award (2011), the Paul Banks and Carolyn Harris Preservation Award (1994), and the Esther J. Piercy Award (1990) from the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS), a division of the American Library Association. She received a University of Connecticut Distinguished Service Award (1994)[3] and a special commendation for leadership and service from the Association of Research Libraries (2003).[8]

Personal life

She married Peter Oldham in 1976. In 1978, they changed their surnames to Merrill-Oldham. She died of cancer at home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She had no issue.[2]

Peter Oldham served as sales and marketing director at Acme Bookbinding for over eighteen years.[7]

References
  1. Doyle, Beth (2011-10-07). "Remembering Jan Merrill-Oldham". Preservation Underground: Dispatches from the Duke University Libraries Preservation & Conservation Departments. Retrieved 2020-12-01.
  2. "Merrill-Oldham, Jan [Paid Death Notice]". New York Times. 2011-10-09. Retrieved 2020-11-30 – via ProQuest.
  3. "In Honor of Jan Merrill-Oldham: A Celebration of Life" (PDF). Archival Products News. 17 (1): 1–10. 2012.
  4. "Jan Merrill-Oldham Professional Development Grant". Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS). 2021. Retrieved 2020-12-01.
  5. Battista, Carolyn (1986-11-23). "Librarians Seek Ways to Safeguard Their Crumbling Books". The New York Times. Retrieved 2020-11-30.
  6. "Library Binding for Preservation | American Bookbinders Museum". American Bookbinders Museum. 2017-04-28. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
  7. Parisi, Paul (Fall 2011). "A Friend Remembers". ShelfLife. 6 (3): 1–3 – via EBSCOhost.
  8. Association of Research Libraries (February 2003). "Jan Merrill-Oldham Honored by ARL". ARL: A Bimonthly Report, no. 266. Archived from the original on 2013-01-25.
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