The deadline for completing the survey assessing the state of collections in Florida is fast approaching.

DEADLINE: MONDAY NOVEMBER 30, 2009, 5 pm

Many of you have downloaded the survey form and not yet posted your response on-line. Please take a moment to do so.

http://cci.fsu.edu/Surveys/TakeSurvey.asp?SurveyID=7LL964626m3KG

To those of you who have filled out the survey, many thanks!

BACKGROUND

Please help preserve collections in Florida. Participate in the Florida Connecting to Collections Survey being undertaken as a joint project of the Florida Association of Museums, Florida Library Association, Florida Public Archaeology Network, Florida Trust for Historic Preservation, Department of State, Society of Florida Archivists, and Florida Art Museum Directors Association.

The goal of this survey is to prepare a broad collections needs assessment that will allow museums, libraries, archives, historic houses and sites, and archaeological collections to determine priorities for collections care in Florida. The Florida assessment builds on the work done by Heritage Preservation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and reported in the 2005 Heritage Health Index. Planning for the survey was funded by IMLS.

Please fill out the survey in its entirety. Estimates are fine. The "don't know" category is an acceptable answer. We will keep your individual responses completely confidential. Only the aggregate data will be reported; your individual responses will never be published or identified by anyone cooperating on this project.

The survey takes approximately 15 minutes to fill out and in most cases will not require you to research information about your collections. If you prefer, you can print out the survey (page by page) to determine your responses, and come back to it and fill in the answers.

Your participation is strongly urged and genuinely appreciated. Survey results will inform funding proposals to preserve collections statewide and to educate legislators and other elected officials about their responsibilities to preserve and conserve collections held in trust across the State of Florida.

If you have questions, please contact Myriam Springuel, FAM Program Manager at Myriam@SpringuelConsulting.com

The survey is being conducted under the supervision of Drs. Paul Marty and Corinne Jorgensen at Florida State University.

Thank you for your participation.

Florida Connecting to Collections Steering Committee (consisting of representatives of the partner organizations identified above)

          http://cci.fsu.edu/Surveys/TakeSurvey.asp?SurveyID=7LL964626m3KG

cEst0Y

I found the workshop, "Managing Archival Collections Without an Archivist on Staff" very informative and useful for me and my institution, the Tallahassee Museum. Thank you to Carla Summers for sharing her wealth of knowledge on the topic in an understandable way.

I also enjoyed the "Connecting to Collections" forum. The commonality of issues and needs of collecting institutions across disciplines became so evident as we worked through the brainstorming sessions. The legislative reception also offered attendants a time to visit informally. From those conversations, I learned about the incredible ways holdings in Florida repositories - libraries, museums, archives, archeological collections - serve the needs of the public.

Thanks also to FAM director, Malinda Horton & consultant Myriam Springuel for getting the IMLS grant to do this important work. And thanks to the staff at debary Hall for hosting the event at their beautiful historic facility.

I look forward to continuing the conversation in Tallahassee on March 23rd.

Linda

Welcome to the Connecting to Collections Discussion Group.

Be sure to subscribe to get postings sent to you by e-mail; otherwise, be sure to visit this site often to get the latest postings.

This will be a way for the steering committee, forum attendees, etc. to communicate.

Thanks for participating in the Connecting to Collections project.