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New on Ancestry.com

  New Ancestry.com additions of Pennsylvania State Archives holdings are the 1914 birth certificates and the 1970 death certificates.  Go to the Archives page on Ancestry.com for more information.

Annual Archives and Records Management Seminar

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Tuesday October 8, 2024, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm

Virtual Integrated Pest Management Workshop

Insects and vertebrate pests can do irreversible damage to objects of historic and artistic value. Preventing such damage is an essential element of best practice in collection care and requires the design and implementation of an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) policy and plan. This virtual workshop will introduce participants to multiple aspects of IPM: policy and procedure; preventing infestation; trapping and monitoring; basic pest identification; and an overview of some remedial treatment options. It is designed for museum/library/archive staff needing to develop basic IPM knowledge or establish or improve an IPM program in their institution.
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
• Identify the stakeholders in their institutions who must be involved in setting up a successful IPM program
 • Understand which policies and procedures set the groundwork for successful implementation.
• Survey a building envelope and collection areas to identify locations vulnerable to entry and infestation.
• Determine what kind of traps can be used to monitor collection areas.
• Identify some of the most common museum pests.
• Work effectively with a pest management professional.
• Understand appropriate treatment options for infested collections. 

Schedule
9:30 – 9:45 Introductions
9:45 – 10:15 Intro to IPM
10:15 – 10:45 Insect Identification: Beetles
10:45 – 11:00 Break
11:00 – 11:30 Insect Identification: Moths and other insects
11:30 – 12:00 Monitoring and working with a Pest Management Professional
12:00 – 12:30 What to do if you have an infestation

Additional Resources:
• Museumpests.net 
• Agents of deterioration: Pests (Canadian Conservation Institute)
• Pinniger, David. Integrated Pest Management in Cultural Heritage. London: Archetype Publications Ltd, 2015.

Instructor:
Rachael Perkins Arenstein is a partner in A.M. Art Conservation, LLC a private practice in the New York area with a specialization in preventive care. She has implemented and conducted IPM programs in institutions of various sizes in the U.S. and abroad. She worked on the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian Move Project and its extensive pest management program from 2001-2004. She is a founding member and current Co-Chair of the MuseumPests Working Group which created and supports www.museumpests.net and the PestList listserv. She has held positions at the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem, NMAI, the Peabody Museum of Art & Archaeology, the American Museum of Natural History amongst others. Her conservation degree is from the Institute of Archaeology, University of London. rachael@amartconservation.com. 

Tuesday October 8, 2024, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Denying the Digital Dark Age: The Importance of Long-Term Electronic Record Keeping

Some records have very long retentions; twenty to even to one-hundred years and beyond! How will you ensure that you can access electronic records for the entirety of their required lifespan? What happens if you don’t take action to plan for their viability? Dara Baker (FDIC) and Anne Mason (NARA) will discuss the dangers of neglecting digital records and digital records planning.

Speakers:
Dara Baker is Chief of the Library Services Unit at the FDIC. Her federal career has included positions at the Federal Judicial Center, Export-Import Bank of the United States, U.S. Naval War College, and Franklin D. Roosevelt Administration, and the National Archives and Records Administration. She is a Certified Archivist and has held archives, history, legislative research, records management, and information management positions in those roles. At the National Archives she developed the process for and led the agency’s Technical Reference Model Governance Board, supported the National Digital Stewardship Alliance award-winning Digital Preservation Framework and consulted on the agency’s Data Governance and AI Governance models. She holds a Master’s of Library Science from the University of Maryland, College Park, and M.A. in history from Harvard University, and a B.A. in history from Cornell University.

Anne Mason is a Senior Electronic Records Policy Analyst in the Office of the Chief Records Officer at National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Anne joined NARA in 2016. She has 24 years of federal government archival and records management experience. She has been involved in responding to several disasters that impacted Federal records, archives, and cultural resources.

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