Preservation Workshop at the Earle Wightman House

For the past month the Oyster Bay Historical Society has been promoting an event that took place this past weekend recognizing Preservation Week. Every year the American Library Association designates a week to encourage libraries, museums, historical societies, and any other organization that maintains collections of historic or informational value, to create awareness in their community of the importance of safeguarding these items. All over the country there have been exhibits, meetings, demonstrations, and

workshops all to promote the importance of maintaining our personal and collective history to pass on to future generations. I feel obligated to just let you in on a few amazing statistics provided from the ALA website (www.ala.org):

Preservation Fast Facts

· More than 4.8 Billion Artifacts are held in public trust by more than 30,000 archives, historical societies, libraries, museums, scientific research collections, and archaeological repositories in the United States. 1.3 billion of these items are at risk of being lost.
· Roughly 70% of institutions need additional conservation/preservation training for their staff and volunteers.· A majority of collecting institutions, more than 80 percent, do not have a disaster plan in place that can be executed by trained staff.
· Nearly a quarter of all the 21 million paintings, sculptures, and works of decorative art in U.S. collections need conservation treatment or improved care and conditions.
· More than 50 percent of collecting institutions have had their collections damaged by light.
· More than 65% of collecting institutions report damage to their collections due to improper storage.*

Here at the OBHS we decided to host a Preservation Workshop so that members of our community could learn some of the basic threats and preservation methods for their own personal archives. We had a good turnout and most everyone agreed that they took away some valuable information. The presentation was held in the Earle Wightman House and was an informal affair with open discussion, examples of damaged items, and helpful demonstration of book repair by director Philip Blocklyn. It was indeed a fun and informative afternoon!

Photographs courtesy of the Oyster Bay Historical Society

*Source: “A Public Trust at Risk: The Heritage Health Index Report on the State of America’s Collections,” Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov/preserv/tops/laise/index.html