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Community Archiving Workshops

The goal of a Community Archiving Workshop (CAW) is to help an organization jumpstart the preservation of their collection by bringing together experienced archivists with local volunteers for a daylong workshop to assess, catalog, and label as many items as possible. In the process, participants gain hands-on training so they can carry on preservation work in the future. The model has been designed to address the challenges of audiovisual collections, but it can be applied to all material types, including digital collections.

California Revealed is one of three national sites for the Community Archiving Workshop Regional Training of Trainers (TOT) program, supported by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, in partnership with the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA). TOT programs are being hosted by Recollection Wisconsin and the Metropolitan Government Archives at the Nashville Public Library in Tennessee. Thanks to this funding, California Revealed now has kits available for basic film inspection, VHS digitization and audiocassette digitization that CAW hosts can use for demonstration purposes.

Since 2019, California Revealed has worked with staff from regional partner organizations to provide hands-on training, covering the essentials of care and preservation of archival collections. The following partners have hosted a local CAW at their organization:

California Revealed seeks to expand CAWs to other regions in the state by offering up to $2,000 in funding on a reimbursement basis to plan and host a local Community Archiving Workshop, using the CAW's Training of Trainers toolkit. Training will be provided by the California Revealed team. Collaborating with multiple organizations and community members is strongly encouraged to support regional networks.

The 2023/2024 Application is now closed.

Project Features  

  • The California Revealed team will provide training and support throughout the project, and for demonstration purposes can bring to the workshop kits for film inspection, VHS digitization, and audio digitization.

  • Project assistance will be determined in Winter 2023 for an implementation cycle beginning January 15, 2024 and ending June 28, 2024. 

  • The Project Lead(s) agree to attend monthly virtual meetings with California Revealed trainers leading up to the workshop. They will provide guidance to help the host organization plan and organize the workshop.

  • The proposal budget may include funds for staffing, services and supplies (e.g., rehousing supplies, promotional materials, and working refreshments) needed to complete the work (but not for computers, other equipment, or storage furniture). Indirect costs can be covered by this funding.  

  • Organizations with successful proposals will be provided with contracts. Project expenses incurred by the institution are reimbursed at the end of the contract after receipt of deliverables and documentation of expenses (e.g., original receipts, timesheets, invoices, payment stubs). Requests for reimbursement must be submitted no later than Friday, June 28, 2024.  

Deliverables 

At the conclusion of the workshop, deliverables are due Friday, June 28, 2024 and must include: 

  • An inventory of item-level records that follow California Revealed's Metadata Guidelines. Item-level records must be submitted using California Revealed's .xlsx spreadsheet form. Standardized descriptive metadata promotes wider discovery of your materials and helps create connections between collections.  
  • Reimbursement requests: 

    • Payment stubs or timesheets 

    • Invoice(s) for paid time

    • Receipts for rehousing supplies 

    • Invoice(s) for supplies

Please send electronic versions of the deliverables to Pamela Vadakan: pvadakan@californiarevealed.org 

Collections processed and inventoried with this funding are considered automatically as nominations for California Revealed’s next digitization cycle. The organization(s) may choose a subset of the collection for consideration if preferred.

 

Information Session: Recording and Slides

  • Recorded October 24, 2023, this webinar provides an overview of the Community Archiving Workshop model and outlines the program timeline, deliverables, and structure of the training that California Revealed provides.

 

Questions?

Contact Pamela Vadakan, Director, California Revealed 
916.603.6719/pvadakan@californiarevealed.org