education
Classes & Conferences
Classes & Conferences Offered by NEDCC: |
|
In addition to workshops presented at NEDCC’s headquarters in Andover, Mass., cultural organizations can request and sponsor a workshop at their facility. Costs for a workshop vary depending on the length, the amount of preparation time required, the type of workshop, and the travel costs. For more information about sponsoring a workshop, please contact the Preservation Services office at (978) 470-1010, ext. 220, Donia Conn, Workshop Program and Reference Coordinator.
Preservation Planning
This workshop begins by looking at basic definitions, the nature of specific materials, and agents of deterioration. Components of a preservation program are also introduced, including environmental control, disaster preparedness, security, storage and handling, reformatting, binding and repair, and conservation treatment. The importance of collections care, written policies, and staff and user education is emphasized. As a more advanced workshop, surveys and assessments can be incorporated into the discussion.
Basics of Vital Records Preservation
This workshop covers much of the same information as Preservation Planning (see above). However, its focus is on the preservation steps necessary to preserve the vital records and other materials in municipal collections. As preservation is mandated for many of these records, learn how to cost effectively improve storage conditions and begin a preservation program.
Holdings Maintenance
Holdings maintenance – simple procedures that can prolong the life of records – is essential to any archives preservation program. These collection-level actions, such as upgrading boxes and folders and removing metal fasteners, can be easily incorporated into daily tasks. This workshop examines ways to implement a successful holdings-maintenance program at minimal cost. Topics include collections care, storage and handling options, and selection for preservation.
Collections Care
This workshop looks at stacks maintenance in libraries. As in other classes, the nature of materials and agents of deterioration are discussed, and examples of enclosures are analyzed. Students learn how to identify at-risk collections and discuss the importance of creating written reading room policies and processing guidelines. Any aspect of collections care can be incorporated into this workshop, including staff and user education, facilities maintenance, and mold and pest control.
Environmental Monitoring
It is well known that the environment plays a key role in the preservation of collections. This workshop introduces participants to the different means of controlling indoor environments, how to monitor that environment, and how to develop strategies for improving the environment at their institution.
Mold
This workshop introduces the various types of mold and criteria and parameters for mold development, with a special emphasis on molds specific to indoor environments that house collections and artifacts. Topics also covered include HVAC systems and how they affect and control mold development, disaster preparedness, and practical control and prevention of mold blooms.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
This workshop is an introduction to IPM as a pest-control measure in cultural institutions. Participants examine the kinds of pests that might be found in their buildings and causes of infestation. The focus is on how to start an IPM program, as well as how to work with pest control firms to get results that will best benefit the collections.
Writing Successful Grant Proposals
Preparing and writing grants for preservation and digitization projects is a valuable skill. This workshop examines the major granting entities’ requirements and explores the elements of a grant proposal. Participants practice writing their own grant and consider how to develop proposals for state, local, and foundation funding sources. Participants also learn how to establish a grant program, identify potential funders, match projects with the appropriate funding agency, and prepare a proposal.
Fire Protection and Security
The goal of fire protection and security systems is to protect the building and its contents from damage and theft. This workshop covers fire detection, suppression, and prevention, as well as security systems and procedures. When a building is damaged by a fire, the fire chief “owns” that building. Learn how to work with emergency responders before disaster strikes.
Decision Making
This half-day workshop covers the importance of mission statements and collection development policies and how those policies guide your decisions on what to repair, what not to repair, and who should repair your collections. Participants engage in hands-on decision-making exercises examining real examples of books needing repair and writing draft policies to help better understand the theoretical information that is shared.
Working with a Conservator
This half-day workshop provides guidelines for contracting with a conservator to treat your rare, special or archival materials. The class covers what conservation is (and is not), correct terminology, finding a conservator, asking the right questions, and what to expect when you engage the services of a conservation professional.
Working with a Library Binder
This half-day workshop provides guidelines for contracting with a library binder. The class covers when a library binder’s services are needed, materials used in library binding, correct terminology, modern book structure and library bindings, quality control, and an overview of contracts and vendor relations. Best when combined with the Decision Making workshop.
Emergency Preparedness
This class covers the importance of planning for emergency situations by examining three of the four facets of emergency management: prevention, preparedness, and response. Disaster recovery, the fourth facet, is a second full-day workshop (see below). Elements of a disaster plan and ways to update current plans are discussed. Different levels of planning can be taught.
Disaster Planning with dPlan™ or dPlan Lite™
This workshop explores ways to identify and assess risks to your collections, ways to prevent some emergencies from occurring altogether, and how best to prepare for a disaster. The program also introduces dPlan™, a free online disaster-plan template that focuses specifically on collections. Students access this tool at individual workstations to begin generating their own institutional disaster plan.
Disaster Recovery
Disaster recovery focuses on the steps that should be taken following a response to a disaster and the rehabilitation of building and collections. Hands-on salvage of wet collections familiarizes participants with the various salvage techniques employed for different media. Case studies review lessons learned from small emergencies as well as large disasters. This workshop can be one or two days with emphasis on a wide range of library and archival materials.
Basic Paper Repair
This workshop is an introduction to the basic procedures of paper conservation and their place in a comprehensive preservation program. Students learn how to work with a conservator and come away with a greater understanding of the intricacies of paper conservation. The course covers the nature of paper and describes responsible solutions to common problems of unbound materials such as prints, drawings, maps, and documents. Participants are given hands-on experience handling, surface cleaning, mending, and flattening paper. Techniques to avoid are discussed, as well as when to call upon a professional conservator.
Basic and Intermediate Book Repair
Both basic and intermediate book repair are workshops that combine lecture and discussion with hands-on exercises. Students learn about the mechanics, composition, and deterioration of books, as well as how to manage a book repair program for a general library collection. The place of book repair within a larger preservation program is discussed, as well as selection and treatment decisions, materials, and how to set up in-house. These workshops are for the repair of general circulating collections, not for rare, special, or archival collections.
Protective Enclosures
This hands-on workshop is an introduction to the construction of simple enclosures for library and archival materials using chemically stable supplies. Constructions include pamphlet binders with pockets, wrappers, pizza boxes, and the book shoe. The workshop focuses on techniques that do not require expensive equipment and supplies.
Preparing Collection Materials for Exhibition
Exhibiting library and archival materials is a good way to increase awareness of collections. This workshop introduces safe methods of exhibiting books, manuscripts, and documents. The exhibit environment is covered as well as materials and techniques for mounting collections. Lecture and hand-on components give participants a broader understanding of the challenges inherent in mounting exhibitions.
Preservation of Oversize Paper Artifacts
This workshop is an introduction to the preservation of oversize works on paper and other supports commonly found in archival collections. Typical examples of such works are architectural plans, posters, and wall maps. Their history and production are discussed with a focus on the different ways they age. Strategies for safely handling and storing these works are presented and basic repair techniques that can be employed are demonstrated. Also addressed are repair techniques to avoid, when reformatting may be advisable, and when to call upon a professional conservator.
Identification and Care of Photographs
An introduction to the preservation of photographs, this workshop focuses on historical photographic prints, including their identification, deterioration, and conservation. Participants learn how to recognize various photographic formats and study the preservation problems associated with each format type. The class discusses storage concerns and encourages participants to bring examples of photographs for examination and discussion.
Preservation of Scrapbooks
Scrapbooks and albums present a range of preservation challenges, and finding solutions for their care can be difficult. This workshop addresses the structure of scrapbooks, types of materials commonly found in them, methods of attachment, and their implications for preservation and conservation. Selection and preparation for reformatting, as well as low-cost, in-house preservation approaches, are discussed. Participants are invited to bring in their own examples for examination and discussion by the class.
Preservation of Film and Electronic Media
Materials such as photographic negatives and transparencies, videotapes, and compact discs (CDs) are frequently found within paper-based collections. It is sometimes assumed that these non-paper-based collections (particularly modern electronic media such as magnetic tapes and/or CDs) are more stable than paper collections, when in fact this is not the case. This workshop focuses primarily on how film-based and electronic media deteriorate. The workshop explores how the interaction among the individual components of each format contributes to deterioration and how exposure to external agents of deterioration, such as the storage environment, further accelerates deterioration. Also covered are the selection of the appropriate storage medium and the creation of an appropriate storage environment.
Preserving Your Family Papers
In this workshop, participants learn about organizing important family items. Discussion will focus on the preservation of papers, photos, and other family treasures so future generations can appreciate your family's experiences, heritage, and history. Examples will be shown of the safe display, storage, and care of some of the most common items in family collections. Participants are encouraged to bring items for examination and discussion.
Preserving Wedding Memorabilia
Whether the wedding was last week, last year, or 50 years ago, this workshop covers how an individual can best preserve the precious memorabilia collected before, during, and after the wedding. Paper-based items will be the focus but the workshop also touches on safely storing textiles as well as video and optical media (CDs and DVDs).
Preservation Technologies
This workshop can be taught with different focuses. Primarily a look at reformatting technologies, this class examines preservation microfilming and digital conversion. Emphasis is on planning, selection, and, in the case of digital conversion, sustainability. Accepted standards and best practices are discussed, as well as when to work in-house versus contract with vendors.
Creating and Maintaining Digital Collections
This workshop explores the issues that cultural institutions face when planning digitization projects. What are the benefits and responsibilities of doing so? What new approaches to a collection are made possible through digitization? This day-long workshop walks participants through the questions they should ask when considering and planning digital projects and then outlines the basic guidelines for digitizing a collection.
Selection for Digitization
As demand for digitized collections increases and additional options for funding become available, it is essential that institutions select and prioritize digitization projects that will be sustainable and mission centered. This workshop examines selection from a variety of standpoints, including user needs, donor relations, preservation, copyright, funding, and more. Workshop participants come away with an understanding of how to weigh a variety of factors to develop a digitization plan that will serve programmatic goals and objectives.
Digitizing Vintage Photographs and Negatives
This workshop provides an introduction to the digital technology and vocabulary needed to reformat photographs and negatives. Participants learn the basics of digital technology, how to select digital equipment, and how to work with unique vintage materials. Also discussed are imaging challenges posed by various photographic processes, post processing, data management and file organization, data back-up and storage systems, and the basics of metadata for photographs.
Digital Directions: Fundamentals of Creating and Managing Digital Collections
This three-day conference is an updated version of NEDCC’s popular School for Scanning, which was first presented in 1995. The conference has kept up with evolving standards and practices over the years, and the new name reflects its expanded content, which now encompasses the full life-cycle of digital objects, from planning to creation to sustainability.
Stewardship of Digital Assets
A two-day workshop focusing on sustaining digital collections. Through a combination of lecture and interactive sessions you will learn from a faculty of four digital experts about the long-term needs of the digital assets that exist in your institution, and how to plan for their preservation. The workshop provides examples from model digital preservation plans and includes case studies from established digital preservation programs. Faculty members work directly with attendees to assist in developing their plans.
Preservation 101 is a comprehensive self-paced online course that focuses on the preservation of paper collections and related formats. Participants will learn about the basics of preservation in the context of small and moderately-sized library or archival collections – how to identify deteriorated materials, how to properly care for collections, and how to set priorities for preservation.
A primary goal of this course is to enable you to gather the information needed for a general preservation planning survey of your institution, and to that end, several tools have been devised to assist you in using this course effectively. Once on the Preservation 101 home page, be sure to click on “Before You Begin” for an introduction to the many facets of this program.
Development of this course was funded by an Institute of Museum and Library Services National Leadership Grant. In 2004 and 2005, a live version of this course (in workshop format) was taught in the Pacific Northwest by the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC), SOLINET, Amigos Library Services, and the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts. During the first half of 2006, NEDCC and their Web production and e-learning consultant, WGBH Educational Foundation in Boston, Massachusetts, produced this online version of the course.
The Northeast Document Conservation Center is proud to offer this unfacilitated course free of charge to both professionals caring for library and archival materials and individuals eager to preserve family collections.