Collection Preservation and Management Plan 2014
Plainfield Historical Society Collections Mission and Vision
The purpose of the collections of the Plainfield Historical Society is to collect, preserve, and provide access to historical records and objects documenting the history of Plainfield, MA, and its people. The vision for the collections is that they are curated according to the Collection Policy; inventoried and catalogued; housed in a preservation-conscious way; cleaned and preserved as necessary; stored in a climate-controlled environment with exception of the “barn” collection, which is stored in a clean, dry, and organized environment. The collections are used for periodic exhibits in the Shaw Hudson House and possibly the Shaw Memorial Library, and open to researchers under supervision.
First Year Plan
- Create a detailed, step-by-step, plan/chart for processing each of the collections
- Create procedures for reviewing, assessing, culling, cataloguing, and rehousing the records and objects and learn to use them
- Negotiate with the Trust/Plainfield Congregational Church and then create a climate-controlled environment in one room of the Shaw Hudson House for the paper- and textile-based collections
- Negotiate with the Trust/Plainfield Congregational Church a way to return the “Summer Kitchen” items to the Shaw Hudson House
- Use completed collections’ digital inventory to gain intellectual and material control of the collections currently housed in the Shaw Hudson House
- Check the book collection against the inventory; review, assess and cull, and start the process of preserving cataloguing, and rehousing the books as necessary
- Store the records and manuscripts collection in the climate-controlled environment at the Shaw Hudson House, ready to be processed
- Check the map collection against the inventory; review, assess and cull, and start the process of preserving cataloguing, and rehousing the maps as necessary
- Store the photograph collection in the climate-controlled environment at the Shaw Hudson House, ready to be processed
Second Year Plan
- Choose, purchase, and install cataloguing software and learn to use it
- Check the textile collection against the inventory; review, assess and cull, and start the process of preserving cataloguing, and rehousing the textiles as necessary
- Start checking the manuscripts and records collection against the inventory; review, assess and cull, and start the process of preserving cataloguing, and rehousing the records and manuscripts as necessary
Third Year Plan
- Complete checking the manuscripts and records collection against the inventory; review, assess and cull, and start the process of preserving cataloguing, and rehousing the records and manuscripts as necessary
- Check “small” objects (objects in the Shaw Hudson House) collection against the inventory; review, assess and cull, and start the process of preserving cataloguing, and rehousing the records and manuscripts as necessary
Three Year Goal
- Locate, review, assess, and cull the collections. Catalogue, preserve or repair, and rehouse vulnerable collections.
- Digitize and transcribe the oral histories.
- Store vulnerable collections in a climate-controlled environment
- Find a solution for clean and dry storage of the barn and furniture collections, and get them ready to be catalogued and preserved or repaired.
- Clean and organize the rooms in the Shaw Hudson house: one room and side room is for collection storage and administration, the other for small rotating exhibits and can be used by researchers.
Five Year Vision
- The Plainfield Historical Society has storage space for and full control of its historical collections, which are catalogued and housed in climate-controlled space as necessary.
- The Plainfield Historical Society creates at minimum one themed rotating exhibit per year and has created preservation conscious (i.e. not oak) space for a small, informal, case-rotation at the Shaw Memorial Library, where the curator displays items from the collection.
- The Plainfield Historical Society collection team is able to host and accommodate researchers
- The Plainfield Historical Society is actively collecting oral histories as well as records and objects