Barbara Heller, director and conservator of special projects at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), shared the steps her institution took to better protect collections during the planning and hosting of special events. Featured Resources: Practical Conservation Guidelines for Successful Hospitality Events in Historic Houses, English Heritage (664 kb, pdf) Museum Handbook III: Other Uses […]
Archive | 2012 Webinar Archives
Hurricane Sandy Collections Recovery
In response to the ongoing recovery efforts associated with Hurricane Sandy, the Online Community hosted a webinar and live chat on Tuesday, November 20. This webinar brought together conservators with years of experience in the field of disaster recovery to provide the cultural community with critical information on salvaging damaged collections. Featured Resources: PowerPoint presentation […]
Museums for America Grants from IMLS: An Overview of the Program
Starting in 2013, the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ grant program Museums for America (MFA) will provide support for collections care projects that were once previously funded under the Conservation Project Support grant program. Connie Bodner, an IMLS supervisory grants management specialist, reviewed the new MFA grant guidelines and application process. Following her […]
Tour of the Canadian Conservation Institute’s Online Light Damage Calculator
On Wednesday, October 10 at 2:00 pm (Eastern), Stefan Michalski, a Senior Conservation Scientist with the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI), gave a tour of CCI’s Light Damage Calculator. The Calculator provides an estimate of the fading that might occur to the color of various objects when exposed to different amounts of light. The user may […]
Why do Old Books Smell and Other Adventures with Odors in Collections
Tara Kennedy, Preservation Field Services Librarian at Yale University Library, hosted a lively discussion focused on odors in collections. Lead by Kennedy, members of the Online Community explored the chemical properties of certain scents, gained a better understanding of what odors may signal deterioration, and discussed the safest methods to rid collections of odors. […]
Adopt-an-Object
A number of collecting institutions have used Adopt-an-Object campaigns to raise funds for artifact conservation. Adoption programs offer a unique opportunity for visitors to meaningfully contribute to conservation efforts and to gain a sense of ownership of their favorite objects and institutions. In this live chat event we discussed existing Adopt-an-Object models and explored the […]
Wireless Dataloggers
Wouldn’t it be nice to have temperature or relative humidity alarms texted to your phone, environmental data beamed back to your desktop, or information accessible from anywhere via the web? How else can you monitor inside a sealed vitrine? Wireless dataloggers make all this possible but, despite their appeal, they aren’t right for many applications […]
WebWise Reprise: Oral History in the Digital Age
Digital tools for oral history collecting, curating, and dissemination was a topic at the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ WebWise 2012 Conference. We were pleased to feature it again on a WebWise Reprise webinar. Recorded: Wednesday, June 28, 2012 Duration: Approximately 90 minutes Speakers: Dean Rehberger, Director of MATRIX: the Center for Humane Art, Letters, and […]
Sharing Public History Work: Crowdsourcing Data
Crowdsourcing was one of the topics at the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ 2012 WebWise Conference. Crowdsourcing is increasing public interest in collections, improving collections management workflows, and becoming easier thanks to several open source software programs. We were pleased to present on it again via a WebWise Reprise webinar. Recorded: Wednesday, June 14, 2012 Duration: Approximately 90 minutes Speakers: Sharon M. […]
Care of Plastics
More and more, the collections in our institutions are featuring elements of plastic. Varying and temperamental, this material requires special care and storage. Christine Frohnert, Conservator of Contemporary Art, Modern Materials and Media, and Odile Madden, Research Scientist, Museum Conservation Institute, Smithsonian Institution were featured speakers in the live chat webinar event “Care of Plastics”. […]
