ABSTRACT: Conservation documentation contains a wealth of information on collections held by cultural heritage institutions. Documentation holds unique insights into how materials are made, used, and age as well as the ways in which conservators and conservation scientists strive to keep collections accessible. Much of this unique information is never seen outside of a conservation lab or the institutions that hold the collections. Gaining access to this information is often limited to select treatments conservators publish on or passed to researchers who somehow find out this documentation exists. Since 2019 the Linked Conservation Data Consortium has investigated whether Linked Data may provide a way in which conservation documentation can be disseminated, shared and re-used. This talk will describe our work in the areas of modeling, terminology, policy and education so far.

BIO: Kristen St. John has been the Head of Conservation Services for the Stanford Libraries since 2014. She has previously served as Collections Conservator for UCLA Libraries and as Special Collections Conservator for Rutgers University Libraries. Her research interests include making conservation documentation more accessible through the use of Linked Open Data and conservation terminology. She is also part of a project aimed at making conservation terminology more inclusive and anti-racist. She has taught workshops and classes along with graduate courses in Preservation for UCLA and Rutgers Information Studies programs. Kristen has an MLIS with an Advanced Certificate in Conservation from the University of Texas at Austin and an undergraduate degree in Classics from Trinity College, Dublin.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://utexas.zoom.us/j/96954292836?pwd=U2VYRVVPWmN1eEUzc1hBNHpYMmJIdz09

Meeting ID: 969 5429 2836

Passcode: 995044