Workshop Catalog

Presenter: Clare Flemming, Consulting Archivist. Accessioning is a crucial step in acquiring materials at any collecting institution, as the process by which legal and physical ownership is transferred to the organization. This webinar will address the importance of accessioning, as well as essential components of an accessioning policy, accessioning workflows, and how to handle “found in collection” items.

You’ve completed a records inventory. You’ve disposed of obsolete records. You’re done! Or are you? An important outcome of a records inventory is a records management plan. This webinar will teach you how to analyze all the inventory data you’ve collected and use it to create a records management plan.

Lost records have left their original owner's custody without permission. These records may have been stolen, forgotten, or accidentally left behind, and are now in the custody of new owners.

This workshop:

• Examines how records become lost
• Shows how to keep records in custody
• Outlines strategies to regain custody, if necessary
• Discusses issues to consider when donating archival records to another organization

Ask us anything about book preservation and learn the basics of caring for and creating access to bound materials in your collections. This webinar will cover common storage and housing recommendations, handling and access, and general considerations for preservation in exhibits for books. You will leave with a better understanding of the structure of a book, common materials used in bookmaking, and how these elements play a role in preserving these materials.

Have a question for a conservator? This program will include plenty of time to ask questions of CCAHA Senior Book Conservator Eliza Gilligan. Questions with photographs can be submitted prior to the webinar by emailing amurray@dhpsny.org. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions live during the session.

In this webinar, co-facilitators Aria Camaione-Lind and Meredith Horsford will use the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum Alliance as a case study to explore organizational policy that yields antiracist results. Aria and Meredith will introduce sample statements and policies that have supported antiracist action at other organizations, and invite conversation and participation around creating statements and policies for organizations in attendance.

Museums, libraries, archives, and cultural heritage organizations are reckoning with their relationships to and with the indigenous communities of New York State. This program is designed for people who work in or volunteer for museums, libraries, archives, and cultural heritage organizations and for sites looking for practical opportunities to center indigenous voices, experiences, and perspectives in collections, programming, and community engagement.

The State Archives provides grants to local governments through its competitive grant program, the Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund (LGRMIF). This webinar is an introduction to the Shared Services type of grant. Shared Services projects involve two or more local governments working together with one government acting as the lead. This is Part 2 of a six part series on the LGRMIF program.

This webinar focuses on:

• Defining Shared Services projects
• Explaining their advantages 
• Providing examples of projects
• Showing how to write a strong application

This workshop will introduce techniques to identify records that are necessary for adequate documentation of local governments and the communities they serve. Identifying records which have enduring value is one of the most challenging tasks of an archival program.

Through lectures, cases studies, and exercises, participants will explore the current methodology for appraising records, learn how to use State Archives schedules in identifying archival records, and discuss how to apply the techniques to their own local governments' records.

• Series of brief, pre-recorded, lectures presented by DHPSNY staff 
• Mini-quiz checkpoints to test your knowledge 
• Interactive discussion boards 
• Comprehensive resource guides

While conventional wisdom holds that archivists should refrain from taking subjective stances in their work, there have been increasing calls in the field to recognize that the historical record from which archives are drawn is far from neutral. How can we expect archivists to remain objective when engaging with politically fraught materials that are potentially held within institutions founded on principles that do not reflect current societal values? In this webinar, we discuss the importance of recognizing that our own positions impact the work we do in collections fields.

• Historical records identification
• Appraisal
• Disposition

Is your local government or state agency thinking about imaging records and you don't know where to start? Want to know more about deciding whether certain records should be scanned? Do you want to learn more about scanning specifications like file format, resolution, and color? This Ask Us Anything is for you!

October is National Archives Month and the State Archives is marking the occasion by holding a forum where state agencies and local governments can ask their most pressing questions about electronic records storage. Our focus for this session will best practices in selecting and managing electronic records storage.

Panelists for this event will consist of New York State Archives staff in Local Government Advisory Services & Scheduling and State Agency Services.

Come prepared with your questions or just join us to hear what others want to know and learn more about this topic.

If you’d like, you can send in your question early to recmgmt@nysed.gov (link sends e-mail) with the subject line “Ask Us Anything” and we’ll answer them during the webinar.

Want to know more about how to design an effective storage space? Document records locations as they move between the office and storage? Choose shelving, boxes, labels, or other storage materials? Join State Archives staff specializing in Local Government Advisory Services and Scheduling & State Agency Services for a special session marking National Records Management Month where attendees share their questions about storing their inactive records. Your questions determine the content!

Come prepared with your questions or just join us to hear what others want to know and learn more about this topic.

If you’d like, you can send in your question early to recmgmt@nysed.gov with the subject line “Ask Us Anything about Inactive Storage” and we’ll answer them during the webinar.

Processing and purging records, in any format, are essential steps in the records management lifecycle. Records management programs should plan a cycle for transferring and processing inactive records and identifying and purging obsolete records. When faced with mountains of paper or electronic records, getting started may seem daunting. You may wonder where to start, or how to transfer, identify, organize, apply retention schedules, or separate obsolete records from those you must keep.

This webinar combines panelists from the New York State Archives’ Local Government Advisory Services and Scheduling and State Agency Services to answer your questions about processing and purging Inactive records. Come prepared with your questions or just join us to hear what others want to know and learn more about this topic.

We welcome questions in advance! Feel free to email questions to recmgmt@nysed.gov with the subject line “Ask Us Anything” and we’ll answer them during the webinar. 

October is National Archives Month and the State Archives is marking the occasion by holding a forum where state agencies and local governments can ask their most pressing questions about appraising their records for historical value.

Our focus for this session are the following areas:

• Why is appraisal important
• How to appraise records

Panelists for this event will consist of New York State Archives staff in Local Government Advisory Services & Scheduling and State Agency Services. It is recommended that attendees watch the State Archives records appraisal training sessions listed below prior to attending the training.

•  Records Retention Module #7: Appraisal - Local Context
•  Records Retention Module #8: Appraisal - Local Scenarios
•  Records Retention Module #9: Appraisal - State Agencies

Come prepared with your questions or just join us to hear what others want to know and learn more about this topic.

If you’d like, you can send in your question early to recmgmt@nysed.gov (link sends e-mail) with the subject line “Ask Us Anything” and we’ll answer them during the webinar.

• Why records inventories are important
• How to conduct records inventories
• What governments should do with the results of their inventories

The State Archives is holding a forum where state agencies and local governments can ask their most pressing records management questions.

Come prepared with your questions or just join us to hear what others want to know and learn more about records management.

If you’d like, you can send in your question early to recmgmt@nysed.gov with the subject line “Ask Us Anything” and we’ll answer them during the webinar.

April is National Records Management Month and the State Archives is marking the occasion by holding a forum where state agencies and local governments can ask their most pressing questions about creating and using records management policies and procedures.

Panelists for this event will consist of New York State Archives staff in Local Government Advisory Services & Scheduling and State Agency Services.

Come prepared with your questions or just join us to hear what others want to know and learn more about this topic.

If you’d like, you can send in your question early to recmgmt@nysed.gov with the subject line “Ask Us Anything” and we’ll answer them during the webinar.

This session will go through and discuss the changes made to the Local Government Retention Schedule (LGS-1) as part of the Spring 2022 update and offer attendees the opportunity to ask any questions they have about records retention.

Determine whether your organization’s program meets basic requirements and includes key functions to properly manage records and protect your organization from potential risks.

Presenter: David Neary, Project Manager, Media Preservation Initiative, Whitney Museum of American Art. Audiovisual materials are abundant in collections - from moving images on film or video, to audiocassettes, CDs and DATs. Despite their constant presence on the shelf, the data they hold is at risk from the threats of degradation and obsolescence. Transferring to more durable formats will help ensure their preservation, but where do you start? Reformatting projects can be overwhelming, and this webinar is intended to help you get started. Topics addressed will include what you need to know before planning a reformatting project, reformatting in-house, and knowing when to seek out a vendor.

Today most records are created electronically yet many state agencies and local governments still struggle to manage mounds of paper. This webinar will explore some of the reasons this problem persists, and suggests some practical solutions that will help agencies and governments reduce the amount of paper to be managed and better manage their digital records.

This program will cover the role of wet salvage of paper-based collections as part of a larger incident response. After an overview of emergency preparation and response protocols, participants will take on incident response roles and run through a mock-flood scenario. In this hands-on program, participants will work in groups to salvage and triage a variety of collection items from a pool, including papers, photographs, and bound materials. A post-scenario debrief gives participants the opportunity to review their actions with workshop instructors.

Presenters: Gillian Marcus, Preservation Specialist, DHPSNY; Jennifer Palmentiero, Digital Services Librarian, Southeastern New York Library Resource Council. Many collecting institutions have newspaper in their collections, from clippings to entire runs of publications. There are myriad issues with newspaper collections that can impede access to important information. This webinar will focus on the common problems with newspaper collections and what steps institutions can take to prevent deterioration. Presenters will also discuss the importance of digitization, microfilming and current programs that support this work for newspaper collections.

Presenter: Susan Weinrich, Vice President of Organizational and Community Development, New York Council of Nonprofits. Boards can use committees to get their work done effectively and efficiently- or they can become frustrated by the lack of leadership, engagement, and clearly defined purpose. This session will explore best practices and creative strategies for using committees to increase engagement, focus, and productively.

Presenter: Andrew Marietta, Vice President of Regional Development, New York Council of Nonprofits. This session will provide an overview of how board members can foster a pro-active approach to financial resource development including policy making, planning, fundraising, and strategy development. We will also define and explore the various active roles board members can play as donors, ambassadors, advocates, and askers.

Membership programs can offer plenty of benefits to organizations, however, it can be more difficult to build a thriving membership program than many nonprofits expect. This presentation will cover steps organizations can take to revitalize their membership programs, including understanding the value of a membership program; surveying the membership on their engagement; reviewing and reenergizing membership benefits; and rethinking the membership relationship from a transaction for benefits to an investment and partnership.

Susan Weinrich, Vice President of Organizational and Community Development, New York Council of Nonprofits. Board leadership and engagement isn’t happened upon through luck, nor is it something to be taken for granted. Board building should be an ongoing process with year-round activities and clear strategic goals. In this session we will explore board recruitment, engagement, and assessment, strategies, and identify and recognize what motivates board members to excel in their roles.

Join us for a webinar that takes an in-depth look at what defines a successful digital collection. Drawing on examples from New York Heritage Digital Collections and other repositories, we will examine current standards and best practices. This webinar will cover each stage of the digitization process, from selecting materials to creating metadata and digital objects.

Photographs are ubiquitous in collections, and managing and caring for these materials present unique challenges. This workshop will cover the basics of care and management for photographic collections. We will discuss how photographic collections are defined and described, spend time looking at different types of photographic materials, and consider how materials impact preservation, storage, and housing decisions. Emphasis will be given to scalable solutions for preservation. A hands-on housing activity will provide participants with experience creating enclosures.

Presenter: Amelia Parks, Archives Specialist, DHPSNY. Having essential policies and procedures in place is crucial for a properly functioning and thriving collection. This webinar focuses on one of these, the Collection Management Policy (CMP).

Presenter: Anastasia Matijkiw, Program Coordinator, DHPSNY. This webinar provides an introduction to collections care basics through the ten agents of deterioration: physical force; theft and vandalism; fire; water; pests; pollutants; light; incorrect temperature; incorrect relative humidity; and custodial neglect.

Choosing a Collections Management System (CMS) can be daunting for any institution. Every institution has different needs for a CMS and there are lots of great systems on the market. When choosing a CMS, everything from staff size and make up, to hardware capabilities, to public use must be considered. No one wants to end up with a CMS that does not suit them five years down the road. This workshop can help any sized institution be prepared to choose potential contractors and have meaningful conversations with them by providing tools for you to define what your institution needs, find potential CMS contractors, and ensure you are prepared to work with them. 

Choosing a Collections Management System (CMS) can be daunting for any institution. Every institution has different needs for a CMS and there are lots of great systems on the market. When choosing a CMS, everything from staff size and make up, to hardware capabilities, to public use must be considered. No one wants to end up with a CMS that does not suit them five years down the road. This workshop can help any sized institution be prepared to choose potential contractors and have meaningful conversations with them by providing tools for you to define what your institution needs, find potential CMS contractors, and ensure you are prepared to work with them. 

Presenter: Amber Hares, Book Conservator, Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts. The second presentation in our Common Collection Conditions series, this webinar discusses how to identify common condition problems found in book collections and introduce five priority levels that can be utilized to categorize collection items based on the urgency of conservation needs.

Presenter: Benjamin Iluzada, Housing Technician, Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts. The third presentation in our Common Collection Conditions series, this webinar will discuss common housing issues found within an institution's collection, as well as recommendations for how to address them both in-house and externally.

Presenter: Heather Hendry, Senior Paper Conservator, Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts. Every collection will have some condition issues, and every organization has limits on the level of collections care they can institute. However, by both understanding the overall condition of a collection and identifying urgent items, organizations can determine how to best allocate resources within an overall preservation plan. This webinar will discuss how to identify common condition problems found in paper objects and introduce five priority levels that can be utilized to categorize collection items based on the urgency of conservation needs.

Presenter: Barbara Lemmen, Senior Photograph Conservator, Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts. The fourth presentation in our Common Collection Conditions series, this webinar will discuss how to identify common condition problems found in photograph collections and introduce five priority levels that can be utilized to categorize collection items based on the urgency of conservation needs.

Presenter: Kate Philipson, Archives Specialist, DHPSNY. Inventorying collections is one of the most crucial parts of any collections management program. A thorough inventory underpins good intellectual control, emergency preparedness and response, security, and helps to determine preservation priorities. This webinar will discuss the process and principles for carrying out a basic inventory of your archival, library, or museum collections.

To have an efficient and functional records management program it is critical for governments to maintain an up-to-date inventory of their records. This webinar introduces participants to the planning, implementation, and analysis of a records inventory for paper records.

The program will discuss:

• How a records inventory can help you control records
• How to plan for and carry out a records inventory
•  Identifying records to inventory
• Collecting meaningful inventory data
• Analyzing the results of the inventory
• How to identify retention periods for records

This webinar will present strategies for filing records that you can apply to paper or electronic records. It will focus on how to develop a filing system that will keep your records organized, accessible and easy to identify for disposition.

As collection caretakers, we often have to balance the primary goals of care and access. Setting safe boundaries for physical access to collections can be accomplished by providing consistent handling procedures for anyone using collection materials. In this webinar, DHPSNY Preservation Specialist Amanda Murray will discuss writing handling guidelines, training both staff and researchers on how to properly handle materials, determining specific guidelines for particularly fragile materials, and housing considerations for heavily used materials.

Presenter: Barbara Lemmen, Senior Photograph Conservator, Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts. This webinar covers the types of materials that benefit most from or are unsuited to cold storage conditions, concentrating on photographic materials. The differences between cold and frozen systems, such as equipment types and preparation and access to a collection, are also explored.

Local governments and state agencies use email to communicate with staff, circulate internal documents, authorize actions, approve payments, interpret terms of contracts, correspond with the public, and in many other ways to support business. Email used for business will contain records that governments should identify, retain, and dispose like records in other formats.

This webinar will provide an overview of key areas for developing email policy, including access, discovery, retention, disposition, storage, preservation, security, and appropriate use. The discussion will include strategies for policy creation that focus on end user cooperation, system automation, retention, and disposition.

• This class will help you develop your knowledge of the scope of your electronic records collection – its size, the range of formats, and the themes it covers.
• Provide tool to inventory e-records
• It will help you understand which records in your collections are at the highest risk for degradation and most in need of preservation.
• Finally, the class will help you to develop an Action Plan to address E-Records priorities.

This session is intended to help State Agencies and Local Governments develop office schedules that they can use to simplify records retention.  You will learn:

• What office schedules are
• Why they're effective
• How to start creating one to meet your organization's needs

This webinar identifies the key components for developing, renewing, or reviving a successful records management program. Each program may be a little unique due to the size of the government and its resources, but a successful program is not a task to be tackled by the records management officer acting alone.

The DHPSNY Antiracism Programming in 2024 is structured around both the AASLH Making History at 250 Field Guide and the New York State 250th Field Guide Our guiding question for 2024 is: How do we make our collecting organizations interdisciplinary and representative of the realities of our many New York histories? The February program focuses on an introduction to the field guides and a discussion of Indigenous history as New York history. This program invites participants to grapple with Indigenous history and (historic/contemporary) experiences of Indigenous people and communities as an opportunity for organizations facilitating difficult and necessary conversations about their site’s and collection’s relationship to Indigenous communities in what is now New York State. This program is designed for anyone who works in or volunteers for a library, archive, museum, historical society, or history/culture site in New York State.

The upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States in 2026 is a crucial moment for New York collecting institutions to advance the field through intentional commemoration planning and programming. Inspired by the AASLH Making History at 250 Field Guide and the New York State 250th Field Guide, the focus of the DHPSNY’s 2024 antiracism programming revolves around building an inclusive 250th and the guiding question: "How do we make our collecting organizations interdisciplinary and representative of the realities of our many New York histories?"
This March, we invite you to explore the intersectional narratives of "We the People" and the American Experiment in what is present-day New York State during 250th commemoration and beyond. We encourage participants to critically examine their organizations' collections, exhibits, programs, and institutional planning through the lens of intersectionality. How will we reach all of our audiences? How do we get hard to reach people involved in this work? How do we keep folks engaged over multiple years? This program is designed for anyone who works in or volunteers for a library, archive, museum, historical society, or history/culture site in New York State.

The DHPSNY team is excited to continue to offer Planning & Assessment Services in 2021, having spent time in 2020 perfecting our approach to a safe, virtual delivery. On March 10th, Join Program Manager Anastasia Matijkiw to learn more about DHPSNY’s Planning & Assessment Services, including what virtual assessments entail, how to apply, and more.

DHPSNY’s Planning & Assessment Services consist of Archival Needs Assessments, Preservation Surveys, Condition Surveys, and Strategic Planning Assistance. In each instance, our services aim to improve adherence to best practices and are tailored to an organization’s unique circumstances. The deadline for the next round of applications for DHPSNY planning and assessment services is March 26, 2021.

Presenter: Bonita Weddle, Coordinator of Electronic Records, New York State Archives This webinar focuses on simple, practical first steps small repositories can take toward digital preservation and points you to a wide array of helpful resources.

Successful digital preservation programs consider more than technical solutions. Good planning and documentation are critical to establishing and sustaining an organization's commitment to preserving digital content. This webinar will provide an introduction to digital preservation with a focus on the non-technical components of starting a digital preservation program. Topics covered include: assessing organizational needs and capacity; creating a digital asset inventory; and developing digital preservation policies, plans, and procedures.

Disasters are all too common in New York State. Each year, records are damaged and information is lost as a result of floods, arson, fires, collapsed roofs, or computer viruses. Participants will complete, as part of the workshop, a draft disaster plan that can become the outline of a final plan focused on the protection of their organization's permanent and vital records.

This workshop will explain:

• How to judge your organization's risk of experiencing a disaster
• How to reduce the chances that a disaster will destroy your records
• How to prepare your organization for a disaster
• How to respond to a disaster safely and effectively

Are you prepared for disaster? Do you have a plan ready to avoid or recover from a records disaster quickly, safely, and effectively? This webinar will present actual disaster and recovery examples to illustrate how to respond to a disaster to your records. It will also discuss planning to mitigate damage that could occur to your organization's records management operations.

Although imaging systems can store and quickly retrieve a large volume of documents, they can rarely be justified on that basis alone. To make optimal use of this technology, state agencies and local governments must understand standards and best practices for scanning records and maintaining them in these systems.

This workshop will cover:

• Current imaging and scanning practices
• What you need to know to prepare for a scanning project
• How to incorporate Records Management principles into scanning your records
• Strategies and best practices for conducting your own scanning project 

Presenter: Susan Weinrich, Vice President of Organizational and Community Development, New York Council of Nonprofits, Inc. This session provides a broad overview of the fiduciary, ethical, and policy making responsibilities of the board. It covers the key functions of the board and provides practical guidance and an overview of best practices for board members to individually and collectively achieve excellence in governance performance. Participants will gain an understanding of how to develop and maintain an engaged board focused on ensuring mission alignment, planning for the organization’s future, ensuring adequate resources and strong financial oversight, and for those organizations with employees, building a strong working partnership with staff leadership.‌

Along with the growing numbers of electronic records being created in government today comes the growing need to provide appropriate data storage. This non-technical workshop is intended to provide records managers with a basic overview of common ways electronic data is stored and an understanding of how it fits in with records management.

This workshop will cover:

• Terms and strategies commonly used
• How electronic data storage fits in with records management
• How to determine your data storage needs

Many people believe that an electronic content management system (ECM) is merely an electronic document imaging system, but it is actually a software system that allows for the creation, indexing, management, and retrieval of documents in various formats (including image files) through a single interface.

After a brief introduction to electronic documents, the bulk of this workshop will address:

• Types of technologies and strategies required for their management
• How governments can determine whether or not they need an ECM
• How to plan for, implement, and maintain an ECM

• RMO and IT decision making
• Cloud Computing
• email management
• social media and local government
• preserving electronic records
• eRecords and the law
• inventorying automated systems
• policies and procedures

• Assess your organization's risk of experiencing an electronic records disaster
• Reduce the chances that a disaster will damage your electronic records
• Salvage various types of electronic media
• Recover data stored on damaged electronic media

Many governments have inventoried their paper records. For a number of reasons, however, governments tend not to inventory their electronic records. As the volume of electronic records continues to grow, it is increasingly important for governments to know their electronic records and develop a plan for managing them systematically. This workshop will provide an overview on how to conduct an electronic records inventory and the action steps to take when the inventory is complete.

Topics will include:

• Reasons to conduct an e-records inventory
• Identifying records to inventory
• Collecting meaningful inventory data
• Analyzing the results of the inventory
• Developing an e-records plan and program

State agencies and local governments use email daily to communicate, administer, and transact public business. The result is often copious amounts of emails. Most emails are transitory messages that governments can delete after they no longer need them. However, others may be records governments must retain to fulfill retention requirements.

The key to managing email is understanding how it is used in your organization and creating policies for use and management.

This webinar is a primer to help you

• Identify emails that are records (and those that are not),
• Determine retention periods for email records,
• Consider strategies for email retention,
• File, maintain, and preserve e-mail, and
• Develop policies for email use and management.

Approximately 95% of New York’s government records, spread throughout its local governments and State agencies, are scheduled for eventual destruction.  What about the other 5% whose business, research, or historical value require that they remain accessible forever?  And, more specifically, what about the emails that fall within this category?

 During this webinar, we will discuss emails as permanent records, the challenges of maintaining access to them, and differing roles of local governments and State agencies in the preservation process.  We’ll also talk about how the State Archives manages the emails in its collections to ensure that they will remain available for future researchers and business users. 

When an emergency strikes the simplest tasks can seem overwhelming, even when you have a clear preparedness and response plan in place for your collections. While you cannot prepare for everything, understanding how local first responders handle emergencies can influence your own preparedness plan and leave you more prepared for the situations you may encounter. This webinar will highlight what to expect when working with local first responders during an emergency and advice for ensuring coordinated responses that are as smooth as possible.

Presenter: Amelia Parks, Archives Specialist, DHPSNY
One of the most important steps any cultural institution can take to safeguard its collections is to be prepared in the event of an emergency or disaster. How do you get started on this process? This webinar will focus on the first steps an institution should take, including drafting a Pocket Response Plan (PReP), determining salvage priorities, and establishing a cache of disaster supplies.

What should you think about when establishing an environmental monitoring plan? What is a datalogger, and how do you select the right one? What are the basic tools needed to implement an environmental monitoring plan? Join Chloe Houseman, Paper Conservator at the Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts, as she explores the importance of managing the environment in collections spaces and offers guidance on how to do so.

Consistency is the key to an effective records management program.  Staff need clear guidance regarding

• what records to keep and for how long,
• how to name and organize their files,
• where to store records, and
• who is responsible for each records management task.

Policies and procedures establish and provide access to rules and processes specific to your records management program.  This webinar will explain how to create records management policies and procedures and provide suggestions on how to implement them.

Fast and accurate retrieval of active office records is critical for the efficient operation of government.

This workshop will discuss how to:

• Assess how well your filing system is working
• Conduct space planning for filing systems
• Use color coding to improve filing systems
• Maintain file security
• Revamp and improve paper and electronic filing systems

The workshop will also provide a number of tips and tools for people who must manage the ever-increasing volume of information that crosses their desks or awaits them each morning on their personal computers.

Presenter: Amelia Parks, Archives Specialist, DHPSNY. This workshop covers the basics of collection-level finding aids and focus on content and formatting as governed by Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS), the descriptive standard for archival materials.

Join DHPSNY Archives Specialist Kate Philipson as she explores practical steps to help you create finding aids on a basic level. In this webinar, Kate will discuss how to prioritize the required elements of a finding aid so that archival description feels attainable, while building upon the 2017 DHPSNY webinar about finding aids. She will also share further details about Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS) by discussing the DACS update process, and examining how the DACS Principles help to frame description work. We will look at some examples of finding aids and take questions, but we will also invite you to a future conversation on September 22, 2021 where we can more directly address your active description challenges and questions about producing finding aids for your organization.

Learn the importance of defining a five-year plan for your records management program, how to get your plan started and keep the momentum going once you get it off the ground.

While having a top-tier collections care program that adheres to best practices might be seen as a goal for your institution, the reality is that there are often barriers related to time, money, and staffing that prevent us from working to achieve the “best.” Using a model that breaks the larger best practices into smaller, attainable benchmarks, participants will be encouraged to think differently about how they approach collections care efforts. This webinar will explore instances in which it is perfectly appropriate for institutions to forgo the “best” in favor of “good” and “better” approaches to preservation that help them make incremental steps towards improved collections care.

Without some system to manage inactive records, you are not dealing with a core issue of records management. When we speak of an inactive records system, we are envisioning a life cycle—an annual process of transferring less active records from office filing equipment to an inactive records storage site, disposing of obsolete records, and providing appropriate storage conditions so that records can be preserved. In addition to this cycle, one must be able to find inactive records in a timely and efficient manner. This webinar will introduce the basic principles of managing inactive records.

This webinar focuses on

• Developing an inactive records storage site
• Environmental and security control of storage areas
• Supplies and equipment needed to manage inactive records
• Transferring records to inactive storage and disposition of obsolete records
• Preservation of permanent and historical records
• Improving access to inactive records 

Photographic materials in all their variety are among the most difficult records to manage and make accessible. With the dawn of new digital technologies, you are now able to share your historical photographs with a wider audience and save wear and tear on the originals. Digitizing your photographic collections opens the door to creative and interesting applications never before dreamed possible. Consider the blossoming world of blogging, websites, e-publications, social media, and so forth as natural venues to share your visual historic treasures. But there are many issues to consider as one prepares for such an endeavor. This webinar will introduce the basic principles of scanning historical photographs.

This webinar focuses on

• What photographic materials you can scan and how
• Selecting a scanner and software to use and how to get the best possible image from them
• How to plan for and carry out a successful photographic imaging project step by step
• State Archives technical standards for file format, image resolution, bit depth, and compression
• Creation of metadata and descriptive information for images
• Options to increase access to your digital images

Presenter: Lee Price, Director of Development, Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts. Viewers of this webinar will learn how to effectively develop and implement a funding strategy to raise money for collections, including the planning process that funders want to see in place and the elements of a successful grant proposal.

Presenter: Lee Price, Director of Development, Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts. In DHPSNY’s second webinar in our funding series, learn more about crafting a successful narrative for your grant applications. With examples drawn from success stories at museums, historic sites, libraries, and archives, this webinar will explore the delicate balancing act of meeting all guideline requirements while telling a compelling story.

Presenters: John Diefenderfer, Archival Advisory Services, New York State Archives; Barbara Lilley, Library Development Specialist, New York State Library. This informational webinar presents two funding sources available to collecting institutions in New York through state funding: The New York State Discretionary Grant Program for the Conservation and Preservation of Library Research Materials (C/P Grants) and the Documentary Heritage Program (DHP) Grants. Presenters discuss eligibility, fundable activities, and the application process for their respective programs.

Whether your relocation project requires moving objects within your building, to temporary storage, or to a new institution; moving archival collections can be a big undertaking for institutions. In 2017, a team from the New York State Archives moved roughly 1500 cubic feet of civil court records from the New York County Clerk's Office in New York City to the New York State Archives in Albany. The collection included 1,100 boxes of records, around 900 volumes that were not in boxes, and about 500 rolls of microfilm to be packed and moved. In this webinar, Maria Holden, former Preservation Officer at the New York State Archives, will share her experience with this major moving project, as well as tips and tricks for how to plan your own move. Aside from the physical move, other considerations that may need to be taken into account when relocating collections, including cost, data collection, intellectual control, and contingency planning will also be discussed.

Are you thinking about submitting a Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund (LGRMIF) grant application in the 2025-2026 grant cycle?

Do you have questions, like:

• What is LGRMIF and who is eligible?
• What can the money be used for?
• How do I get started?
• What kind of information do I need to include in the application?
• What resources are available to help me?

Then join us on this webinar where State Archives’ staff will address these questions and others you may have about getting ready for LGRMIF 2025-2026.

Presenter: Amelia Parks, Archives Specialist, DHPSNY. Having a regular housekeeping program is essential to the preservation of collections. Clean conditions are important for long-term collections care and for good emergency preparedness. This webinar will address how to develop and maintain a housekeeping program for small- and medium-sized institutions, including policies, schedules, and recommended cleaning products.

Presenter: Gillian Marcus, Preservation Specialist, DHPSNY. This webinar guides you through the process of becoming an informed consumer in an often confusing world of products marketed as “archival” or “conservation-grade.”

“Process and purge" - magical words for those who love records management! But what about the rest of us? Faced with mountains of boxed records, how does one process these for efficient storage and access? And how does one appropriately separate obsolete records that may be purged from those that must still be retained? This webinar will walk you through this journey from start to finish sharing 25 years of processing and purging tips and tricks along the way. We will touch on transferring records to inactive storage, identifying and organizing records, applying retention schedules, destroying records, and so much more. Leave your fears behind as you learn to dive into records like the deep end of a swimming pool!

The State Archives provides grants to local governments through its competitive grant program, the Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund (LGRMIF). The eGrants system is the State Archives online application portal for the LGRMIF. It is separate from the New York State Grants Gateway. The eGrants system is designed to manage your grant from application to final reports. This webinar covers the application process only, including getting a user account, navigating the application sections, and forms that are particular to submitting an application. Separate webinars are available for managing a grant in eGrants. This is Part 3 of a six part series on the LGRMIF program.

This webinar focuses on:

• Steps to getting and setting up a user account
• Explaining the Narrative sections and tips on how to complete them 
• Navigating eGrants: The Checklist and Forms Menus
• Breakdown of the electronic forms
• Application printouts and attachments
• Providing guidance on submitting electronic and paper forms

Endangered media formats such as floppy disks, U-matic tapes, and data tapes pose difficult preservation questions for collecting institutions. These increasingly obsolete media formats are sometimes pushed to the side when organizing and preserving archival collections, simply because we often don't know what to do with them. Join Julia Novakovic, Archivist at The Strong National Museum of Play, as she shares her experience with identifying and caring for endangered media formats. This webinar will also address topics such as developing surveys for media collections, finding reference information on these formats, and determining next steps for what you might want to do once you have these numbers.

Presenter: Dyani Feige, Director of Preservation Services, Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts. Advocacy is not only external—it is crucial for collecting institution staff to be able to advocate internally as well, to co-workers, board, and administration, in order to assure that resources are best allocated. This webinar will explore routes for both external and internal advocacy with a focus on collections care: securing time and funding for preservation initiatives and conservation treatment. It will also discuss opportunities for incorporating information about preservation into all advocacy efforts.

Presenter: Tamara Talansky, Preservation and Imaging Coordinator, Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts
This webinar provides a basic overview of some of the considerations institutions should make when digitizing materials, including prioritization and selection criteria, handling practices while scanning or photographing, and storage concerns for digital media.

• Manage electronic record keeping systems of varied sizes and types
• File and maintain access to electronic records
• Control the retention and disposition of electronic records
• Develop security and other management controls over electronic records
• Preserve electronic records over long periods of time

Presenter: Samantha Forsko, Preservation Specialist, Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts Emergency preparedness is one of the most important steps any cultural institution can take to safeguard its collections. This webinar provides a “big picture” overview of emergency planning and preparedness.

Historical or archival records have long-term value not only for the organization that created them, but also for use in research.

This workshop will discuss methods to ensure that these records are identified, organized, properly stored, available for use, and preserved. It will also suggest ways to develop support for these activities. Attendees will be encouraged to discuss issues related to their historical records with the instructors and with other attendees.

Information Governance. What is it? How can it help your organization? This session will introduce the concept of information governance, explain what it includes and how it will strengthen your records management program. And it will outline how to implement an information governance program. 

Presenter: Gillian Marcus, Preservation Specialist, DHPSNY. This webinar provides an introduction to Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for cultural institutions. Topics include the basic principles of prevention, monitoring, identification, and response/recovery, as well as resources for setting up a pest management program.

This webinar is an introduction to the management of audiovisual records. We will discuss what makes these records unique, learn about some of the records management challenges they pose and what can be done about them. We will take a look at the different kinds of audiovisual records you will likely encounter, their storage and retrieval, when and how to reformat and migrate them, as well as other related issues.

• The attributes of a good records management program
• Tips for building a records management program and maintaining support over the long term
• How a records inventory can help control records
• How to plan for and carry out a records inventory and analyze the results of the inventory
• How to develop, apply, and update schedules and examine the schedule review and approval process
• A review of the services offered by the State Archives to organizations that want to establish a records management program

Managing electronic records is one of our most timely challenges. It’s increasingly important for records managers to know their electronic records and develop plans to manage them. An effective way to begin this process is to conduct an electronic records inventory. This webinar will discuss how to identify key e-records systems, collect meaningful data, analyze the results, and develop an e-records management plan.

The COVID-19 public health emergency has resulted in an unprecedented level of documentation - both of the pandemic’s impact on communities and governments' response to the pandemic. Local governments and state agencies seeking guidance on managing and preserving these records are welcome to join us as we provide some insight on applying appropriate retention schedule items, and identifying records of enduring historical value.

Presenter: Dyani Feige, Director of Preservation Services, Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts. This presentation covers key collections management topics such as acquisition, appraisal, documentation and deeds of gift, inventory, and deaccessioning. Issues such as “found in the collection” items and abandoned property are also addressed.

Records managers are often their organization’s subject matter expert on the types of records created by the entity, who owns them, and where they’re located.  This makes them an invaluable resource when their employer needs to quickly identify, locate, review, and prepare for release records related to pending litigation.

This webinar - designed for non-attorneys, will focus on the role of records managers in supporting their government employer’s response to litigation-related document requests, from document creation or receipt through disposition.

Presenter: Anne Karle-Zenith, Associate Director of Business Development, Metropolitan New York Library Council; Jennifer Palmentiero, Digital Services Librarian, Southeastern New York Library Resource Council. This webinar provides an introduction to copyright law for archival and special collection managers. Fair use and special exemptions for libraries and archives are also covered. The presentation concludes with a discussion of copyright considerations related to deeds of gifts, donor agreements, reuse of collection materials, and permission and fee policies.

Presenters: Clare Flemming, Consulting Archivist; Brandon Zimmerman, Consulting Archivist. Collecting institutions are regularly faced with ethical decisions, from questions of access and privacy to authenticity and copyright in collections. This webinar will discuss some of the more common ethical issues and the professional codes of ethics governing archives and libraries.

Presenter: Erin Richardson, Director of Collections, Farmers’ Museum. Designed for any staff or volunteers involved in collections care, this webinar is a primer on how institutions should address their trickier holdings: old loans, abandoned property, and materials “found in the collection.”

The State Archives provides grants to local governments through its competitive grant program, the Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund (LGRMIF). Applying for an LGRMIF grant requires the submission of various forms, some of which are hard-copy and some of which are online-only. This webinar identifies those forms and how they should be submitted. This presentation is Part 5 of a six-part series of informational webinars on this grant program.

This webinar:

• Offers a brief overview of the LGRMIF grant program.
• Walks through the various forms needed to apply for an LGRMIF grant.
• Closes with general tips for the application process.

• how to prepare for grant writing season
• important dates and requirements you need to know
• the resources and contacts you’ll need to prepare a strong application.

Presenter: Heather Hendry, Senior Paper Conservator, Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts. Light is one of the ten agents of deterioration, making it especially crucial that collecting institutions know how to control and mitigate exposure to light during storage and exhibition. This webinar discusses basic principles of managing light exposure in collections, including identifying light sources commonly found in institutional storage, measuring and understanding visible and UV light values, current standards for light exposure during exhibition, and preventive measures to avoid unnecessary exposure to light. The light sensitivity of materials commonly held in archives, museums, and libraries is also discussed. Several case studies will show how small and large real world institutions have protected their collections.

With the NYS Education Department’s introduction of the Seal of Civic Readiness, school districts and educators are seeking community partners to assist their students in fulfilling the requirements for this new graduation seal. Local government archives are uniquely situated as repositories of invaluable historical knowledge and records as well as important locations within their communities. Join us as we present the guidelines and learning standards for achieving this seal and discuss the opportunities for local governments to make their records available to educators and provide students with engaging learning experiences.

The State Archives provides grants to local governments through its competitive grant program, the LGRMIF. The LGRMIF provides grants to local governments to assist them in either establishing a records management program or enhancing an existing one. This webinar provides a basic introduction to the LGRMIF program and is Part 1 of a six part series of informational webinars on this grant program.

This webinar focuses on:

• The purpose of the LGRMIF
• Discussion of the eligibility requirements local governments must meet
• An exploration of the different types of grants local governments can apply for
• An overview of the 5 grant project categories and the requirements for each category
• Suggested next steps as you develop your proposed project and application

Local history provides such color and depth to an otherwise bland panorama of dates, events and places. It offers unique information and creates a context for regional, state and national history. But what is the documentary basis for excellent local history and what is the local historian’s role in identifying and promoting historical records in a community context? This webinar will explore these questions as they relate to the primary roles of local historians – interpreting the past through research and writing, teaching, organizing, advocacy and historic preservation. We will consider the nature and challenges associated with local records, where they may be located, and options to preserve and make accessible these local treasures. This presentation will be valuable to records management officers, historians, and all those charged with overseeing the rich history of their communities.

Managing the annual flow of records from active offices to inactive storage and their regular disposition is the foundational principle of records management. This is the pivotal key to maintaining an inactive records storage area or facility. In the end, having this process down will determine the quality and efficiency of your entire records program. If managed well, this one thing will make you look like a records superstar, otherwise – not so much.

This one-hour webinar will review amazing tips and tricks that will help you manage the annual flow of records like a champ. We will discuss all of the tasks required to maintain a well-run inactive records facility, from small vault areas up to gigantic warehouse-sized programs. It will touch on maintaining organization and access, disposition of obsolete records, and a few ideas on archiving historical records.

This webinar will definitely be appreciated by all individuals who manage inactive records.

Microfilm was once the top records technology for reformatting records. It had, and still does, have many great advantages. The State Archives recently did a study on the current state of the microfilm industry to prepare relevant advice for organizations storing records on this medium.

This webinar will:

• review the results of that study,
• discuss considerations for managing records on microfilm, and
• advise on its use, care, and maintenance.

How accessible is your institution’s website? Removing barriers to people with physical and situational limitations can help make your institutional website open to a large variety of users, researchers, and potential visitors. This webinar will guide participants through analyzing their institution’s website for accessibility and taking concrete steps to become more accessible.

Today, most records are born digital, but many are still printed to paper, often unnecessarily. This workshop will explore strategies to manage these records digitally throughout their lifecycle and make the printer obsolete. This workshop will discuss the challenges of managing born digital records and give participants practical solutions to the problems of managing born digital records including access, retention, disposition, and preservation of these valuable records.

• Identify pitfalls and benefits associated with case file management
• Consider methods to improve access
• Show how case file retention schedules can simplify disposition
• Examine modern storage equipment and filing strategies
• Evaluate benefits of digital imaging and electronic case file management

Many New York State municipalities have courts. The records these courts create pose special challenges for these local governments. Court records are governed by different rules than the rest of local government records, including separate records retention and disposition schedules. Geof Huth, Chief Records Officer for the Office of the New York State Unified Court System, will explain how to use these schedules, how to organize files, how to properly dispose of court records, and other special rules those who manage court records should be aware of.

Careful management of inactive records storage is critical to the success of a records management program.

This workshop will discuss:

• The importance of inactive records storage
• The basic steps involved in setting up a facility, whether in-house or off-site
• Ownership and custody of inactive records
• Equipment, supplies, and safety concerns
• Cost-benefit analysis, and space planning
• How to develop inactive records facility policies and procedures A case study approach will be used as workshop participants plan an inactive records storage facility.

Careful management of inactive records storage is critical to the success of a records management program, allowing agencies to more efficiently manage their records and office space.

This workshop will discuss:

• Discuss the importance of inactive records storage
• Discuss the State Records Center and its services
• Review the basic steps involved in setting up a facility, whether in-house or off-site
• Provide an overview of records ownership and custody issues
• Discuss how to develop inactive records facility policies and procedures

Presenter: Maggie Downing, Manager of Digital Imaging, Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts. This webinar will focus on the basics of managing digital collections and will address born-digital material as well as items that have been converted to digital format. Maggie Downing, Manager of Digital Imaging at the Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts, will discuss scalable strategies that can be implemented by institutions of all sizes.

This workshop presents strategies for taking physical and intellectual control of photographs to ensure their long-term access and use.

This workshop:

• Discusses methods of organizing and making accessible photographic material
• Provides preservation guidelines for photographs
• Outlines reference, exhibition, and outreach strategies

Presenters: David Lowry, Head, Local Government Advisory Services, NYSA; Jennifer O’Neill, Supervisor, Scheduling and State Agency Services, NYSA. Institutional records are crucial for administrative, legal, and operation requirements. A records management program allows institutions to have systematic control over the creation, use, maintenance, and disposition of their records. This webinar will cover the basics of implementing and managing a records management program at a collecting institution, regardless of size.

Presenter: Dacia Metes, Digital Archives Manager, Queens Public Library. What is metadata? And why does it matter? This webinar will answer these questions and more! Intended to help those just getting started with metadata, topics covered will include best practices for item- and collection-level metadata, file naming, and systems for capturing metadata. Dublin Core and Encoded Archival Description (EAD) will also be addressed.

The State Archives provides grants to local governments through its competitive grant program, the Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund (LGRMIF). When applying for an LGRMIF grant, any proposals over $25,000 should strive to incorporate a certain percentage of goods and/or services from M/WBE vendors. Join us for an explanation of the M/WBE program and a walk-through of how to submit a complete program packet. Please note that this is a separate (but related) process from the application for grant funding. This presentation is Part 6 of a six-part series of informational webinars on this grant program.

This webinar:

• Gives a brief overview of the M/WBE program.
• Explains the levels of compliance/participation.
• Reviews the various forms necessary for each participation level.

Presenter: Gillian Marcus, Preservation Specialist, DHPSNY. This webinar covers the basics of mold: what it is, why it happens to archival and library materials, how to recognize it, as well as strategies for prevention and recovery. Resources for responding to a mold outbreak are also discussed. Note: In the slide titled “Inactivating Mold: Freezing,” it should say “Below -20°C/-4°F” instead of “Below -20°F.”

Maintaining electronic records is just the first part of preserving these digital records for their entire retention period.  Preservation involves different steps to ensure these files are accessible for the long term, including permanent. It is more than just uploading the records to a server and forgetting about them.

The panelists in this webinar will discuss their experiences in preserving electronic records. It will include short demonstrations of the tools they use to maintain, migrate, and preserve electronic records as well as answer questions afterwards.

Presenters:

Maureen Reynolds, County Clerk, Tompkins County

Bonita Weddle, Coordinator, Electronic Records Unit, New York State Archives

This facilitated dialogue will explore the relationships between non-Native-led museums, archives and libraries and contemporary Native makers, artists, academics, and researchers. This program is designed for people who work in or volunteer for non-Native-led museums, libraries, archives, and cultural heritage organizations and/or sites who are working to center Native perspectives and experiences in their programs and collections interpretation. At the end of this facilitated conversation, participants will have a clear understanding of the ways in which they can collaborate with Indigenous and Native makers, artists, academics, and researchers to co-develop programming and collections interpretation that centers Indigenous and Native experiences and perspectives.

Identifying collections materials that are priorities for salvage is an important part of an organization’s emergency preparedness and response plan. Often in an emergency, we cannot save it all, and decisions will have to be made. But how do we go about choosing what items to save first? This can seem like a daunting task, but by establishing guidelines and planning, collection salvage priorities can become not-so-impossible choices. In this webinar, we’ll look at what makes collections most vulnerable to damage and how that can inform our parameters for salvage priorities. Types and formats of materials to prioritize during recovery efforts will be discussed, along with how this information can be used to benefit an institution’s emergency preparedness. 

Presenter: Amanda Murray, Preservation Specialist, DHPSNY. Visual materials are a ubiquitous part of many collections that pose specific challenges to providing access. This session will discuss important considerations for the successful arrangement and description of visual materials in order to gain intellectual and physical control, improve accessibility, and provide for preservation.

Digitizing photographic collections can improve access and minimize handling of fragile materials, but certain collections materials such as photo albums and scrapbooks can present unique challenges. What considerations are needed before embarking on a digitization project? How are bound photographic materials digitized differently than other collections? In this webinar, Maggie Downing will discuss methods and processes for digitization of these unique photographic materials that ensure accessible digital content while also keeping in mind proper handling and care of the original materials.

If your institution houses any family history collections, chances are you have some photo albums stored in your stacks. Preserving photo albums poses unique challenges, as you need to be able to care for both the photographs inside and the book itself. In this webinar, Barbara Lemmen, Senior Photograph Conservator at the Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts, will go over some basic preservation techniques to help care for photo albums in your collection. Topics covered will include handling techniques, storage and housing recommendations, and resources for dealing with condition problems. This webinar is a part of an ongoing series, Photographs in the Archive, which highlights preservation strategies for photographic collections.

Many local governments and state agencies begin records management improvements with great gusto and enthusiasm, but over time they begin to lose control of their records and their systems begin to backslide. Often this is caused by a lack of policies and procedures, or a situation where these procedures are not followed. During the workshop, participants will write draft policies and procedures and discuss them as a group. The workshop will also provide participants with a sample policy manual covering all aspects of records management.

This workshop focuses on:

• The value of documenting policies and procedures
• How to develop policies and procedures and make sure they are followed
• How to keep policies up to date and relevant
• Why to develop records management policies and procedures
• How to write records management policies and procedures
• How to develop and promote a records management policy manual

Presenter: Dyani Feige, Director of Preservation Services, Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts. Permanently removing accessioned materials from your holdings can be daunting. However, deaccessioning is an important collections management tool, particularly for institutions that are overcrowded or have accepted every donation that came their way. This webinar will address best practices when it comes to deaccessioning, including policies and suggested workflows.

• Amanda Murray, Preservation Specialist, DHPSNY
• Margalit Schindler WUDPAC Preventive Conservation Fellow, CCAHA

Presenter: Amelia Parks, Archives Specialist, DHPSNY. This webinar covers strategies for planning and installing exhibits of archival collections using preservation quality materials and following best practices for preservation strategies.

With ever-changing technology and the short life expectancy of the media on which they are stored, electronic records pose a special challenge to governments' preservation. Governments' electronic records can be found not only on computer media, but also on audio tapes and videotapes.

This workshop will discuss:

• different types of electronic media
• techniques for preserving electronic records
• how to maximize longevity of electronic storage media
• how to preserve electronic media through proper storage techniques
• how to maintaining intelligible access to electronic records

Effective preservation planning is key in ensuring time and resources are budgeted adequately in support of the collections. A Preservation Plan is an essential institutional document that helps collecting institutions thoughtfully and carefully chart a course for the preservation of their collections. 

• Why preservation planning is important. 
• Components of an effective preservation plan 
• Methods of assessing and prioritizing preservation needs 
• How to design effective implementation strategies and establish realistic benchmarks 
• How to advocate for preservation planning within their organization.  

• Laura Hortz Stanton, Executive Director, Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts 
• Anastasia Matijkiw, Program Manager, Documentary Heritage and Preservation Services for New York 
• Amanda Murray, Preservation Specialist, Documentary Heritage and Preservation Services for New York  

• Describe the different types of electronic media
• Provide practical guidelines about various preservation techniques
• Provide information about proper storage methodologies
• Discuss how to maintain access to records

This course will cover a broad overview of archival collection processing, setting up the basics for why and how we process materials using archival principles and guidelines. Processing provides clear intellectual and physical control for collections management, preservation, and access, developing description and context for archival records as well as improved housing conditions. All components of collections processing will be discussed, with a focus on helping participants determine processing priorities and draft a processing plan for one small-to-medium-sized collection that they are working with from their own organizations. There will also be a chance to share processing challenges and successes and to hear from practitioners in the field discussing their own processing case studies.

Course Structure

Content for this course is divided into three sections and will be provided for asynchronous review. Discussion board prompts will be provided throughout to promote active participation and encourage sharing of questions and insights. One assignment will be based on drafting a processing plan for a singular collection. A live panel discussion in the second week will allow participants to hear from those actively processing collections in the field, and to hear about their successes and challenges.

Participants are expected to be active in course discussion boards, complete relevant assignments, and attend a live Q&A session on Tuesday, July 23rd.

Instructors

• Kate Philipson, DHPSNY Archives Specialist
• Amanda Murray, DHPSNY Program Manager

Providing access to records to the public is a frequent occurrence at local governments and state agencies. This workshop will discuss access responsibilities such as making information available while protecting the records at the same time. Information will also be provided on the use of FOIL (Freedom of Information Law), the Patriot Act and FERPA (Family Rights and Privacy Act).

This workshop will

• Define access and its value
• Review physical vs. intellectual access
• Determine when access is allowable
• Discuss how to provide a functional research area
• Identify types of researchers
• Assist in handling challenging researchers
• Offer access options such as reformatting and donating or depositing records

Verifying that each page of each document was scanned and a true legible copy of the original is the most important step in any imaging project, but the one that is most often ignored. This webinar will explain why this step is so critical to any successful imaging project and review each step in the process of quality control and verification.

Electronic content management systems (ECMS) enable organizations to scan and store images of documents to improve access to records, as well as eliminate paper. ECM systems are also software systems that allow for the creation, indexing, management, and retrieval of documents in various formats through a single interface.

This workshop will present three examples of different ECM systems currently being used by local governments and state agencies. The presenters will demonstrate how their systems manage records and discuss various aspects of how to plan for, implement, and maintain an ECMS. The presentations will be followed by time for questions.

Presenters:

Katie Palmer-House, Town of Dover Town Clerk. Katie will provide practical advice for ECMS scanning projects related to her town’s implementation and use of shared Laserfiche system.

Chuck Piotrowski, Knowledge Management Team, New York Power Authority. Chuck will discuss his work digitizing large format records of the NYS Canal Corporation and managing them with SharePoint.

Joanne Fazzari, Corporate Records Manager, New York Power Authority. Joanne will explain their use of shared metadata across platforms and how this has allowed them to get the most out of their ECM, OpenText Content Server.

Discover all the ways regular, routine disposition of records will benefit your organization!

This session will discuss RMO responsibilities, the benefits of setting up a team of records liaisons and what their roles – as liaisons – can be in terms of achieving your records management goals and making your records program strong and efficient.

This workshop discusses the importance of records management, general records management principles and activities, and tips and strategies to help your organization move forward with implementing the things you learn.

This session will introduce key concepts such as what is a retention schedule, what are the supporting laws and regulations, and why retention schedules are a critical tool for records managers. 

This session will discuss the use of retention schedules for state agency records, including how to use the State General Schedule and agency-specific individual retention disposition authorizations, review exceptions to the retention schedules, and demonstrate how to identify which is the correct schedule to use. 

This session will provide an overview of the Local Government Retention Schedule (LGS-1), explain how local governments can use it to manage their records, and demonstrate search strategies for identifying the correct retention schedule item. 

This session will discuss how New York State agencies may work with the State Archives to develop agency-specific records retention and disposition schedules to assist them in managing their records. 

This session will discuss how New York State agencies may work with the State Archives to develop agency-specific records retention and disposition schedules to assist them in managing their records. 

This session will discuss how New York State agencies and local governments can build customized, office-specific retention schedules using existing State Archives retention schedules.  

This session will discuss how New York State agencies and local governments can manage and dispose of their records once they have passed their legal retention period.

This session is part one of two sessions discussing what records appraisal is and how New York State local governments should evaluate and appraise their records for historical significance. 

This session is part two of two sessions discussing what records appraisal is and how New York State local governments should evaluate and appraise their records for historical significance. This session focuses on providing example scenarios of when local government records should be appraised. 

This session will discuss records appraisal and go over the New York State Archives records appraisal process for New York State agencies. 

Presenter: Samantha Forsko, Preservation Specialist, Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts
This webinar explores the basics of conducting a risk assessment at your institution. Conducting a risk assessment is one of the first steps an institution can take in the preparation and updating of an emergency preparedness and response plan.

Scanning (digitizing) your historical photographs is the perfect way to increase use, share and preserve these visual treasures. But there is a lot to consider in terms of scanners, software, file formats, image resolution, bit depth, compression, preservation . . . the list goes on and on. Anyone can create a digital image from a photograph, but in this workshop, we will unveil the secrets to creating the highest possible quality scans of your photos. We will provide everything you need to know to take your scans from blase to brilliant in a very practical, informal presentation. Come and have some fun learning the true art of scanning. Whether you are a newbie or have serious experience scanning, this workshop will open your eyes to new techniques that will dramatically improve your digital results.

Presenter: Gillian Marcus, Preservation Specialist, DHPSNY. This webinar provides an overview of collections security with a focus on protection from theft and vandalism. Topics will include secure storage, protection of materials while in use, and security policies and procedures.

Presenter: Jason Henn, Manager of Marketing & External Relations, Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts
Social Media is an excellent platform for sharing information about your organization and highlighting the collections under your care. This webinar will address the basics of establishing a social media presence for your organization on two popular platforms, Instagram and Facebook, and how they can be used to build audiences, share stories, and promote events.

Presenter: Maria Holden, Preservation Officer, New York State Office of Cultural Education. Archives, libraries, and museums of all sizes face challenges when considering how to make the most of collections storage spaces, particularly when space is limited. The presenter will discuss strategies for making the most of precious storage space as well as ways to prioritize best practices and current standards for housing and storing institutional collections.

Presenters: Amy Heuer, Manager of Marketing and Engagement, CCAHA; Lee Price, Director of Development, CCAHA
This webinar looks at fresh strategies to build audiences, promote collections, and connect with new audiences, with additional discussion of how to leverage your stories for fundraising.

Find out what you need to focus on to ensure staff understand what records they are creating, what records management is, and their role in it. 

Join Julia Novakovic and Beth Merkle from the Strong Museum of Play as they discuss steps that smaller institutions can take to begin basic digital preservation on their electronic media. The Strong was awarded RRLC Technology grants for “Preserving Endangered Media Pilot Project,” which focused on floppy disks, in 2017 and then “Preservation of Endangered Media: U-matic Tape Pilot Project” in 2018. Drawing from lessons learned during these projects, this webinar will cover topics such as preservation tactics for electronic media formats on hardware and accessioning born-digital collections from donors via file transfers, as well as an overview of the helpful resources and tools used at the Strong to ensure access to digital files for the next generation. 

Implementing cold storage solutions at your institution can pose unique challenges. Obtaining funding, purchasing equipment, packaging collections, and figuring out how to monitor temperatures are just a few of the hurdles involved in this process. In this webinar, Christine Perche will share insight and lessons learned from the implementation of cold storage solutions at Storm King Arts Center.

Presenters: Tammy Gobert, Preservation and Access Archivist, Institute Archives and Special Collections, RPI Jenifer Monger, Assistant Institute Archivist, Institute Archives and Special Collections, RPI Dealing with a large mold outbreak is one of the most difficult situations an institution can face; in this webinar, staff from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Library share insight and lessons learned after they tackled a large mold outbreak in the collections.

Founded in 2010, Queens Memory is a community archive project done in collaboration with the Queens Library and Queens College that focuses on building their current archives by collecting oral histories from Queens residents. In this webinar, Natalie Milbrodt, Director of Queens Memory, will tell the story of this project as well as provide some tips and tricks for how to navigate your own oral history projects.

In an effort to make the correspondence of Dr. John Torrey more accessible to researchers, the New York Botanical Garden initiated a project called Digitizing and Transcribing the John Torrey Papers: Natural Science and Exploration in 19th Century America. This NEH-funded project has focused on preserving, digitizing, and transcribing letters from over 350 correspondents, which previously were only able to be seen by visiting the LuEsther T. Mertz Library and Archives. This webinar will highlight the process of the project; including the grant received, project goals, staffing, crowdsourcing process, and some of the pitfalls.

This webinar is a part of the "What Did You Do? Stories from the Field" webinar series that highlights the stories from archives professionals throughout New York State, particularly focusing on unique collections care solutions.

Volunteers are integral to many collecting institutions, providing time and insight that an organization may not otherwise have access to. However, many organizations have little or no formal process or program in place for managing a volunteer program. In this webinar, Merel Agish, Community Coordinator, will cover volunteer engagement, training and retention at the Queens Memory Project.

Presenter: Gillian Marcus, Preservation Specialist, DHPSNY
Providing stable environmental controls is one of the most important steps an institution can take to preserve its collections. As strict parameters for temperature and relative humidity can be expensive and difficult to implement for many institutions, efforts should be focused on maintaining environmental conditions that are attainable, sustainable, and cost-effective over the long term. This webinar will cover the impact temperature and relative humidity can have on collections, as well as ways to mitigate the risks posed by fluctuations or extremes. Establishing and maintaining an environmental monitoring program will also be addressed.

Ensuring the access and preservation of your inactive records in the correct environment is one of the essential elements of a good records management program. During this webinar, we will discuss some of the basic principles involved in maintaining your inactive records storage area. We will also give you some helpful solutions to the different challenges these records present. Whether you work with records in a vault, a warehouse, or just have a few shelves in a corner, the basic information you need to maintain a well-run inactive records facility is the same.  This webinar will talk about organizing and ensuring access for your inactive records.  As well as, discussing the disposition of records past their retention and creating the best environment to ensure the preservation of these records well past your retirement.  People with all levels of knowledge of records management are encouraged to attend. 

Sometimes it’s important to get back to the basics. If you’re looking for a refresher course or you’re new to records management this webinar is for you. We’ll discuss why records management is so important, the basic principles of records management, and basics of records management activities such as retention, access and preservation.

Presenter: Susan Weinrich, Vice President of Organizational and Community Development, NYCON. Does your institution have a strategic plan? If not, this webinar will convince you to start the process!

• Explain the legal requirements of a records management program;
• Review federal and state laws that greatly impact records management 
• Review court cases that affect records management; 
• Explain how the legal discovery process works;
• Explain the consequences of not preserving records; and 
• Provide practical steps for going forward.

• Providing tips on filling in the following forms: Budget Amendment Summary and the FS-10-A/Proposed Amendment for a Federal or State Project 
• A step-by-step demonstration in filling in both forms
• An explanation of the difference between a “formal” and “informal” amendment
• Getting approval for your amendment
• How to submit your amendment

If you have received a grant through the LGRMIF program, you are required to file a set of Final Reports after you have completed your project. This webinar covers the Final Project Budget and the FS-10-F/Final Expenditure forms, two of the forms that make up your Final Reports. It is part of a series that walks you through the forms that make up your Final Reports. The webinars in this series all contain a live demonstration in the eGrants system.

This webinar focuses on:

• Providing tips on filling in the Final Project Budget
• A step-by-step demonstration in filling in budget codes
• An explanation of the difference between encumbrance dates and check dates
• An overview of the forms that make up your Final Reports
• How to Submit your Final Reports

Presenter: Kate Philipson, Archives Specialist, DHPSNY. Processing archival collections, which is the work of arranging, describing, and housing materials, can sometimes feel overwhelming. Creating an initial processing plan helps to make these activities more manageable, as it proposes a clear guide to understanding any given collection and the resources that are necessary to make it accessible. This webinar will address the reasons for utilizing processing plans in your workflows, as well as the details of how to write one and implement it effectively.

The records lifecycle is the basic concept records managers use to build records management programs. This presentation will review the concept and explain each phase of the records lifecycle. It will also provide suggestion on which records management activities should take place in each phase of the lifecycle. 

Congratulations, you are an RMO! Welcome to the role of Records Management Officer. This webinar will explain why this essential position exists, what its key responsibilities are, and how you and others in your organization can work together to build and maintain a strong records management program.

This program will cover the very basics of what anti-racism is, how we talk about it, it's history and how we can use the principles of antiracism to create more robust and engaging organizations. This webinar will include large group learning and discussion, building on prior experience and constituent interest, as well as participatory opportunities to understand the material more deeply.

Elevate your grant writing skills with Barbara Lilley, New York State Library's seasoned Conservation/Program officer, as she unravels the intricacies of the Conservation/Preservation Grant application process. In this presentation, Barbara will empower participants with the essential knowledge needed to craft a successful application. Participants will discover the key project types that are eligible for funding, as well as the materials and expenses covered by the grant. Barbara will expertly navigate each section of the application, providing guidance for completing them effectively. As a bonus, we've allocated dedicated time for a Q&A session, allowing participants to seek advice on specific project applications.

Understanding the 10 Agents of Deterioration is a 2-week, virtual course that will cover basic knowledge needed to identify and understand the 10 Agents of Deterioration that may threaten your collections: Light; Incorrect Temperature; Incorrect Relative Humidity; Fire; Water; Pests; Pollutants; Physical Forces; Theft & Vandalism; and Custodial Neglect. Risk assessment and mitigation strategies will also be discussed.

This online course is intended for individuals who manage cultural collections, with a focus on those who are new to archival preservation, who may not have had formal preservation training, or who are looking to brush up on their knowledge.

Instructors:

• Amanda Murray, Preservation Specialist, DHPSNY
• Dyani Feige, Director of Preservation Services, CCAHA
• Emelia Boehm Emig, Preservation Specialist, CCAHA
• Kate Philipson, Archives Specialist, DHPSNY
• Liyah Desher, Education & Outreach Specialist, DHPSNY

Dates: Monday, September 27 - Friday, October 8, 2021

Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of the DHPSNY Understanding the 10 Agents of Deterioration Online Course, participants will:

• have an increased awareness of what the 10 agents of deterioration are and the risks they pose to collections
• gain an understanding of basic strategies to manage and/or mitigate these risks
• be able to successfully implement planning tools such as security and disaster recovery plans at their institution

Register by Sunday, September 19, 2020. Please note that this program has limited registration and is only offered to constituents representing institutions in New York. If you are registering from outside of New York State, your registration may be denied.

• updates to the Fiscal Operations section of the Schedule to cover records related to the Statewide Financial System (SFS) and to standardize most retention periods to 6 years         
• waiver of the imaging certification statement and requirement that agencies submit a separate  records disposition request for destruction of original records after scanning or microfilming
• updates to existing items based on changes to legal requirements since the last revision of the Schedule

ConsidertheSourceNY.org is a new online education resource from the New York State Archives Partnership Trust. The website provides access to thousands of primary sources and learning activities to help educators bring local historical records into their classroom. Local communities are filled with valuable, informative records that reflect the rich and diverse history of New York State. However, getting these resources into the hands of educators and students in a format that they can easily incorporate into the curriculum is often challenging. Join us to learn how you and your organization can make your records more accessible to educators and students.  

The historical records of towns, villages, cities, counties, school districts and other local governments are among the most amazing treasures for those conducting family and local history. They have the ability to paint beautiful panoramas, providing detail and color to otherwise bland lists of names, dates and places. But accessing these records, knowing what is available and where to find them, can be rather daunting.

This one-hour webinar will outline the types of historical records available at many local governments. It will explore where you may find them and the kinds of information they contain. We will also discuss some of the challenges and approaches you might use to successfully access these treasures.

This webinar will be really valuable for researchers, historians, and for all individuals who care for and make accessible historical records in local governments.

The New York State Archives is responsible for storing state agency records with long-term historical value, and is critical in ensuring their preservation and access for future New Yorkers.  This workshop will discuss the importance of transferring your agency’s archival records to the State Archives. It will outline the transfer process, review policies and procedures for requesting and using materials at the State Archives, and examine the conditions under which records may be loaned back to agencies.

The New York State Archives develops retention schedules to help local government officials efficiently dispose of records they no longer need to keep, but we sometimes feel a little uneasy about this process. This webinar will introduce the foundational principles of using state archives retention schedules.

This webinar focuses on

• How to use State Archives local government retention schedules effectively
• How to identify specific records in a schedule
• How to avoid common pitfalls using retention schedules
• How to develop office retention schedules
• How to appropriately dispose of obsolete records

This one-hour webinar will outline the importance of retention and disposition schedules to state agencies.  We will discuss how to develop, apply, and update schedules, examine the review and approval process, and explore why retention scheduling is such an integral part of an agency’s overall records management program.

The New York State Records Center (SRC), operated by the New York State Archives, provides efficient, low-cost, inactive records storage and retrieval for New York State agencies. This workshop is intended to provide agencies with further information on how the SRC operates and how they may utilize its services.

This workshop will:

• Provide step-by-step instructions for transferring paper records, microfilm, and computer media to the SRC
• Demonstrate how to prepare records for transfer to the SRC
• Discuss how to gain access to records stored at the SRC
• Review records disposition and destruction at the SRC
• Provide an overview of the billing process and recent changes in billing
• Review changes in records center policies and procedures

Moving records from active offices to inactive storage and their regular disposition is essential to maintaining an inactive records storage area or facility. This webinar will discuss some of the basics and provide some helpful solutions to the different challenges inactive records present. It does not matter if you work with records stored in a small vault with a few shelves or a humungous warehouse, there will be some of the same fundamental information you need to maintain a well-run inactive records facility. This webinar will discuss organization and access of inactive records, disposition of records no longer needed and how to create the best environment to ensure you have the best records storage area you can. Anyone who deals with inactive records is bound to learn something new.

Genealogist are, by far, the largest user group of New York State local government historical records. This webinar will help local government officials understand what the genealogist is looking for and why. It will provide tips and strategies on records access that help make things easier for you and the genealogist.

The State Archives provides grants to local governments through its competitive grant program, the Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund (LGRMIF). Writing the narrative proposal is one of the most detailed parts of applying for an LGRMIF grant. The narrative also carries the most weight in points, so this webinar explains how to address that part of the application successfully. This presentation is Part 4 of a six-part series of informational webinars on this grant program.

This webinar:

• Gives a brief overview of the LGRMIF grant program.
• Reviews general writing tips.
• Addresses topics that must be covered in the grant narrative.
• Offers tips for success.

By State Education Department Regulations, Local Governments must have a designated Records Management Officer (RMO) who is responsible for its Records Management Program. This webinar will explain why this essential position exists and review the role of the RMO. In addition, this webinar will discuss the attributes of a good Records Management (RM) program and provide the tools necessary for building and maintaining a successful program. Finally, we will review the services offered by the State Archives and other organizations that can help provide support for your Records Management program.

By State Education Department regulations, each state agency must have a Records Management Officer (RMO) who is responsible for managing its records management program. This session looks at the role and responsibilities of the RMO.

This workshop will:

• Identify the challenges and responsibilities of the RMO
• Review steps for getting started as an RMO
• Discuss the agency partnerships necessary for the implementation of a successful records management program
• Discuss the importance of partnership with the State Archives
• Provide tips for setting records management goals