02-Before the Workshop

Each workshop has two parallel and equally important goals:  These should be determined in collaboration with your workshop partners and be documented in signed agreements. Collection Goals Work with your partner organization(s) to determine specific goals for their collection. Examples for collection goals can include: Workshop Objectives Establish educational objectives for your workshop in partnership with your partner organizations. Keep in mind who workshop participants will be: are they specialists or non-specialists? Do they come with any audiovisual or archival training? Do they have a specific project they will be taking on after the workshop? Examples of workshop objectives can

Once a partner organization, collection, event location, and event date is secured it’s time to further engage the surrounding community. Benefiting the primary partner is important, but the workshop model is also intended to be open to other collection stewards to engage in introductory training in media identification and inventorying, as well as general networking and social connection.  Language for the event description, event registration form, social media posts, email blasts, flyers, postcards, any and all promotional material should be agreed upon and finalized with the partner.  Essential information to include: Create a spreadsheet or other document to track all

To make the best of the short amount of time you’ll have with all of your volunteers on-site, it’s vital to get as much basic organization of the collection done before the workshop. If a small group can arrive at least one day in advance to work with the organization’s staff members to prepare the collection, it will add to the ease and flow of the workshop. If you as organizers are not able to arrive in advance to help with the pre-workshop triage, you can also communicate these needs to the host organization and request that their staff work

The model thus far calls for both the partner organization and the archivist organizers to recruit volunteers. The partner organization is probably best equipped to reach out to its existing volunteer base and/or the wider community. As members of the planning committee you have connections to the archival community, you can also do recruitment through your own networks. With a longer timeline, a pre-workshop event can be done to build awareness in the local community. A free workshop on basic concepts of film and video preservation, held 3-4 weeks before the Community Archiving Workshop, could be a good way to

The level of technical expertise needed by your volunteer trainers depends on a number of factors, like: What Skills Do You Need It’s important to communicate if you need people with years of film handling experience, content cataloging experience, or the ability to confidently and correctly identify many video formats. Beyond factors of technical knowledge, the best experience for this type of work is the ability to problem solve and think quickly on one’s feet. In many cases you may know the majority of your volunteer trainers from other professional or conference experiences — if this is the case, try

Working with the partner organization and the chosen collection(s), you can start developing a likely workflow for the day-of the workshop. The workflow incorporates established practices and procedures of the organization and addresses the goals set in the project agreement. Workflows will vary based on the media types and formats being focused on, as well as space availability. Defining the tasks that will be performed is key to all the preparation that follows. For example: Workflows will be finalized when you are onsite preparing for the workshop. Sometimes it is possible to meet the day before and settle on the

As you’re working with your partner organizations in planning the workshop, you’ll need to get a good sense of the size of the collection in order to estimate your supply needs. If an entire film collection is stored on reels, for instance, you’ll want to acquire archival cores and cans for each item. In some cases you can reuse supplies, depending on the needs of the collection. Videocassette cases in good shape can sometimes be reused with a bit of cleaning and relabeling, however videocassettes should not be stored in open or paper-based cases, which they most commonly are sold

During the workshop, volunteers will need a way to record the information they are collecting about the materials. Film For film materials it is standard practice to identify the items and fill out a condition report as an item is inspected. One or more tables should be provided for this activity. This report can be filled out on paper, and later transcribed by volunteer catalogers at the next station, or entered directly into the cataloging template, discussed below. Video and Audio For video and audio materials, information gained from an inspection is entered directly into a invenotry form or spreadsheet.

After the community volunteers have signed up, it is a good idea for either the partner organization or the workshop organizers to send a volunteer packet in advance of the workshop, including:

Plan to set up the room at least a day in advance of the workshop. Designate areas for each station — initial triage, inspection, and rehousing/cataloging. While the exact layout of the room can vary, keep in mind: