PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS

Doing More with Less: Cost-Effective and Time-Saving Approaches to Caring for Collections
Instructors: Tish Brewer & Shannon Phillips, The Center for Art Conservation (Dallas, TX)
Wednesday, May 20, 2009, 1:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Spring Street Historical Museum, 525 Spring Street [a short walk from the hotel]
Attendance is limited to 15.
Cost: $50

This workshop will provide archivists and librarians with useful preservation and conservation recommendations and handy tips. During this time of budget cuts and belt-tightening, many archivists and librarians are left with little or no budget for preservation- or conservation-related projects. With this in mind, we will explore do-it-yourself approaches to caring for your collections and demonstrate cost-effective and time-saving execution of minor conservation treatments and offer attendees hands-on experience with these methods.

The first part of the workshop will consist of a presentation covering collections management issues ranging from space-saving storage solutions to environmental monitoring with opportunity for addressing participants’ specific questions. The second part of the workshop will include demonstrations and hands-on lessons in humidification and flattening, making small amounts of paste, time-saving approaches to mending paper materials, and more!

Becoming a Film-Friendly Archivist
Instructors: Snowden Becker & Katie Trainor, The Center for Home Movies
Wednesday, May 20, 2009, 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
LSU-Shreveport
Attendance is limited to 30.
Cost: $75

This workshop furnishes the practicing archivist with skills to identify, assess, and preserve history caught on film. Upon completion of this workshop participants will be able to:

• Perform basic identification of film materials and evaluate their condition and contents;
• Set preservation priorities for film materials and get accurate estimates for preservation work;
• Identify sources of preservation funding and discuss methods for integrating motion picture materials into access, exhibition, and outreach efforts;
• Begin thinking about film as an essential and approachable part of any archive collection, as well as the historical and cultural record archivists work to preserve;
• Regard future acquisitions of film with confidence and a positive attitude.

Implementing DACS in Integrated Content Management Systems: Using Archon™
Instructors: Christopher Prom & Scott Schwartz, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Tuesday & Wednesday, May 19-20, 2009, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
LSU-Shreveport
Attendance is limited to 25.
Registration open to SSA members only until April 8.

Cost: SAA members $325 (early-bird); $375 (regular)
Non-members: $405 (early-bird); $455 (regular)

Note: This workshop is being presented by SAA, so please register through its web site. SSA members, who are not SAA members, can receive a $25 off the non-member rate by entering the promo code DARCSSA09. (Please note that the discount will reflect on your final receipt but not when you register.)

This two-day, hands-on workshop focuses on how to describe collections according to the rules of DACS, the national content standard for preparing such descriptions within the context of one integrated content management system. Archon™ * is an open source application available for managing descriptive information about archival records and manuscript collections. The archival data elements and rules supplied by DACS are an integral component of Archon™ and provide an easy way to integrate standards-based description into a repository’s processing workflow. Practical exercises, lecture, class discussions, and demonstrations assist in learning Archon’s™ basic functions and relationships to DACS.