The North Carolina Connecting to Collections Project (C2C) will be hosting a “boot camp” on December 6th 2010 at the Cape Fear Museum in Wilmington for staff, board members, and volunteers who are interested in improving their collections management policies and procedures. The workshop will be led by Curator Martha Jackson of NC State Historic Sites and Collections Manager John Campbell of the NC Museum of History. Martha and John both have vast amounts of experience in managing small to large museum collections for both museums and historic sites.

The workshop will cover the basics of collections management, including collections management policies, collections gift and loan agreements, facilities reports, and other documents necessary to manage artifacts. Martha and John have developed this workshop to both challenge and educate participants. The Collections Management Boot Camp will be interactive; participants are encouraged to share specific situations and challenges they may be facing in their own institutions. Participants will also be given helpful hand-outs, examples, and resources to take back to their individual institutions—take-away materials which may facilitate far-reaching instruction among staff and volunteers who do not have the opportunity to attend the boot camp.

The workshop will open with an information session about C2C and NC ECHO; questions, feedback, and networking are encouraged. Participants in the C2C sessions have a unique opportunity to help improve how cultural heritage institutions (museums, archives, libraries, and historic sites) care for a wide variety of artifacts, books, papers, and other objects of our state’s cultural past. C2C project staff wants input on what types of workshops are needed. Additional workshops on collections conservation care and disaster preparedness will be offered in the future.

The North Carolina Connecting to Collections Project is an IMLS grant-funded initiative aimed at helping institutions better care for their collections. A variety of partner organizations have made this project possible: Federation of NC Historical Societies, NC Museums Council, NC Preservation Consortium, State Historic Records Advisory Board, and Society of NC Archivists.

To register, please follow this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/c2collectionsmanagementbootcamp.

For more information, call Michelle Vaughn at 919-807-7422.