AASLH is unveiling their new Standards and Excellence Program (StEPs) program designed for Small- and Mid-sized History Organizations. “Does your organization want to make improvements but you’re not sure where to start? Would you like to be recognized in areas of collections, governance, programs, and management?

The program helps your organization assess its current policies and practices in a convenient, self-study format. The StEPs workbook guides you through the six program sections with self-assessment questions and Basic, Good, and Better performance indicators. With StEPs, your organization receives Bronze, Silver and Gold certificates as it makes valuable progress and there’s no time limit on completion of the program.”

To get more information please visit the AASLH site.

Looking toward the MIssissippi with the Arch framing the courthouse in St. Louis

With a large number of the staff away at the ALA meeting in Chicago this week, a quiet, sleepy Friday afternoon seemed like a good time to update you on some DPS training opportunities.

Today, I’ve been getting ready to go back to St. Louis (July 22-24) to try out our digitizing audio workshop. I’ve given the workshop in parts — some online and once as a day-long workshop here at BCR. But, I haven’t spent three days entirely focused on the topic before and I’m looking forward to working with AASLH members again in a town I love.

Summer is always a busy time and I’m developing a few other training topics that some of you may be interested in. August 11-13 will be the first time we are scheduling Digital Project Management as an online class, we’ll hold it as an in-person class on October 2 at the BCR offices in Aurora. On August 26th I will debut Off the Walls: Online Exhibits from the Ground Up as a pre-conference workshop for the AASLH annual meeting in Indianapolis. Introduction to Digital Imaging as an online class will be held September 16 and 17 and I’ll run it in -person on November 5. Introduction to Dublin Core Metadata will be on December 3rd also at BCR as an in-person class.

DPS staff will be teaching Introduction to Digital Preservation on October 23rd which will be a wonderful opportunity to delve into a topic we all need to be thinking about.

I’m also working with Ann Blonston, General Manager of Airshow Mastering to schedule a free online class to talk about digital initiatives and making the case for pilot projects — it should be a lot of fun — watch for more information on our continuing education and training website

If you’re interested in learning more about what the training staff are up to, and you haven’t seen it yet, check out the BCR Trailhead Blog which provides a forum between the BCR training team and you. It has great stuff!

The historic Webster Auditorium building at the Desert Botanical Gardens. This painting by Su Douglas hangs in the Library Archive.

Each digitization class brings the opportunity to get behind-the-scenes of at least one institution in town. Bethany Hawkins, program associate for AASLH and I got a quick tour of the Desert Botanical Gardens library and grounds in Phoenix on Thursday evening, March 19th. The tour was courtesy of Beth Brand, Librarian. The Botanical Gardens Library Archive has a few collections that would be great candidates for a digitization project. There are more than 600 hand-colored Botanical illustrations that are quite lovely — my Blackberry doesn’t do justice to them at all!

I learned the oldest prints date to 1737 and the oldest book 1556. Featuring many illustrations of cacti and succulents, the collection contains works by such artists as Georg Dionysius Ehret (German Painter and Illustrator, 1710-1770,) and Pierre-Joseph Redouté (July 10, 1759 – June 20, 1840.) Redouté was a Belgian painter and botanist, known for his paintings of the roses, lilies and other flowers at the Château de Malmaison — a country house in the city of Rueil-Malmaison just outside Paris. According to Beth “These artists and others in the collection represent the great years of European botanical illustration.”

Another collection perfect for a digitization project includes more than 3,000 slides that focus on the cacti of the world. The images were photographed by Dr. Edward Anderson and are featured in his comprehensive book, “The Cactus Family” published in 2001. While working on the book, Dr. Anderson was the Garden’s senior research botanist. The slide collection was given to the Garden Library shortly after the author’s passing — just after the book went to print.

Oputnia species from Desfontaines, Flora Atlantica (1798-1800) Paris, France. Artist: L. Fossier.

The Nature of Glass: Blue and Purple Boat, Dale Chihuly, 2008. Taken at the Desert Botanical Gardens. The Nature of Glass exhibit runs through May 31, 2009

The Arizona Historical Society was the host institution for the AASLH Digitizing Historic Collections workshop. They have a huge facility located right in Papapo Park, which was quite lovely.

We wound up with a good-sized class of 25 and had attendees from all over AZ, which was to be expected. But we also had professional staff members, volunteers and Board Members from New Mexico State University, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Michigan and Florida. I am constantly amazed at the distances that attendees will travel and the wonderful questions that come up over the three days.

Each class seems to develop a theme in some way and this class was most concerned about issues of copyright. We spent more time on that issue than I ever have before and it started me thinking that perhaps one of the next online classes I create should be an introduction to copyright for cultural heritage practitioners. Some colleagues and I are thinking about published and unpublished materials, three-dimensional collections, sound materials and Fair Use. If you’d be interested—let me know what you think

Photo courtesy of the Arizona Historical Society Museum at Papago Park