Snohomish County Historic Preservation 2/6/2018

4.The 1914 and 1955 Sanborn Fire Insurance maps in the Northwest Room of the Everett Public Library are two of the most heavily-used resources in the library's local history collection. Both volumes are electronically available through the library's website. However, library patrons strongly prefer the physical records,which provide more subtle detail and informational value than the digital versions. The maps are frequently accessed by property owners,genealogists, local historians,students,and legal professionals.The maps provide information on individual homes, neighborhoods,and commercial and industrial properties.They are used to research family and house history,city building ordinances, historic preservation and land use questions.The maps' precise structural detail and scale make them an unparalleled resource for understanding how Everett's neighborhoods and industries developed,functioned,and changed during the 20th century. Previous preservation work on the maps enabled the library to provide access to the volumes as a unique public resource.To the best of our knowledge,these are the only hard copies of the maps that are publicly available in the region, and they are irreplaceable.After 10 years of heavy use the binding and encapsulation has begun to deteriorate. Local book binder Carolina Veenstra recently to re-bound and encapsulated other volumes in the Northwest Room map collection. Using special binding techniques and materials,Veenstra will repair the Sanborn maps for more durable encapsulation to provide a more permanent preservation solution. This project will fulfill an important collection management requirement by ensuring the further preservation of the maps—which are specific and unique to our community.The project will also address public education, facilitating the Northwest Room staff to instruct library users how to read historic maps and use this highly valuable primary source for a variety of research purposes. A. Lisa Labovitch holds a master degree in Library and Information Sciences with a certification in Special Collections Management.She has managed museum and archival collections for twelve years and has expertise in archival processing and preservation best practices. In 2013,she oversaw a comparable re-binding and encapsulation project of other local maps, performed by Caroline Veenstra. Having supervised Veenstra's previous work, Labovitch is confident in Veenstra's techniques.The binding and sewn encapsulation method Veenstra uses will provide the Sanborn maps a more durable preservation environment than the current heat-welded encapsulations. It is Mrs. Labovitch's professional opinion that continued public use of the Sanborn maps in their current state,without re-encapsulation,would lead to irreparable damage of these irreplaceable items. D. Everett Public Library has an active social media presence on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Northwest Room staff will promote the project through those channels.Additionally, a short article about the project will be including in a library newsletter,which is emailed to members every six weeks.The project director will also write about the maps—and their many uses—on the library's blog at www.areadinglife.com.The blog has a mirror site on the Everett Herald website,which reaches a wide and diverse audience throughout Snohomish County. E.The Everett Public Library received $500 from the Community Foundation of Snohomish County to be added to its donations and endowments budget.These funds were used for the restoration of the historic 1934 John T. Jacobsen mural depicting a satellite view of the Puget Sound region featuring vignettes of important events in Washington State's early history. $5,500 was granted to the Friends of the Everett Public Library by the Snohomish County Heritage Program;these funds were also used to help fund the Jacobsen mural project.The restoration was completed in August of 2017. 8.The expenses outlined above are based on a quote provided by Carolina Veenstra;this document is included in the application package. In short, Ms.Veenstra will be billing the Everett Public Library for her time and material. 5