Category Archives: Conservation & Collections Care

Digital Archiving

The Library of Congress has produced some good basic videos on preservation
on “Why Digital Preservation is Important For You” –

“Our personal photos, papers, music, and videos are important to us. They record the details of our lives and help define us. But increasingly,  our possessions and our communications are no longer material – they are digital and dependent on technology to make them accessible. This Library of Congress video (7:44) offers simple and practical strategies for personal  digital preservation….”

See the websites below-

http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/videos/digipres/index.html

http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/you/

Also of interest if you don’t know about it already is the  Internet Archive
www.archive.org and the Wayback Machine -  The archives of the
snocoheritage.org website since 2003 are here :
http://web.archive.org/web/*/https://snocoheritage.org

Karen Prasse
info AT www.snocoheritage.org
www.snocoheritage.org

Local history museums are like Icebergs

Our Historical Society Museums and Genealogical societies are our communities scrapbooks and antique collections – most of what is there is being preserved and in storage waiting for the appropriate exhibit or program to be featured. And managing all of this is complicated.

Congratulations to the Monroe Historical Society for winning the grant for a Museum assessment program. Running a local history museum is hard work. There are many rewards but the obligations can be overwhelming for volunteers and most of our small museums and genealogical groups are totally operated by unpaid history lovers who want to research and share. But there are difficult questions about what to keep for collections and what to say no to, finding volunteers to help keep our collections open, planning the next fresh new exhibit and the endless inventorying and cataloging, not to mention digitizing, publicity, programming…. Sometimes its just nice to get some outside input to help us focus on the big picture as well as the fun of the history. The Monroe museum has a great wealth of historic materials and newly written history on their website to build on for a new museum. Best of luck to them! http://monroehistoricalsociety.org/

The applications for next year’s round are on Association of American Museums Museum Assessment Program – FY 2010 Deadline: February 16, 2010

For conservation assessment grants see –

http://www.heritagepreservation.org/CAP/

Other grants –

National Endowment for the Humanities List of Grant programs

IMLS American Heritage Preservation Program

Karen Prasse
kprasse@yahoo.com
Stanwood Area Historical Society Volunteer www.sahs-fncc.org
& President, League of Snohomish County Heritage Organizations
www.snocoheritage.org