California Connecting to Collections Project
This project is made possible by a grant from the
U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Draft Plan and Request for Feedback
California is rich with heritage institutions, tens of thousands of museums, libraries, archives, historical societies, state park museum, facilities, and historic sites and buildings containing hundreds of millions of cultural artifacts and documents. California also is disaster prone with many potential problems: earthquakes, mudslides, tsunamis, mold and insects, floods and fires. The state’s museums, libraries, archives, historic sites, and historical societies, and especially those with small collections and even smaller staffs, are at risk because they are isolated by geographic distances, because staff lack appropriate preservation information, because funds are extremely limited, and because there’s no readily available source of preservation assistance.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services has funded a California collaborative to conduct a one-year project to develop a statewide preservation plan for heritage institutions, titled the California Connecting to Collections Project.
The goals of the California Connecting to Collections Project are to:
- create a shared vision for preservation among heritage institutions in California and
- develop a statewide implementation plan to achieve the recommendations spelled out in the Heritage Health Index:
- provide safe conditions for collections
- develop emergency plans
- assign responsibility for collections care
- marshal public and private support for and raise public awareness about collections care
The Project has five partners:
California Association of Museums
The partners were selected to capture the multiple perspectives of several statewide and regional agencies and to inform the statewide preservation planning process.
To achieve its goals, the Project has four objectives:
- host two regional meetings for representatives of regional and statewide organizations of heritage professionals to discuss preservation needs and elements of an implementation plan to address the Heritage Health Index recommendations (October 2008);
- draft a plan for a statewide preservation program to articulate a shared vision for a program to assist California heritage organizations implement actions to achieve the four recommendations of the Heritage Health Index, and a development plan, including organizational infrastructure and funding, to provide the education, training and assistance needed by heritage institutions to achieve these goals (October-November 2008);
- conduct a series of feedback sessions at annual meetings of California heritage professionals on the draft plan (November 2008-February 2009);
- assess the attractiveness of the plan for funding from potential funders, particularly California funding organizations and key elected officials and state policymakers whose support could be integral to plan implementation (December 2008-February 2009).
Two meetings in early October 2008 convened numerous statewide and regional organizations to begin developing this vision. The first was held at the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino on October 2, 2008. The second was held at the San Jose Museum of Art on October 7, 2008. For a complete list of all the invited and participating organizations, see below.
More than two dozen heritage organizations and key partners in preservation participated in these two meetings. The participants spent the day answering the following questions:
1. Why are California collections important?
2. How would you prioritize the Heritage Health Index recommendations for California?
3. What should a statewide preservation plan look like?
4. How do we make these activities happen?
To view photographs from the two meetings, please click on the following link:
Draft Plan and Request for Feedback
The primary result of the two regional meetings is a draft vision and plan for a statewide preservation information service. The proposed statewide preservation information service:
1. offers opportunities to dramatically improve communication across the different types of geographically dispersed cultural heritage institutions in the state
2. will be built on preservation services already being delivered to some segments of the community.
3. Will utilize the invaluable resources of technical expertise in major California heritage institutions and organizational expertise in California organizations to make development of a high impact, cost-effective statewide heritage preservation information service a realistic goal.
To view the draft plan in its entirety, as a pdf, please click on the link below:
The members of the Project Work Group invite all California heritage organizations to review this draft document and provide feedback on the plan. The goals of this Project are to create a shared vision to support preservation efforts among heritage institutions in California and collaboratively develop a plan to address these challenges. The review and thorough vetting of this draft document with California’s heritage organizations is an important step in achieving these goals.
All comments should be emailed to c2c@calmuseums.org for the Project Work Group’s review and consideration.
Participants and Invited Organizations
^Southern California Meeting Participants
*Northern California Meeting Participants
American Association of State and Local History
Art Libraries Society of North America*
Association of Moving Image Archivists^
Balboa Art Conservation Center^*
California Arts Council*
California Association of Museums^*
California Association of Research Libraries
California Association of Zoos and Aquariums
California Cooperative Library Systems^
California Council for the Humanities^
California Council for the Promotion of History
California Exhibition Resources Alliance
California Historical Records Advisory Board^*
California Historical Society*
California Indian Basketweavers Association
California Library Association*
California Mission Studies Association^
California Preservation Foundation
California Preservation Program^*
California State Archives*
California State Assembly Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism, and Internet Media
California State Historic Preservation Office
California State Library^*
California State Parks^*
Conference of California Historical Societies^*
County Records Managers Association of California*
The Getty Foundation ^
Historic Monterey^*
Institute of Museum and Library Sciences^
James Irvine Foundation
National Trust for Historic Preservation, Western Region
Registrars Committee - Western Region ^*
Society for California Archaeology^*
Society of California Archivists^*
Special Libraries Association*
Western Association of Art Conservators^
Western Museums Association*
Kim Bui-Burton
Historic Monterey
buiburto@ci.monterey.ca.us
Jim DeMersman
Dunsmuir Hellman Historic Estate
jimd@dunsmuir.org
Celeste DeWald
California Association of Museums
cam@calmuseums.org
Wendy Franklin
California State Parks
wfran@parks.ca.gov
Susan Hanks
California State Library
shanks@library.ca.gov
Barclay Ogden
California Preservation Program
bogden@library.berkeley.edu
Julie Page
California Preservation Program
jpage@calpreservation.org