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By Missy Lodge, Associate State Librarian for Library Development
In 2006, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) launched a national program entitled Connecting to Collections. The initiative is:
In February 2009, the State Library of Ohio and the Ohio Historical Society (OHS) were awarded a Connecting to Collections planning grant, and the initiative began in earnest in early 2009. Shortly thereafter, the Intermuseum Conservation Association (ICA) contributed support to the project, and the Ohio Museum Association (OMA) became a project partner in 2010. Consulting on the project was Tom Clareson, Senior Consultant for New Initiatives at LYRASIS. The project officially concluded in April 2011 with two tangible outputs. The Ohio Heritage Partnership: Strategic Initiatives Report provides an overview of the current state of Ohio’s cultural heritage collections and discusses implementation plans of the partners to address this current situation. The Report and all Connecting to Collections documents can be found at: http://oh.webjunction.org/ohconnectcollect. In addition, a brochure entitled “Ohio Connecting to Collections: A Statewide Preservation Initiative” was produced and widely distributed to libraries, museums, historical organizations and stakeholders. A copy of the brochure can be downloaded at: http://www.ohiomuseums.or/Ohio%20Connecting%20to%20Collections%20Brochure.pdf. To continue the excitement and interest generated by the planning grant, as well as to begin executing the recommendations in the Strategic Initiative, an implementation grant was submitted to IMLS in December 2010. Unfortunately, the partners learned in April 2011 that the implementation grant was not funded. Immediately, the partners met to look at the grant comments and to assess what portions of the Strategic Initiative could be implemented with limited resources. The main criticism received from IMLS was that although the grant application exhibited strong collaboration among statewide umbrella organizations (the State Library, OHS, and OMA), there was no representation of individual collecting institutions. The project partner team has been expanded to include a representative from the Follett House Museum, the Kennedy Museum, and the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. Already these new partners have added great depth and insight to the team. Two activities are currently being developed. The first is a website which will highlight the best preservation policies in the state and which can serve as models for other organizations in the process of developing or revising their policies. Examples are being solicited from all types of cultural heritage organizations – libraries, archives, historical societies and museums of all sizes. The website will go live in January 2012. The second activity being planned is a workshop on Best Practices in Storage and Space Planning. Two sessions will be offered – one in Cincinnati on April 17, 2012 in conjunction with the OMA conference and one in the Greater Cleveland area, on a date to be determined. These workshops will address one of the greatest needs articulated in the planning grant surveys. Additionally, the project team is developing an implementation grant to be submitted no later than January 31, 2012. For more information on the Ohio Heritage Partnership or on Connecting to Collections, please contact Shannon Kupfer at skupfer@library.ohio.govor Missy Lodge at mlodge@library.ohio.gov. Download PDF to print this article. Follow the State Library on the Web
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