Connecting to Technology

The second panel, Connecting to Technology, was moderated by Timothy Whalen, Director of the Getty Conservation Institute. He explained, “I run an Institution that relies very heavily on state-of-the-art analytical technologies and a whole range of computing technologies, and I know that if we create solutions that are not appropriate to the people who use them we find ourselves in great trouble.”

James Riley of the Image Permanence Institute spoke about environmental metrics, controls, and economics for collecting institutions. He noted, "The comments of all of you echo and validate the findings of the Heritage Health Index, which succinctly stated that the most urgent preservation needed US collecting institutions is environmental control. There is some new technology to make it easier, faster, and cheaper to know what environments are and whether they are a good fit for the needs of collections, but this technology must be accompanied by a process of engaging with facilities staff."

Sarah Stauderman, Preservation Manager, Smithsonian Institution Archives, related her experiences with the technologies in collections, including magnetic and electronic media."Connecting to technology is certainly about using state-of-the-art methods and tools, such as digitization and environmental metrics to manage the preservation of collections, but it is also about connecting to the technologies that we are collecting ever more rapidly. The Heritage Health Index highlights the needs of so many types of materials but singles out film, sound, video, and digital collections. And I quote from the report, 'the condition of almost half of the 86 million film reels, videos, DVDs, records, cassettes, CDs, and MP3s in public collections is unknown, leaving them in probable jeopardy.' So many of us have had the experience of staring at small, black plastic box. We think it’s videotape and all it says on it is something like 'important.'"

Howard Dodson, Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at The New York Public Library, talked about the challenges of running a specialized research collection and how one can both provide for greater access to a collection while simultaneously providing greater protection and conservation for that collection. He directed his remarks to "those of you know who are either just starting or feel like you’re never going to see the end of the light at end of the tunnel. Over a period of time, it is possible for you to eventually get control of the significant parts of your collections and to not only preserve them but, in fact, to make them available for the purposes that they were collected for in the first place."