Connecting to Collections: A Call to Action

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) created Connecting to Collections: A Call to Action: a multi-year, multi-faceted national initiative to raise public awareness and inspire action. The initiative is grounded in the results of the Heritage Preservation publication: A Public Trust at Risk: The Heritage Health Index Report on the State of America's Collections. You can read more about the study here www.heritagepreservation.org/HHI.

Connecting to Collections: Raising the Bar
Workshops for Libraries, Archives and Museums

Heritage Preservation will conduct in 2010 a series of workshops that will extend and enhance the knowledge gained in the Institute of Museum and Library Services initiative, Connecting to Collections: A Call to Action. Libraries and museums nationwide have, as a result of the initiative, gained information and inspiration for the care of their collections. Now they are facing challenges as they seek to integrate these ideas into their institutions during an economic downturn. These workshops will provide tools for building capacity, reaching the public and developing resources in order to save collections.

Conservation and the stories behind it can be effective tools to gain new audiences, build community support, and develop resources that will sustain collections for future generations. These workshops will enlist a team of experienced presenters who will both describe successful projects and work with participants to help them develop strategies of their own. Three panels will explore “traditional” and “new” media, resource development, and public education and outreach. Participants will be challenged to return to their institutions and implement what they have learned. The program is in development, please check back here for updates.

Two workshops will be conducted on-site for regional participants. The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture in Baltimore, Maryland, will be the site of the first workshop on May 18, 2010. The second workshop, on June 16 and 17, 2010, will be held at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa. Staff members of institutions in nearby states that have participated in various aspects of Connecting to Collections or who have received collections-related grants from IMLS in the past five years will be eligible to participate. A simple on-line application will be required, and modest travel stipends will be available.

Upon completion of the two on-site workshops, the program will be adapted into a series of webinars to be made available nationally. This series may also include other topics of significance to the Connecting to Collections audience.

This project is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Peck-Stacpoole Foundation, and the Bay and Paul Foundations.