About the Grant
The Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Connecting to Collections initiative has funded a grant to Colorado to implement plans and models to address issues identified in the Heritage Health Index:

• provide safe conditions for collections;
• develop emergency plans;
• assign responsibility for collections care; and
• work to increase public and private support for, and raise public awareness about, collections care.

IMLS designed the Connecting to Collections Statewide grant program to encourage people and institutions to cooperate on a plan that will benefit all. “Project activities should accommodate needs of institutions in each state; they do not need to address all four recommendations. Each state should indicate its most pressing needs, report what has already been done, name the organizations and people to be involved in the planning process, and outline specific next steps.” (IMLS Connecting to Collections grant guidelines)

To create a culture of emergency preparedness among Colorado institutions and communities, the IMLS Connecting to Collections Program will allow Colorado institutions to build upon our informal collaborative efforts to create a Consortium that will provide communication across cultural heritage disciplines. This collaboration will benefit the State’s many libraries, museums, archives, historical societies and other cultural heritage organizations as they struggle with preservation of collections. Growing out of advisory committee discussions, a Consortium with five lead partners has been formed in order to meet this challenge. Partners include:  the Colorado-Wyoming Association of Museums (CWAM), BCR’s Digital Preservation Services unit – which includes the Collaborative Digitization Program (BCR), Colorado Association of Libraries (CAL), Society of Rocky Mountain Archivists (SRMA), the Colorado Historical Society (CHS) and the Colorado State Library (CSL).

Project Description
Training workshops and conference sessions will be offered to partner organizations based on survey results.

The trainer will create and present two or three one-day identical workshops offered in different areas of the state. One condensed studio version will also be filmed and put online to address the most urgent collections needs as identified by the online survey and site visit results.

The day-long workshop should include all of the topics listed below:

• Curatorial decision-making
• Collection policy development
• The ethics of de-accessioning
• Dealing with your local communities
• Low-cost/no-cost climate control improvements

We anticipate that these workshops will be presented in conjunction with professional conferences in different regions of the state for the museum, archive and library communities with 20-35 attendees at each.

At least 60 library, archive, museum staff and volunteers will attend workshops conducted by conservators and/or other specialists. These workshops will equip staff and volunteers to return to their community with the knowledge to begin detailed assessments of their collections, create policies and implement preventive conservation measures.

Additionally, at least 100 staff and volunteers will access the online streaming video presentations of the workshops, participate in the blog and/or wiki and use one of the online training modules.

For the complete Colorado IMLS Connecting to Collections Grant Request for Proposal, please visit http://c2cwikico.bcr.org/.

For additional information or clarification, contact BCR’s Leigh Grinstead (lgrinstead@bcr.org or 303.751.6277 ext 111).