[PADG:693] Re: Process Improvement in Conservation

[Donia Conn <bookconservator@xxxxxxxxx>]

Chris,

I plan on responding to you e-mail later but, if you
are interested, I would be willing to brainstorm with
you at Standards (if you will be there) on this topic.
 Peter Verheyen and I feel we have done a lot of work
of efficiency in treatments to retain quality but
improve quantity.

Let me know if you are interested and we can set up a
lunch or something.

Donia Conn


--- Chris McAfee <McAfeeCK@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> The Church History Department (comprising the Church
> Archives, Church History
> Library, and the Museum of Church History and Art)
> of the Church of Jesus Christ
> of Latter-day Saints is working on Process
> Improvement. As part of that effort,
> I am working to gather data about Best Practices in
> Conservation. I am hoping to
> start a discussion with this group for the purpose
> of brainstorming conservation
> process improvement.  I have limited my questions to
> 3 to make this easier.
> Questions: In 2003, there was a brief discussion on
> this list about identifying
> conservation needs work.  The consensus seemed to be
> that prioritization of
> conservation work should be use-driven. However, I
> have found that use-driven
> priorities often ignore some of the most valuable
> items of collecting
> institutions. For example, some institutions have
> items that will only be
> valuable to the future, are deteriorating on the
> shelves, but are being ignored
> because they are not being used today. Other
> institutions collect items that
> will never be used by the public because they have
> been deemed sacred by a
> particular group. Has anyone found a truly
> successful way to find those "hidden"
> items that require conservation treatment? Measures
> of quality should be at
> least somewhat objective. Yet, I can't help but
> think that there is some
> subjectivity in judging the quality of conservation
> work. How do you determine
> the quality of your employees or your own work in an
> objective way? Is there
> also value to subjective judgement? We are looking
> at ways to speed up the
> process of getting items through our lab and back
> into the collection. We
> believe that the biggest bottleneck to this is the
> actual treatment time and we
> don't want to sacrifice quality for the sake of
> quantity. We also believe that
> there are ways to improve pre- and post-treatment
> efficiency. What have you done
> to streamline the process of moving work from the
> "customer" to the bench? And
> when the treatment is completed, what have you done
> to streamline the process of
> moving work from the bench back to the "customer"?
> Thank You, Christopher
> McAfee
> Senior Conservator
> Family and Church History Department
> The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
> 50 E. North Temple St. Rm. 227E
> Salt Lake City, UT 84150-3420
> 
>
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