Twenty Years of Conservation
Improvements through CAP
Holocaust Memorial Resource | CAP Year: 2004 |
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Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida Exterior |
The Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida was founded in Orlando in 1982. The Center, whose mission is to use the history and lessons of the Holocaust to build a community free of all forms of racism, has received national recognition for its unique facility, as well as for its dedication to world-class, innovative programming. In 2003, the Center participated in the Conservation Assessment program.
CAP assessor Hilary Kaplan’s recommendations included implementing collections, handling, security, and scanning and reproduction policies, purchasing archival supplies, creating emergency preparedness and disaster plans, instituting temperature and relative humidity controls, and clarifying the mission of the research library and archives in relationship to the rest of the collection.
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The Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida Student Tour |
By the time the current executive director Pam Kancher was hired in 2006, almost all of the Holocaust Center’s recommendations had been implemented. This included the addition of a new storage area in 2005, and adding temperature and relative humidity control to their existing vault. Pam oversaw the implementation of the last remaining recommendation, which was to catalog the Holocaust Center’s entire collection in Past Perfect. An archivist graduate student from the nearby University of Central Florida was hired for this task, which was completed within Pam’s first year with the Center. Once the collections were cataloged, the Holocaust Center staff was able to offer views of the three-dimensional collections to researchers in addition to their well-recognized library collections. This increase in the availability of research materials led the Center to re-design its both its mission and its collection policy.
Kancher said that the CAP report was a great resource for applying for future grants for the collections and library. Of the CAP assessors, she says, "They are professionals who know how to make museums better and more accessible to the public. The wonderful recommendations they provide speak volumes about their knowledge of conservation." The recommendations provided to the Holocaust Center by their CAP assessor have helped to ensure that it will be a valuable resource, both in its own community and throughout the world, for many years to come.
Thanks to Pam Kancher for her help with this article.
Photos courtesy of the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida
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