National Library Hosts Workshop on Preservation of Historical Documents

The National Library of Jamaica (NLJ) will be hosting a training workshop to sensitise key stakeholders about the proper methods to be used in preserving historical documents.
Personnel from libraries, churches and the National Gallery of Jamaica have been selected for the one-day workshop, which will be held at the NLJ’s offices at 12 East Street, Kingston on Wednesday, April 21 starting at 9:00 a.m.
Consultant Conservator, Ms. Dianna Clise, will be the main presenter at the training session, which will focus on the theoretical and practical aspects of conservation. There will also be a demonstration on book-binding.
Public Relations and Marketing Officer at the NLJ, Ms. Denise Harvey-Walker, told JIS News that the workshop was geared towards educating persons about how they could properly preserve the historical materials in their possession.
“It is hoped that from now on, these persons will be educated on the best practices of how to store and preserve paper,” she said.
She noted that some of the preservation methods being practised in the Caribbean were below world standard. “So, if we could get knowledge on how it should be done, then it would be easier moving forward. We would have a better understanding of how to do it,” she added.
Ms. Clise, who works at the Midwest Arts Conservation Centre in Minneapolis, United States of America, is engaged in the restoration of the Nuttall Collection at the NLJ, which is in urgent need of repair.
The collection comprises letters and papers of the late Enos Nuttall, Bishop of Jamaica and Archbishop of the West Indies, dating back to the 19th and early 20th Centuries.
Additionally, a template will be developed for the NLJ’s conservation staff to follow in their future restoration efforts.
Mrs. Walker informed that a grant of just under $3 million (US$33,000.00) was awarded to the NLJ last year by the United States Embassy’s Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation, to finance the restoration project.