The Golden Museum
submitted
Last year the Golden Museum and Archives happily installed a large fireproofed vault to protect local archival material.
After this huge leap forward in conserving our local history, the next step in protecting this material is to organize it and store it in the proper containers.
The Columbia Basin Trust, through their Community Initiatives and Affected Areas Program, has provided the Golden Museum and Archives with the funds to take on this project.
With the funds provided by this program, the Museum has been able to purchase four legal sized metal filing cabinets, acid free buffered products to house the maps, newspapers, and photographs, as well as provide proper labels for these items.
The file cabinets have replaced the plastic shelving that originally housed much of the archival material.
Plastic is bad because it leaks gasses that help with the process of breaking down paper.
The filing cabinets also allow us to remove paper documents from cardboard boxes, which then can be filed according to the British Columbia Thesaurus, a subject indexing tool for small archives.
All documents are filed in acid free file folders and labeled before being placed alphabetically according to archival criteria. An index is then made of all the documents placed in the cabinets, stating the location and contents of each file.
The organization of these documents allows easy access to any information that the general public is looking for.
Another benefit to the filing cabinets is that they free up shelf space, allowing the Museum room to store Golden’s newspapers in the fireproof area, effectively protecting them for future generations.
With the help of the CBT and their Community Initiatives Program, the Golden Museum and Archives is ensuring that all cellulose based material (including letters, documents, photographs, and newspapers) that have been collected over the past 43 years is being cared for in the safest manner.
Our goal is to preserve this material, allowing future generations an opportunity to learn about Golden’s History.
The Golden Museum and Archives gratefully acknowledges the contribution of the Columbia Basin Trust, Community Initiatives & Affected Areas Program. Without their support this project would not have been possible.
For more information about about the museum go to www.goldenbcmuseum.com.
