CILIP Conference 2015

At the beginning of July I spent a couple of days in Liverpool at CILIP Conference 2015, having been lucky enough to win a bursary from the ARLG London & South East region. I was keen to attend the conference, having worked in the area of Special Collections for well over ten years, so my conference attendance had tended to be restricted to those events that were closely connected to my specialist area. 

Concert Hall, where the keynotes took place

Keynotes

Perhaps what I most enjoyed about the conference were the keynote speakers. They included R. David Lankes, Erwin James, Cory Doctorow and Shami Chakrabarti. At previous conferences I’ve attended the keynotes have all been very connected to the specialist conference theme, and invariably given by someone from the library or archive world, so I had been interested to see in advance that this wasn’t so much the case with CILIP conference keynotes. It was great to see how engaged all the speakers were with the world of libraries and information, and brought an interesting perspective from the outside. Indeed, Erwin James’ account of the difference a prison library had made to his life after his conviction, what it had meant to his rehabilitation and then to his release had me almost in tears. R. David Lankes on ‘World domination through librarianship’ (you can’t beat a title like that!) was more controversial from a Special Collections perspective, as he talked about how collections are the demon, and how you may not have one to be a librarian, as often now they are leased or rented. But I could agree with him that librarians are educators, even if I am educating users about our special collections!

Erwin James

Session speakers 

The sessions I attended were mostly in the ‘demonstrating value’ stream, and I found many of the workshops particularly useful. I found that it was helpful to have to think of real life examples, and we were encouraged to share our ideas and processes with someone sitting near us, which also helped break the ice. I enjoyed the practical elements of these workshops, which provided a nice contrast to the keynotes. I also took some time out from ‘demonstrating value’ to go to the ‘digital futures’ stream and a session on MOOCs and small-scale CPD for library and information professionals. I found this interesting, having participated in one MOOC so far, and working towards my second year of revalidation, always being on the lookout for different ways to do CPD.

Exhibition

As I very rarely buy anything other than preservation supplies, I hadn’t been expecting to get much out of the exhibition, but, spurred on by a sheet to fill in with a sticker from each exhibitor, and the possibility of winning an iPad if this was completed, I spent some time on both days visiting each stand. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed meeting all the exhibitors and finding out about their products. Most of them also appeared to be interested to meet me, and I think it was a good way of finding out about new products and services, which I can always tell colleagues about, even if they aren’t so relevant to my own role. 

Rather amazing surroundings for the exhibition

Networking

Taking part in networking between sessions was one of my main reasons for wanting to attend the conference. It proved to be very different to networking at the smaller conference I have been used to attending, as with 600 people there and no delegate list in advance, it was hard to work out who I would like to meet with once there. I found that manning the ARLG stall during one of the breaks helped, as people then came up to talk to me and found out about ARLG, and I did manage to arrange to meet up with a few people by using social media in advance of the conference. I think this was something of a missed opportunity though, as with a delegate list in advance and people’s Twitter details, for instance, it would have been a lot easier to arrange a meet up. It was possible to register as an event attendee on the conference app in advance, which I did, but very few people did this.

ARLG stand

What now?

So, what next? The conference was an intense couple of days, but I came away feeling like I’d got a better grasp of the ‘bigger picture’ in librarianship, as well as picking up some useful tips for demonstrating value. I’m hoping I’ll be able to put some of those into practice in my job over the next few months. I’ve provided feedback to CILIP on ways in which I think the conference was beneficial, as well as how it could be improved – particularly the venue, which really wasn’t very accessible with huge numbers of steps everywhere, but there were also issues with timekeeping and sessions running over. My thanks go to the ARLG London & South East for sponsoring my place.

The speakers' presentations are now available on the conference website.

Out of the box: enabling access to archives

The day after the charismatic connecting course, I went on a very different day. This was held at Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives, and was themed around the issue of accessibility to archives. I'd thought we were doing OK on accessibility where I work (as a couple of people who use wheelchairs had been able to use our collections with no problem) until a dyslexic student with a looming coursework deadline had arrived needing help with some handwritten autobiographies and I didn't know where to start.

This was a free day organised by THLHLA as part of the "out of the box" project, with support from The National Archives and a local disability arts organisation, Film pro. It started with seven 10 minute case studies (with a break halfway through!) from a range of organisations, demonstrating accessibility projects they had worked on. These included:

• Out of the box project (Tower Hamlets)
• Film pro
• Royal Air Force Museum - which had won an Autism Access Award. Their information packs are available to download from their website.
• Hackney Museum, which actively encourages people to say how the museum can be made more accessible.
• Sara Griffiths from The National Archives talked about their There Be Monsters [pdf link], which built a permanent legacy in the grounds, and Prisoner 4099 projects.
• Surrey Heritage about how they try to be accessible by having a guide on their website, working with groups to tailor a particular approach (e.g. they have records from asylums that have since closed, and they worked with Woking Mind to identify the places and people in photographs), have different mice and keyboards available, have a handling collection for use by people with visual impairments and produce tactile books based on stories from the archives. All the staff have been trained in being dementia-friendly and they are holding trial coffee mornings to try and help stimulate the memories of people with dementia.
• Chris Haydon from Freewheelers Theatre talked about their work producing a series of films about the history of disability in Surrey and on the Epsom Cluster of mental health hospitals.

A free (and very tasty) lunch was then provided, with plenty of time to talk to other participants about accessibility in their archives and special collections, plus an opportunity to look at the exhibition in the foyer area of the library.

The afternoon kicked off with a poetry reading by one of the Out of the box participants, Sarah. Her poetry was very funny and gave a great insight into how she had felt about using archival collections. As with the There Be Monsters project at The National Archives, it was good to see different, creative, outlets for research in archives, rather than an academic article etc.

The participants then divided into three groups to discuss topics of interest to them from a suggested three:
a) Improving access to the archives searchroom and catalogues
b) Access to collections for people with learning disabilities
c) Use and promotion of archives as artistic/creative stimuli
I opted for a), as I felt this was the most pertinent to my own situation. Ideas that came out of my discussion group included:

• Having "creative enablers" around to help on targeted days, much like a "buddy" type system. The creative enabler can help to remove those barriers to research.
• Implications of the Care Act 2014, which encourages co-production between health and social services, service users and providers. It may be that there are funding sources available from adult social care as the key is personalisation - that it's geared to the needs of the individual service user.
• Have an "access group" with the aim of demystifying a visit to archives/special collections and building confidence to help get people through the door. This might suit a volunteer who is already a keen user of collections.
• Running a new user induction session, which would apply to any user, not just someone who is disabled.

We also talked about the problems of making archive catalogues accessible. Archives Hub is very clear and easy to use, but specific archive catalogues tend to be much less so. The catalogue at The Keep was recommended as particularly good though. We all agreed that one of the huge problems is lack of resources - everyone had a cataloguing backlog, which then makes it hard to justify spending time doing things like transcribing records.

At the end of the day each group reported back to all of us. I really enjoyed my day on this workshop. There was a lot to think about, and I also made some useful contacts. My thanks to the organisers.

Training: Charismatic connecting

I'd spotted that our Staff Development department at work was running a day's training on networking skills, which I thought looked interesting and useful.  The day was led by Russell Wardrop from Kissing with Confidence, an organisation that offers training in public speaking, networking, coaching, influencing and negotiating.

I had wondered in advance whether we were going to spend the day learning how to shake hands etc, and, whilst we did do a tiny bit of that, there was a whole lot more to it! The day was split into four chunks, and at the beginning we were each given a reflective sheet to fill in, to note specific skills we'd learnt each time, plus what we should start and stop doing, do more of and change. This helped me to think about what I'd learnt in each section and reflect on it.

We started off by talking about self-confidence, where it comes from and how you can develop it. It is connected with both skills and self-awareness, so being aware of a skills deficit and taking action to acquire those skills, will help you to develop self-confidence. Simple preparatory measures, such as looking into who the other delegates are in advance of a conference and thinking about who you would like to talk to, all help.

Then we worked our way through the seven principles:

1. Self-awareness
This covered self-regard and resilience, optimism, happiness and assertiveness. We looked at practical ways of building optimism and happiness.
2. Accentuate the positive
No one wants to hang around with someone negative, so think about your personal narrative and how you can focus on the positive.
3. Be a chameleon



A chameleon. From Wikimedia Commons

When networking, you need to adapt to the other person's style. Every word they say is a clue to their lives and really good networkers really listen to what is being said. We then went on to discuss the different types of listening (active, passive, selective) and how to be a good active listener, which means making it obvious that you are listening. One of the great things about the day was the opportunity to keep practising what we'd been learning by engaging with the others on the course. At one point I had to be a deliberately very passive listener, which was actually quite hard!
4. Be appropriately memorable
I could think of so many ways to be inappropriately memorable... But that wasn't the point. We talked about dress, body language, small talk and knowledge and how, whilst you can show your personality, it's important to demonstrate respect for the other person and show that you have made an effort. Think about how you would like people to remember you after your meeting. We then did an exercise working on small talk and swopping partners as we added in different aspects to work on. It was helpful to try out different postures, and think about how each makes you come across. I also found this section useful as we had a diagram of a room at an event, with various people identified on it, and we discussed the pros and cons of approaching these people.
5. Mastering modern manners
This section started with us brainstorming in groups the top ten things that annoy us. A lot of the annoyances seemed to be about the appropriate use of mobile phones(!), but the general theme was behaviour that seems to indicate someone isn't thinking of others, such as poor timekeeping, being unreliable or failing to say please/thank you. Again, much food for thought, as the lists were individual to each of us, although with significant crossover, and it made us think about how we come across to others, and simple things to do to help people think well of you.
6. Guard your reputation
Related to this was guarding your reputation. Once people are thinking well of you, you want to it stay that way! We talked about what we'd like to be known for, including professionalism, discretion and knowledge of our specialism. We also talked about our three levels of network: our personal networks, which consist of our friends and maybe social activities/clubs we belong to, our operational networks, which are our colleagues at work, and our strategic networks, which are the people with the bigger picture, and include our coaches and mentors.
7. Follow up
Finally, we learnt about following up. How many times have you taken someone's card or email address at a conference and promised to be in touch, and then not followed through?! Yet, without follow up, there's no point doing all the previous six principles. We discussed being assertive in following up, how to end a conversation with a promise of a future meeting, and then how to go about arranging that. For example, you are far more likely to get someone to agree to spend 20/30 minutes meeting you for a coffee, than suggesting a lengthy meeting a long way from where they work.

This is only a brief overview of the day's course, but I learnt a huge amount from it, plus a lot which I can hopefully put into practice at events I'm attending over the summer for work.

Training: Train the Trainers

Train the Trainers was a morning workshop run by the Educational Excellence Centre at work, aimed at the subject liaison librarians, who are in the same team as me. SLLs do more teaching than I do, but I still found the hints and tips I picked up through the morning useful for the teaching that I do - mainly training staff, students and other users in how to handle material, introducing groups to Special Collections, and running sessions, such as Using Special Collections in your dissertation.



Me, during a workshop for a community group visiting Special Collections for the first time

We discussed what the difference is between training and teaching. The trainer can only provide the opportunity and environment for learning, it is the individual's responsibility to take their own learning from there. We then moved on to talk about the process of learning and teaching. Apparently the average attention span these days is only 11 minutes (I'm sure it was 20 minutes when I was a student!), so, in an hour's session, you should make sure you change activity 3 or 4 times per session to keep their attention.

We moved on to talk about the key components of the learning and teaching process:
Aims - Goals - Objectives - Methods - Assessment - Evaluation - and back round to Aims again. So a training cycle would look like:
Identification of training needs - Plan & design course - Deliver course - Evaluation of course
Learning objectives are essential, as without them you don't have a clear direction for the students to go in. Objectives should be expressed using action verbs and be specific, so "understand" isn't one as it isn't specific enough. 

We touched on learning theory, Kolb's Learning Cycle (basically, what you learn as a child, when you touch a hot radiator, discover it's too hot to be comfortable, and then don't repeat that behaviour) and Honey and Mumford's Learning Styles, which led to us each doing a questionnaire about which learning style suited each of us best. I am a mixture of three of them! These need to be borne in mind when planning teaching.

Then we looked at deep learning versus surface learning, as it is important for students to develop deep learning: learning for life, which encourages critical analysis of ideas, how to apply them and use them for problem solving. And then how to design teaching for deep learning.

Finally we looked at facilitating a learning and teaching session.

I found the session a useful way of learning more about teaching and learning. Hopefully I will get a chance to apply some of what I've learnt in Special Collections.

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.

ILM Level 3 Leadership and management

I'd been keen to take a qualification in leadership and management for a while. My MA in Library and Information Studies included a module on management, but that was only one module, so it had to cover a lot, and I felt like I could do with more of a grounding in theory and chance to reflect on practice now that I've been working in a variety of professional posts. Fortunately the chance came up through staff development where I work, to take a qualification through the Institute of Leadership and Management (part of City and Guilds), over the course of about six months. There were five one day training courses, and five coursework assignments to be completed. A group of us from across the university took it, and it was a great opportunity to get to know how other parts of the university work. The units were chosen by staff development, reflecting the needs expressed within the university.

Unit 1: Solving problems and making decisions
We looked at how to define a problem and different methods of finding a solution to it. The coursework involved defining a problem within our own workplace and then examining ways to solve it. In advance, I'd thought this was going to be relatively straightforward - I was just amused that I was going to have a whole day's training on making decisions(!) - but it turned out to be really thorough and included learning some useful techniques: such as making sure you've defined the problem before you get started on trying to find a solution, collecting all the data you need to help you find a solution, and then applying problem solving techniques such as brainstorming, mind mapping and using SWOT analysis. We had a go at various techniques to find out what worked best for each of us. I also found that the decision making checklist useful, as not only do you have to make a decision, you then have to communicate it to others successfully, set SMART objectives to make sure it is achieved and follow up to make sure that progress is as you expected. The course also looked at interpreting and presenting data.

Unit 2: Understanding innovation and change in an organisation
This unit was to develop knowledge and understanding of innovation and change within our own institution. The coursework focussed on outlining the benefits to change and what any barriers could be, as well as what could be done to overcome the barriers. Then we looked at what planning and review techniques could be used to manage change and innovation. This really helped me to put things into context, as a couple of organisations I have worked for have either restructured just before I arrived, or restructured whilst I've been in my role, and this unit helped me to see the bigger picture, and also how reactions to it are to be expected. What was definitely essential to take on board were that innovation and change are definitely going to happen and aren't something to be feared!

Unit 3: Understand how to establish an effective team
The year before I'd already done a staff development one day course on effective team management, so this reiterated a lot of what I'd learnt then. It was useful to revise what I'd learnt, learn a bit more and talk about what had worked in practice. We talked about developing trust in the workplace, and how it relates to building a team, and then how to develop that team. I found some parts hard to relate to practical work though - looking at the average composition of a team (60% backbone/reliable producers, 20% developing, 10% fairly new and progressing well and 10% either very new, inexperienced or inadequate), I'm not sure how that relates to the often very small teams of people who work in a Special Collections environment?! Again, I'd looked at team roles using Belbin in a couple of jobs, and found it useful for the insights it offers into how some teams work, and how teams can be helped to work.

Unit 4: Understanding organising and delegating in the workplace
This unit was to develop knowledge and understanding of how to organise and delegate. The coursework again needed us to use examples from our own workplace. We had to show that we understood how to organise people to achieve objectives and how to delegate in order to achieve them. There was some reiteration of techniques learnt in the earlier solving problems and making decisions module, as well as effective team management. Obviously, good delegation requires planning well in advance and being organised, skills we'd already looked at in some detail earlier on. I found this module helped me clarify what I understood about delegation - who is responsible for what, and what the guidelines are for successful delegation to take place. Again though, as with the previous module, some of this seemed to be aimed at large teams of people, rather than the much smaller teams typically found in Special Collections.

Unit 5: Understand how to lead effective meetings
This unit covered what makes a meeting effective and the procedures and planning to put in place to ensure that this happens. The coursework required us to demonstrate that we knew how to prepare, plan and manage a meeting. In advance I thought this would be pretty straightforward - who, after all, hasn't been to hundreds of meetings and thought of ways they could be improved?! It was actually really helpful: covering such things as defining the purpose of the meeting (otherwise, what is the point of having it?), the roles and responsibilities of everyone at the meeting (if you don't have a role or a responsibility, then why are you there?), practicalities (checking everything is in place in advance of your meeting), taking minutes and how to chair effectively. It was good to know that it's sensible and more productive to include breaks in the agenda of longer meetings (every 45-60 minutes is recommended), even if those don't necessarily involve having another cup of tea! And I particularly appreciated the hints to help the meeting flow smoothly, such as not allowing Any Other Business to be included, but instead making sure all topics to be discussed are on the agenda in advance.

The course also included an introductory workshop on writing the coursework assignments, something I benefitted from as this was a very different style of writing to the one I'm used to, and a final work-place implementation meeting, where we discussed what had worked for us on the course, and what hadn't. 

Although it was a struggle at times fitting the coursework in, I am very glad that I had the opportunity to take this course and that I completed it. I feel like I have learnt a lot, and brought new skills away. I would recommend it to others thinking of taking a leadership and management qualification.
 

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.