An enjoyable and educative experience

Always keen to learn something new I grabbed an opportunity to attend a workshop, Care of Collections, yesterday at Preservation Australia.

While the workshop was aimed at those working with collections in libraries and museums  I learnt so much to help me manage and preserve the files, documents and artefacts in my home collection.

The workshop led by Kay Soderlund was held in the studios of Preservation Australia in Annandale, an inner suburb of Sydney. The venue is close to the many buses that run along Parramatta Road and not far from Stanmore station. Indeed my fellow participants who came from Malaysia, Singleton, the Central Coast, and several Sydney suburbs all commented on the convenient location.

Kay Soderlund at Preservation Australia

Tools of the Trade

After a welcome cuppa and getting to know you session we all perched on high chairs around a work table to hear Kay’s presentation. We were given a 22 page handout which provided a structure for the day's workshop. Kay’s deep knowledge of her subject was evident as she spoke to us throughout the day, she had plenty of pictures for us to see and many materials for us to handle. As one who loves words I found some of the terms associated with the subject area fascinating. New words and acronyms in my vocabulary include foxing, red rot, EMC, IPM, fatty spew, blunder traps, frass and picric acid.

Tools of the trade

As it was a small group/workshop we were able to engage in much discussion and interrupt Kay whenever we had a question or comment. We were not deluged with chalk and talk, we learnt in an informal, interactive environment with welcome breaks for a delicious morning tea and lunch.

As the day  progressed I realised just how much stuff I have in my home collection, I got tips on looking after the few original artworks we have, great-great-grandfather’s shillelagh, Jesus (a large 19th century tapestry done by a family member), family bibles, documents, medals and a heirloom christening dress. Having attended this course I am now confident about selecting appropriate enclosures for my treasures. This course should be an essential element of the Professional Development program for anyone (paid or voluntary) involved in the care of local collections.

Of course this is going to cost me money as I am now drawing up a shopping list of items to purchase from Conservation Resources, the retail arm of Preservation Australia.

Thanks Kay and team for an enjoyable and educative experience.

Preserving Family Photographs: 1839 to the Present

I seem to repeat myself a lot but I believe that it's the early bird that catches the worm. This morning's catch was a fat and juicy one.

I awoke before the birds at 3:45 am to take part in the latest Legacy Family Tree Webinar " Preserving Family Photographs: 1839 to the Present" with Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective. The content of this webinar is relevant to anyone who is in possession of a family photo. Sometimes I do not take many notes in these webinars but today found me oohing and aahing while furiously writing notes.


Maureen's talk was well-structured and informative and supported by slides that summarised the content. As well as talking about Damage, Preservation and Conservation of various formats she covered Identification, Labelling, Sharing and Display of family photographs. For those who misssed the webinar it will be available until May 14, 2011 on the Legacy site.  

A few of the tips I noted were:

* Always wear cotton or non-latex gloves when handling photographs
* Never laminate photos
* Store photos in acid and lignin free containers ie Archival supplies
* Metal filing cabinets (without rust) are suitable for photo storage
* Scan your original photos at 600 dpi in tiff format at 100% scale
* Only edit copies of your original scanned images
* Use Glide (very fine) dental floss to remove photos from magnetic albums
* Always label photos on back using a very soft graphite pencil (old paper photos) or pen designed for the purpose


I suggest that you visit the Legacy site and listen to the presentation to pick up many more tips.

Maureen has written a book "Preserving Your Family Photographs" that is available from Amazon in the US. Unfortunately the latest edition is not available at Gould in Australia or my favourite online bookshop The Book Depository.

Recently I attended The Dropbox for Genealogists Webinar with Thomas MacEntee. Although this had less content then Maureen's paced session it was an informative and useful introduction to Dropbox that solved one or two issues that I had with the application. I have signed up for future webinars on Google Docs, Writing your family story and DNA. Sadly I'll be overseas for Maureen's next webinar  and won't be able to take part.

I am a great fan of these "free" webinars that give Australians opportunities to hear from internationally renowned speakers.  One has the option of purchasing a CD of the presentation after the event and, no doubt, many people do. There may also be available other material by the presenter that can be ordered from Legacy. I find that by watching the webinar on one computer and taking notes on another I am able to make meaningful notes and take part at no cost except for leaving a warm bed in the early morning hours.