education
TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES
WEBINARS
NEDCC offers live online webinars on a variety of preservation topics.
Preservation Management Webinars
Surveying Your Collection
This live online webinar will cover the issues to consider when beginning to survey collections with an eye toward preservation. The purpose and process of conducting a preservation survey will be discussed with a general overview of such specific topics as the environment, emergency preparedness, storage, and policies and procedures.
Collections Care
This webinar looks at overall collections maintenance in libraries, archives, and museums. A broad range of materials and agents of deterioration are discussed, as well as the proper storage and handling practices that should be in place to extend the life of collections. Participants learn how to identify and respond to at-risk collections.
Environmental Control and Monitoring
This live online webinar will cover climate control equipment; guidelines and best practices for temperature, relative humidity, light, and air quality; practical solutions to common problems; and the practice of monitoring the environment.
Storage and Handling of Collections Materials
This live online webinar will cover the best practices for storing and handling collection materials, including documents, books, oversize items, newspapers, photographs, and audiovisual materials. Interspersed throughout is information on safe handling of these materials. A discussion of storage furniture is also included.
Pest Management
This live online webinar will cover the best practices for protecting against pest infestation and what to do if a problem with pests is identified. The common types of pests found in libraries, archives, and museums will be discussed, along with their preferred environment.
Collections Security
This live, online webinar will cover security measures that will ensure the safety of collections and staff. Policies and practices with low- and no-cost solutions to security problems, and additional measures for special collections will be address.
Care and Handling of Books
This live, online webinar will cover the issues to consider in providing the best level of care for your book collections. The webinar will cover the nature of materials, agents of deterioration, safe handling and storage practices, and protective enclosures available for your more fragile items.
Care and Handling of Scrapbooks
This live, online webinar will cover the issues to consider in providing the best level of care for scrapbook collections. The webinar introduces the structure of scrapbooks, types of materials commonly found in them, methods of attachment, and the implications for preservation and conservation. Low-cost, in-house preservation approaches are discussed.
Care and Handling of Documents
This live, online webinar will cover the issues to consider in providing the best level of care for archival collections. The webinar introduces the structure and deterioration of paper, writing and printing inks, safe handling of fragile and brittle documents, and proper housing and storage.
Care and Handling of Oversize Paper Artifacts
This live, online webinar will cover 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, transporting, and storing these works are presented.
Care and Handling of Photographs
This live, online webinar provides an introduction to the preservation of photographs, focusing on photographic prints and including a discussion of identification, deterioration, and conservation treatment.
Care and Handling of Multimedia Collections
This live, online webinar will cover the preservation of non-paper-based materials commonly found in archival collections. Typical examples of such items are audio tapes, video tapes, motion picture film, and optical discs. The structure and deterioration of these materials and the proper preservation environments are discussed.
Fundamentals of Digitization Webinars
Introduction to Image Capture
This webinar provides an introduction to the terminology and equipment used to digitize your collections. Best practices for image creation and equipment selection will be covered, and project planning and metadata will be introduced.
Digital Project Planning
This webinar explores the issues that cultural institutions face when planning digitization projects. Participants will learn the basic steps necessary for the planning and successful completion of digitization projects.
Metadata
This webinar offers an introduction to key metadata concepts, with a focus on understanding the different metadata schema. By the end of the webinar, participants will understand the basic types of metadata and the importance of metadata in terms of access, interoperability, and longevity.
Digital Disaster Planning
Disaster plans are as important for digital collections as they are for analog collections. This webinar will introduce the elements of a disaster plan for digital collections and the issues to be considered when conducting a risk assessment.
Sustainable Digital Collections
This webinar offers an introduction on how to sustain the digital collections you have worked hard to create. Passive and active approaches will be covered as well as the overall concept of lifecycle management for digital collections.
Handling Collection Materials During Digitization
Digital reformatting improves access to your collections but shouldn’t endanger the physical condition of the originals. This webinar will introduce participants to safe handling techniques for the digitization of collection materials. Techniques include:
- Removing fasteners
- Handling fragile bound volumes
- Handling very brittle materials
- Handling photographs and negatives.
Appropriate digitization equipment will be discussed as will questions to ask vendors when forming a new working relationship.
Reformatting Scrapbooks
Scrapbooks require special planning for reformatting. This webinar will introduce participants to the unique issues that they need to consider when planning microfilming or digitization projects for scrapbooks.
Emergency Preparedness Webinars
Disaster Planning with dPlan™ or dPlan™ Lite
This webinar briefly introduces how to prepare for a disaster and how to prevent some emergencies from occurring. The program will then focus on how to write your disaster plan with dPlan™ Lite, a free online disaster-plan template that focuses specifically on cultural collections.
Mold Outbreaks and How to Cope with Them
This live, online webinar will cover 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. Practical methods to control and prevent mold blooms are discussed, as is responding to mold outbreaks.
Risk Assessment for Disaster Planning
The foundation of any good disaster plan is risk assessment. This webinar explores ways to identify internal and external hazards and assess the risks they pose. Natural, industrial, technological, building, and even human hazards will be examined for mitigation and planning purposes.
Preservation 101: Preservation Basics for Paper and Media Collections is an online, comprehensive introduction to the preservation of paper-based and media collections. Preservation 101 is available as an instructor-led, live online course once a year, as well as a free self-guided course available anytime. The course was developed with funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities.