Buildings, books and blockbusters: balancing access and preservation

In November I attended (and co-organised!) the 2019 Historic Libraries Forum conference, which was a great opportunity to explore issues around access and preservation. It took place at Westminster Abbey and we were lucky enough to get a look round the new Queen's Diamond Jubilee Gallery at the Abbey as part of the conference. These are well worth a visit in their own right, offering both spectacular views of the inside of the building and a chance to encounter myriad items from their collections. Photography isn't allowed inside the gallery, so all my images are of elsewhere in the Abbey.

The Cloisters

The conference kicked off with Caroline Bendix, exploring what we mean by access -  any means of using a book, including reading, seeing, touching, smelling, hearing. Of the 25 causes of damage to books, 14 of these can be attributed to poor handling, which is why it’s so important to have handling guidelines and make sure they are followed, especially by staff, who are setting an example to users. She offered some tips, including:

• Have supports readily available to readers and make sure staff know how to use them, eg they need to be adjusted as different pages are opened.
• Provide regular training to staff on handling books and archives.
• Train staff to intervene positively when they see a reader exhibiting poor handling technique (eg by offering "help").
• The key is to reduce the rate of deterioration to the lowest possible. Users may not understand the need to handle books in a particular way - so it's helpful to have some spectacular examples of the results of poor handling to show them.

The damage that can occur, includes:


• Abrasion from removing from shelf.
• Shelves at the wrong height
• Historical application of leather dressing (too much and to books in too poor condition)
• Wrong boxes used (eg box too big for book so it can move around). Boxes and enclosures need to provide support.
• Using acid free paper slips for shelfmarks in the book cuts down on handling
Books on brief display can be preserved by:
• Creased sheet of melinex on top of book will stop some damage
• Mitchell book shelter – protects book whilst making it available
• Blickling Hall put books on temporary display with one person by each book to talk about it and ensure it is protected.

Remember – any step taken is a positive action to reduce deterioration

Susan Jenkins from Westminster Abbey collections then provided an introduction to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Gallery, followed by our visit.
The Gallery has been a very positive development to showcase items from the collections. Creating them had been a lot of work:

• Work had to stop everytime a service took place in the building.
• Light plans undertaken to understand how light would fall around cases.
• Computer modelling of the space used to work out where to lay out objects.
• Annual lux budget decided to try and get balance right.
• Continuous programme of improvement eg clerestory windows were discovered to be letting direct light in in March and October.

Visit was very inspiring with a chance to discover all of the treasures gallery – well worth a visit - I highly recommend!

View from the conference room

After a delicious lunch and the HLF AGM, Rosemary Firman (Hereford Cathedral Library) spoke about Screen sharing: the role of broadcasting and the media in extending access
Hereford Cathedral is the only library remaining where all books are still chained to shelves. References to chained libraries generally echo Hereford, but they have a total lack of control over people using images of chained libraries eg Game of Thrones is assumed to have been filmed at Hereford (it wasn’t!). The publicity is good but it can lead to increased requests for more access – observed increase in visitor numbers after TV programmes, but often little control over what is said in them, with much repetition of basic facts. Hereford doesn’t charge for factual/documentary filiming but filming can take up large amounts of staff time.
Some top tips:
• Don’t expect producers to be well prepared
• Have some key messages ready for them.
• Review recordings before release (this may be difficult to arrange)



She was followed by David Iggulden on Empowering Global Research: the Biodiversity Heritage Library
These are natural science research collections – literature and archives critical to studying life on earth eg species descriptions, info on extinct species, history of scientific discovery. Lack of access to this literature impedes scientific research especially in developing countries.
The BHL provides open access to digital library, inspiring discovery through free access to biodiversity knowledge. Much of the material is out of copyright but agreements are negotiated for the rest. 57 million pages – Kew was a founder member and the initial idea was a joint union catalogue. Reduces the need to consult physical items although the digital should exist alongside the physical. Had nine million users since it started.



Molly Bigwood, a student who had researched the balancing act between conservation and access, then spoke about her study into how historic libraries manage preservation and access as part of her undergraduate degree. There have to be concessions on either side eg the optimum temperature for storage isn’t compatible with reader comfort. She compared four collections.
Seeing books in worse condition can be beneficial to their future – the visually shocking helps emphasise the point.


Sarah VanSnick (The National Archives) finished off with a talk on mouldy books: preservation improving access
Over 1% of TNA’s collections are mouldy and they have changed their processes so that readers can still access them. They clean on demand, as they don’t have time to clean everything, but have to be careful as mould damage is cumulative and is classed as a biohazard. They carried out research to inform risk assessments and looked at how access could risk cross-contamination. It was found that boxes were good for keeping the fungal count low, so additional mechanisms were not necessary for moving items around. They now clean based on the risk of transfer. Readers now requesting mouldy material are given a list of the risks, and provided with an apron and mask (if they want to use these) – which means they now have access to a mouldy item when previously they would have had a long delay for cleaning before being able to use it.


It was a great conference, and included plenty of networking time in breaks too, so I left with plenty to think about! My actions to take forward:


• Review our handling guidelines and ensure readers know what to expect
• Review staff training to ensure staff are confident to help readers handle books correctly. Make sure volunteers are confident to handle items correctly and understand why it is important.
• Work on a media pack, including key messages for film crews etc about our collections
• Look into the Biodiversity Heritage Library (personal interest)
• Have a couple of “worst examples” available (physical and photographs) to demonstrate consequences of poor handling

Future past: researching archives in the digital age

Last week I took part in this research symposium at the Institute of Historical Research in London. It was a great opportunity to find out what other archives are doing about digitization and born digital records, and how academic users of archives are finding their experience. It was a really interesting day, and my notes go on for pages, so I'm going to attempt to pull out some of the common themes that emerged. There were many opportunities during the day to ask questions, get feedback and talk to others, so my notes are a mixture of speakers and thoughts/ideas found from networking.


The hashtag was #digfuturepast and the symposium was recorded and should be available soon on the IHR website.

Barriers to using digital material

Paying for content. Digitization is expensive but academic users are used to having "free" access to collections (actually paid for by their institution). Yet, the digitization has to be paid for somehow, whether through institutions funding it themselves, grant funding or commercial companies providing a paid-for service (eg Ancestry) 

Making copies available. Gone are the days when a student or academic would come into an archive every day for a week or a month to do their research. Pressures of time mean they want to make the most of a single visit and be able to take copies away with them or download copies to use at home, yet it is impossible to digitize everything, and there are various reasons why copies may not be allowed at all, eg copyright, commercial sensitivity or preservation.

Poor documentation and/or OCR mean that researchers can't find what they're looking for. They may miss relevant items in a plethora of search results, or not get the result they need at all. A reliance on keyword searching misses the opportunity to search the collection more widely and loses the connection between archival sources.

Lack of a seamless user experience make it hard to use the material eg legacy systems, different systems for library/archive material, system not optimised for finding archival material.

Information literacy issues. We can't always assume that researchers will know how to search in our system, so we need to equip them with the tools to do this. We also need to address the common misconceptions found below.

Misconceptions about online access to archives

• Any online resource is complete and comprehensive. Many only represent a tiny fraction of an archive's holdings, so how do we alert users to this and encourage them to look beyond the digital? It is impossible to digitize everything, due to copyright, staff and equipment resources, having metadata available, issues with storing electronic files etc.
• Everything will be catalogued. No, digitizing is not the same as cataloguing. Most (all?!) archives have a cataloguing backlog, and, until the material is catalogued, there is no way to access it. This then gives rise to the question about whether it is better to spend resources digitizing some already catalogued material, or catalogue unlisted material that cannot be used at all yet.
• Digitized version is just the same as the original. No, frequently this isn't the case and their are users who will still need to see the original. This is also one of the reasons why it is vital never to destroy the original.

Educating researchers

Time and again the need to educate researchers came up. It was agreed by all present that this is a vital part of training as a historian and that it should be done as early as possible in an academic career. I was pleased by this as we are already doing several of the suggested activities to encourage researchers to engage with our collections, including:

• Running workshops for all history undergraduates to find out how to use Special Collections material
• Running dissertation drop ins and workshops for students needing help with a dissertation using Special Collections
• Looking for entry points beyond history - we get a lot of use by creative writing students and have widened our reach to include English and Sports Scientists too. This has repercussions for collecting policies too - are we collecting material that resonates with our researchers?

Case studies

• The archivist from Boots Heritage who explained how Boots had moved from an entirely internally-focussed business archive to one that was available to researchers thanks to funding from the Wellcome Trust to develop a new digital resource aimed at academic researchers. She had found that getting the right tools was essential so proper cataloguing software (CALM) had been acquired and material was catalogued to stringent standards to make it helpful and meaningful, including creating authority files to be a repository of information about buildings, brands and people. For many researchers this has turned out to be the entry point into the collections. Preservation issues affected the usability of some items and repackaging them into smaller units greatly improved this issue. Care had to be taken to protect Boots' interests, so images are watermarked and download prevented, and commercially sensitive information is not available.
• Transport for London archives are aiming to collect the evidence that every journey matters, including the digital output of the organisation. They took the opportunity presented by needing to archive born digital material to overhaul and restructure their cataloguing. Although this was resource heavy it has created a more useable catalogue for staff and made it much more available to researchers.
• Kathleen Chater talked about her research into black people in England in 18th century and how digitized records hadn't helped her solve research problems such as identifying where "black" didn't refer to a person, or to those instances where a black person was identified using another term. Keyword searches frequently produced unusable quantities of results. One of the more helpful things she did was spend three months going through 10000 Old Bailey records on microfilm, which also gave her the helpful context of many other cases (eg how common was it for anyone to be convicted of a particular crime). Although the Old Bailey records have now been digitized they are difficult to search because of OCR problems (the long s) and context is lost.
• Jo Pugh, a digital development manager at The National Archives, discussed his PhD research in information journeys in archival collections. He related how the problem now isn't amassing information, but restricting what we see. His research had compared how enquiries are formulated on email, phone calls or Twitter and had looked at how the experts (archivists) worked with researchers to resolve archival queries. He had found that research guides could help to reduce uncertainty, eg by explaining how to get the best out of a search.
• Tom Scott from Wellcome Collections explained how the context of their collections isn't just medical and so users don't know what's in the collections. Searching digitized collections meant items were isolated from their context "searchable but not understandable". They wanted to provide access by having a good reading experience, whether in person or online, so had tried to "encapsulate a librarian": a single domain model from a mix of systems for books, archives etc, extracting meaning of enquiries (eg cross references for TB/consumption/tuberculosis). He stressed that it is really important to record the metrics of what people are actually searching for.

The symposium rounded up with a discussion of how we could futureproof our collections. My take aways from the day are:

• Keep doing our existing work on educating researchers as early as possible, and look at how we can expand that with the resources we have.
• "Futureproofing requires quality cataloguing" - making sure our cataloguing is up-to-scratch.
• Assess any digitization project to ensure that high quality metadata is in place first and that it will support the needs of researchers wanting to use our collections.

Webinar: preparing to digitise your archives

Long time no blog! I've been on maternity leave, and am planning to write some reflections on that and returning to work soon. But, in the meantime, here's my write up of a webinar I took part in last week from The National Archives. As with the previous webinar I've taken part in, on forward planning, this was a great opportunity to learn more about a topic in a free and easy format, as it only took an hour of my time at work and there was no need to even leave the building!

It was clearly structured and covered the basics of planning a digitisation project. This is my summary of the contents:

Scope your project

• Spent time deciding what to include and exclude in your project. Digitisation is costly so avoid creating extra work by trying to digitise too much. Be focussed!
• Start with a small pilot, digitise a small sample and run it through all of the digitisation processes.
• Consider possible outputs. Tiff files are the most sensible format to capture for the master copy, with 300PPI for most paper originals and 400-600PPI for photographs. PDF is not recommended.

In-house or outsourced?
This decision depends on the size of the project, type, budget and internal capacities. The pros and cons are:
Outsourcing
Pros: Can be cheaper, technical knowledge isn't needed, less stress for staff, saves time  
Cons: Less control over project, relocation of collection/providing access to the material, fragile or sensitive material, restrictions on rescoping the project once it is underway.
In-house
Pros: More control, staff skill development, may save money in the long run, keeps collections in one place
Cons: Lack of in-house skills, big investment in equipment needed, lack of suitable infrastructure, no in-house experience

If considering outsourcing: shop around, get quotes and look at company's existing work. Visit their site and check their set up. Ask for samples early on in the project and have regular project catch ups. Make sure you have a contract.

Document preparation
Preservation/conservation: Assess condition of the collection and whether work by a conservator is needed in order to digitise without damaging the originals. Remove all metal pins, clips etc. Digitisation can take place through Melinex sleeves. How are you going to digitise books safely - unbind the volume, use a camera rather than a scanner etc?

Consider capture and post-processing equipment
There are pros and cons to using cameras and scanners.
Document preservation: a camera provides more alternatives to capturing the image without causing damage
Image quality: cameras tend to produce better results
Price: bear in mind that equipment needs to be kept up-to-date (this should be factored into the cost of outsourcing). Depending on the size of the project, renting equipment may work out cheaper.
Useability: scanners tend to be more straightforward to use with fewer settings. Cameras require colour calibration and that the lens be kept clean.
Versatility: scanners work well with flat materials, but aren't suitable for digitising books. Cameras tend to offer more versatility.

Post processing
Images are usually captured in RAW format then need to be processed. RAW files are very large, so this needs to be considered when assessing file storage needs. Obviously the file format must be compatibile with the image processing and storage software being used.

Metadata and storage
Technical metadata is included at the capture stage, for instance camera settings, focal length, exposure. It may be embedded within the image and then shared in a spreadsheet.
Descriptive metadata is the description of what the item is, such as names, dates and places so that the digitised image is discoverable. It can be captured by OCR (although this has severe limitations) or manually (time consuming and expensive).
Storage ensure you have the the basics, such as a server large enough to store the files and a means of backing them up.

What I've learnt and will take forward:
Visit other archives/Special Collections to learn from their experiences.
Keep it as simple as possible and only capture what is relevant. 
Know what the outcomes of the project are before commencing image capture. 
Never destroy the original after digitisation, unless they are acetate negatives.

HLF conference 2014: Beyond the bid

The 2014 Historic Libraries Forum conference took fundraising, project management and related issues as its theme. I was one of the co-organisers, and also hosted it at Brunel University Library. These topics had been suggested by attendees at previous conferences and workshops. Slides from most of the speakers are available on the HLF website.

I found all the speakers really interesting, although I must admit that I missed some parts as I was running around behind the scenes as the host too!

The first speaker was Fiona Talbott, Head of Museums, Libraries and Archives at the Heritage Lottery Fund, who talked us through the various funding streams available from the Other HLF and offered guidance on making a successful application. The key thing seemed to be to take advantage of all the help and advice offered from the HLF, such as submitting a project enquiry form and then taking note of any feedback in your final application. Fiona was very encouraging, urging people to apply - they have £375m in grants to award each year, and I found it particularly useful to be able to ask questions at the end of the morning.

The second of the morning speakers was Louisa Yates, Director of Collections and Research at Gladstone's Library, who introduced us to the library and talked about what they need to do to keep it running, as it is completely independent and needs to generate all of its own income. Louisa talked about the implications of higher education funding, and looking for collaborative opportunities (which are very attractive to funding bodies). Gladstone's Library has been working on a huge project to make manuscripts available as a collaboration between libraries and universities. This meant a lot of cataloguing and recording (using standardised terms, Dublin Core and LCSH, plus some local subject headings) before digitization could take place. Some of the problems they faced during the project were:

• Took time away from working on other projects - with a small staff someone still has to do the work
• Many of their volunteers were reluctant to use laptops or tablets. You have to work with the people you have. The solution here was to go low tech and use pencils and paper.
• Working out IT issues as they needed equipment. They already had a Heritage OPAC, and opted to use cloud storage.

Following a rather tasty lunch, the first afternoon speaker was Ann Barwood, Canon Librarian at Exeter Cathedral, who talked us through their collections and how they had managed to go from 2001, when the collections were at risk of sale, housed on different sites, and with little space and no money, to the present day, which is very different! Ann's talk was very positive and encouraging, relating how things had started with a Preservation Assessment Survey from the National Preservation Office and started to make approaches to grant-making trusts. They also began public engagement work, holding a month long exhibition in the cathedral and used Heritage Open Days to link with events in the city. There first application to the HLF was unsuccessful, but they talked to English Heritage and local authorities about improvements, and tried to move away from the previous "culture of elitism", where the library was only used by academics and clergy, to making everyone welcome. The building they now have has brought the collection together, and includes a space for exhibitions. This meant that a subsequent application was approved, and they have since gone on to become one of the first accredited archives in England!

Louise Anderson, Librarian at Downside Abbey, told us about their experience with managing volunteers. Volunteers are generally an essential part of projects, particularly as funders often want to see volunteer contributions as part of the project before they will award funding. Downside is in receipt of an HLF grant for their 'Beacon of learning' project and is using volunteers initially to work on modern accessions, preventative conservation and recording bibliographic details. Once building work has finished, they will help to invigilate the reading room, re-shelve items and act as tour guides.Volunteers were asked to stick to a particular day/time so that a rota could be organised. The arrangement was formalised with a handbook. The main issues with using volunteers were:

• The original volunteer ad wasn't viewed by the archivist/librarian before it went out, resulting in a mismatch between volunteer expectations and the reality of the work. This could make maintaining job satisfaction difficult.
• Supervising volunteers can take up a lot of time, as does scheduling. It can help to keep at least some of each week volunteer-free. Sourcing work of the right level for them to do can be challenging.
• All volunteers had to be DBS checked, which was done by Downside School, but took a very long time as it wasn't a priority for their HR department.
• There is a limit to what volunteers can be asked to do, and they may be unreliable, after all, they are under no obligation to turn up!
• Remember that resources are needed - computers, desk space, as well as staff time.

Using volunteers had been a success though. They were providing social media content and helped with book moves at the start of the project. They have been able to speed up cataloguing times, by counting pages and undertaken preventative conservation work that otherwise would not have happened. Getting volunteers involved has also helped to improve public perceptions of an institution that had been perceived previously as inward-looking.

The final speaker of the day was Dunia Garcia-Ontiveros, Head of Bibliographic Services at the London Library. Dunia explained how they had managed their retrospective cataloguing project to bring three different catalogues and finding aids into one place and update them. This was an enormous project, which is still ongoing, and commenced in 1991 with their 150th anniversary appeal. Apparently attaching fundraising to an anniversary can be a big help! They have needed to maintain momentum throughout their project and some things that have helped are:

• Each cataloguer works on one subject at a time to help with consistency.
• Try and take into account staff interests when assigning cataloguing, as this helps with motivation.
• Track and keep regular statistics. Monitor productivity.
• Stay flexible
• Have regular meetings, as this also helps with motivation.

Highlights of their project had included contributing to COPAC in 2012 and gaining designated status, a brilliant indicator of the worth of their collections. This can also help with fundraising.

I really enjoyed my day at the conference. I feel like I have learnt a lot about managing projects as a whole, and not just about fundraising for them.

Training: Preserving historic photographs

In September I spent a day at the British Library Centre for Conservation on a training day on  preserving historic photographs. I wanted to go on this course as I have a lot of photographs in some of my collections at work, and, although I already knew some of the basic principles of caring for them, I wanted to learn more and check I was doing the right thing.

The Centre for Conservation (slightly dwarfed by all the building work behind it)

The day started with introductions all round. The other participants were from a range of organisations, including libraries, archives, museums and some freelancers. First of all was an introduction to the history and identification of photographic processes. This took us through the very beginnings of photographic techniques, and examples of each were passed round the room for everyone to look at in more detail. It was important to cover all of this, as photography initially was very experimental so a variety of materials and techniques were used, some of them overlapping with others - more like evolution than processes in isolation. Of course, as photography was a new thing, nobody initially knew what purpose it would have, so techniques for producing multiple images were one development (by Fox Talbot), as were those aiming to produce one image to replace the miniature (by Daguerre) were another. There is an overview of techniques in the British Library's guide to preserving historic photographic material, available on their website.

Of course, this variety of techniques and materials does not make life easy for those caring for photographic collections now!

We then moved on to conservation problems and solutions, and, again examples were passed around so we could see the type of damage caused. This is a relatively new field of conservation, developed in the 1980s once scientific analysis had developed, although from the earliest days of photography, it was known that there were problems with the stability of silver processes.
The emphasis is very much on correct preservation: because photographs are multi-layered, this makes conservation very difficult, so it is best to avoid creating problems in the first place, than having to deal with them later.

Conservation problems may be caused by:

• Using fix repeatedly, or not washing properly, which produces sulphur on the photo
• Atmospheric pullution
• Storage materials
• Deterioration of the edges in images made using silver. As the air gains access to the photo over time the edges deteriorate with a mixture of oxidation and sulphurisation.
• Printed out/paper prints may have very fine surface particles which may react with other things (e.g. sulphur will make yellow areas yellow more and fade first). This type of damage is irreversible.
• Whereas cyanotype photographs fade with exposure to light, but the colour eventually returns once they are returned to dark conditions. These will also fade in alkaline conditions, such as an acid-free folder.
• Glass plates breaking
• Tintype metal supports will rust and the emulsion peels away from the support. Nothing can be done about this.
• Albumen has a tendency to curl inwards and surface cracks if it's flattened. The molecules are very affected by fluctuations in environment.
• Platinum prints - platinum is a catalyst so will cause any facing paper to degrade, e.g. in an album.
• Gelatin is very vulnerable to moisture and mould, as well as being popular with insects.
• Mouse damage is possible in a photographic collection, though it is less likely than in other collections.
• Chromagenic prints are not stable when exposed to light, so ethical decisions need to be made about how to copy these as the original changes over time.
• Cellulose nitrate has a relatively low temperature (38°C) at which it is flammable. It also produces its own oxygen when it burns, so it is very difficult to extinguish flames once it's alight. However, film made with these is usually in good condition and tends not to be unstable as long as it is kept cool. It can give off a slightly acidic gas.
• Cellulose acetate - unstable and has distinctive smell. The film becomes more brittle, making it unusable. This can happen extremely fast.

Finally, we looked at the preservation of photographs and examples of suitable storage products were passed around. We also came away with catalogues from vendors.

The first thing to note was that PVC enclosures are very bad indeed! Paper and boards used in storage (packaging and mounts) should have a high alpha-cellulose content, with neutral pH, with undetectable sulphur content and free from other impurities such as metal particles.
Some examples of storage materials include:

• Photon, supplied by Conservation by Design
• Argentia, supplied by John Purcell (this is a replacement for the old Silversafe paper, which is no longer available).
• Melinex/Mylar (polyester), supplied by several different suppliers, including Conservation by Design, Secol and Preservation Equipment Limited. Limited sizes also now seems to be available from firms like Gresswells. Plastics must be free from plasticizer, glaze or coating. Prints with emulsion surface damage or mould should not be put into Melinex.
• Glass negatives should be stored in purpose-built plan chests as they are very heavy, and this is less risky than using boxes.
• Glass negatives cannot be stored on aluminium shelving as it isn't strong enough. Shelves should be made from steel with a baked enamel or powder-coated finish.
• Boxes for storing photographs should be acid-free on the outside as this acts as a filter against acids coming in.
• Cold storage is worth considering for later film-based material, particularly if colour is shifting. Timecare ringbinder boxes containing Melinex sleeves can be housed in freezer boxes and then stored in domestic freezers. Hollinger Metal Edge produce freezer packaging, although it is hard to get hold of in the UK.
• Albums - purpose-made boxes of just the right size are now available.
• Plastazote, which is inert and available in different thicknesses, is good for creating partitions in storage boxes.

Other factors:
Temperature and relative humidity - the graph on p. 8 of the British Library's booklet shows the area that is safe - straying outside this grey area means irreversible physical damage. It is usually easier to lower the temperature than it is to control humidity. Cold storage in freezers is the optimum way to store photographic material for as long a time as possible and it is more important to get something that is deteriorating into freezer storage quickly, than it is to rehouse it in Melinex.
Light - keep an eye on the lux hours per year any photograph is exposed to. The choice is between a higher lux for a shorter period, or vice versa. Some institutions allow for a small physical change to occur in their collections over a 50 year period. UV light is particularly damaging and should be excluded from the building by using appropriate blinds and filters.
Handling - Clean hands are better, but try and handle photographs as little as possible. Avoid using any creams or moisturizers. Do not flatten rolled prints, or use adhesive tape, paper clips, pins etc. Do not eat, drink or smoke near photographs, or use ink to label them. Albums should be supported on book supports.
Storage - do not store anywhere near a photocopier or printer as these give off ozone. Do not keep in a basement or attic. Older wooden cabinets (e.g. 50+ years old) are unlikely to cause any further damage, but be aware that felt linings can cause problems. Lino and paint can both give off fumes.


Interesting fact of the day - historic photographs could have been manipulated, just like modern ones (although not quite as easily). Look out for the same cloudscapes being used repeatedly...

It was a very good day on the course, and I learnt a lot, as well as consolidating my existing knowledge. I think it could have been improved by devoting more time to the preserving photographs element in the afternoon, which was done in a bit of a rush.