Strengthening Foundations: Improving Description of and Access to Archival Materials

How does a cultural heritage institution preserve and present its own history?

By constructing profiles of past conservation work, World Monuments Fund, a New York-based architectural preservation organization, developed access strategies

to its archives with immediate user-centered and long-term institutional benefits.

Primary Sourcesn Administrative and

Financial Recordsn Project and Grant Filesn Architectural Plans n Visual Collectionsn Publications

Conservation Project Profilesn Historical Significancen Site Condition n Project Narrativen Collaborationn Subsequent Developments

Description and Accessn Visual collection finding aids

and EADsn Search tools for project and grant files databasen Digitized images, publications, and scrapbooks n Enhanced image metadata n Archival intranet

Margot Note is the Archivist and Information Manager at World Monuments Fund. She is earning her Post-Master’s Certificate of Advanced Study in Archives Management at Drexel University.

This project was supported by a generous grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.

supplied information to construct

identified opportunities to improve

exposed needs to accession, arrange, and

further describe