The election of Fellows is based on a peer review process that considers professional contribution to training, publication, and other communications of the methods, materials, and philosophy of conservation. In conjunction with the 36th Annual meeting of the Southern Conference for Slavic Studies Nadia Zilper, Academic Affairs Library Bibliographer for Slavic and East European resources, mounted the exhibit Russian Irregular Periodicals. Although publication intervals are usually stated, an irregular periodical may not conform to that schedule. Irregular periodicals are a collection development nightmare. In Russia they are often produced by inexperienced publishers who do not have sufficient investment capital to sustain the expense of regular printing schedules.
Publications cease and frequently resume at a later date when money again becomes available.
Collecting Russian irregular periodicals is made even more difficult by the common practice of renaming the periodical when printing resumes. This type of publication is virtually impossible to collect without having a dealer with a close relationship to the publishers. Subject areas in the exhibit include Archival Science, Art History, History, Linguistics, Literary, Local and Regional History, Social Sciences, Studies of Russian Culture, and Theological Studies. Currently, Davis Library holds almost four hundred Russian irregular periodicals titles. There are many advantages to purchasing this newspaper database rather than collecting the physical pieces.