Cultural Heritage Services

Libraries, archives, and museums play a crucial role in helping their local populations discover and preserve the documentary heritage of their communities. CLRC’s Cultural Heritage Services program works to help its members realize their full capacity to collect, preserve, and disseminate information about their unique cultural materials and records of enduring value.

Community Building

CLRC supports a number of “communities of practice” including the College and University Archivists Roundtable (regional) and the Special Collections Roundtable of Upstate New York.  Roundtables generally meet on a semi-annual basis and provide an opportunity for members to visit peer institutions, exchange ideas, and encourage collaboration.   Cultural Heritage Services also support the activities of CLRC’s Digitization Special Interest Group (DIG-SIG) which is made up of New York Heritage users and other digitization experts and practitioners from around the region.

If you have an idea for a roundtable or special interest group that you would like to form in support of cultural heritage activities, let us know and we can provide logistical support.

Continuing Education

As part of CLRC’s comprehensive continuing education calendar, CLRC’s Cultural Heritage Services works to bring CLRC members the latest knowledge in areas related to library, archive, and museum cultural heritage practice.  Events include online classes  and in-person classes and workshops in areas including, but not limited to: archival processing, preservation practices, oral histories, digital curation, exhibits, and more.  If you have talents you would like to share, or a class or workshop you would like to see offered, please contact us.

Site Visits and Advisory Services

CLRC offers digitization and collection management expertise, as well as basic archival processing and preservation advice to its members.  Cultural heritage organizations are also encouraged to take advantage of services offered by the Documentary Heritage & Preservation Services program (DHPSNY).

CLRC works with its partners at the Empire State Library Network (ESLN) to offer its members access to New York Heritage Digital Collections via the CONTENTdm platform.  Creating digital access to cultural heritage objects on public platforms enhances the research value of such collections and heightens the contributors presence in the community.

CLRC assists potential contributors in the following ways:

• provide start up support, including giving contributors tools and access instructions for participating in New York Heritage

• provide quality assurance on collections through feedback and continued training

• matching interns to collections and mentors throughout the CLRC area

• invites contributors to be members of the Digitization SIG

CLRC partners with the Northern New York Library Network (NNYLN) to support contributions to New York State Historic Newspapers, an ever-growing repository of newspapers from across New York State.