Volume 18, Number 1
Apr 1994

Collections Conservation Training is Nationwide

Training in collections conservation techniques for library technicians, using a model initially developed by conservation staff at the University of California-Berkeley to provide information to other UC-system library technicians, is now being implemented at numerous sites across the country.

Collections Conservation Technician Training provides instruction in appropriate techniques for ensuring continued access to circulating collections. Attendees learn about a number of subjects, including protective enclosures, page mending and binding repair.

The Southwestern U.S. was the first area within the country to develop and deliver Collections Conservation Technician Training. AMIGOS Bibliographic Council, Inc., The University of Texas at Austin General Libraries, BookLab, Inc., and the Preservation and Conservation Studies program at the University of Texas Graduate School of Library and Information Science co-sponsored the Training in Austin, Texas March 14-19.

The course was limited to ten participants; those attending this initial class were full-time and part-time conservation technicians who are responsible for the care and repair of book collections for libraries in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Missouri and Colorado.

Faculty for the session were Roberta Pilette, Laboratory Instructor and Acting Co-Director of the Preservation and Conservation Studies program at UT-Austin; Catherine Axford, Collections Conservation Librarian at the UT-Austin General Libraries; and Gary Frost, Library Conservator at BookLab, Inc.

The week-long Austin effort was a model of "short-duration" Collections Conservation Technician Training. Sessions of longer duration are currently being planned in the Mountain Plains, the Northwest, California, Hawaii, the Southeast, the Midwest, New York, and the Northeast.

For more information on the Southwestern effort, please contact Tom Clareson, AMIGOS Preservation Service Manager, at 800/843-8482. For information on the efforts in other regions of the country, contact Barclay Ogden, Head of the Conservation Department, University of California-Berkeley, at 510/642-4946, email bogden@library.berkeley.edu.