Canadian Conservation Institute

🤔 What can you do to ensure sustainable climate control in your heritage institution?

In this four-part series, we’ll share calls to action to explore how environmental, social and economic responsibility can support the long-term care and meaningful use of heritage collections.

📢 First call to action: respect the rights of First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities to make decisions about how their belongings are cared for, preserved, accessed and used.

Social responsibility in sustainable climate control includes transparency, accountability and policies that support rather than restrict access to cultural belongings. It means caring for collections in ways that also respect people, relationships and living cultures. 🤝

As we recognize National Indigenous History Month, we reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that our preservation practices align with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and that we respect Indigenous self-determination, cultural rights and traditional knowledge.

Learn more about our “Climate Guidelines” and how they are grounded in a broader understanding of sustainability that extends beyond environmental impact alone.

🔗 https://www.canada.ca/en/conservation-institute/services/preventive-conservation/climate-guidelines.html

🔍 Looking for tools to add to your digitization toolkit? 🧰

Then visit the new Digitization Toolkit page on the Canadian Heritage Information Network website. Here you’ll find everything from high-level templates for policy development and planning to detailed how-to guides.

The toolkit was designed to help gallery, library, archive and museum staff and managers design and implement digitization policies, programs and projects. Don’t miss the Still Image File Size Estimator Tool, which is an Excel workbook that helps determine the storage space requirements for images produced by scanning reflective and transparent still images. 💿

🔗 https://www.canada.ca/en/heritage-information-network/services/digitization/digitization-toolkit.html

📣 It’s Doors Open Ottawa this Saturday!

Don’t forget to drop by our building at 1030 Innes Road on June 6! 🏃‍♀️ Doors will be open from 10 am to 4 pm.

Speak with our scientists, conservators and analysts to learn about how we help preserve cultural heritage in Canada. Don’t miss this opportunity to see unique objects and works of art! 🖼️

🎉 We’re excited to announce a new partnership 🤝 between CCI and the Société des musées du Québec (SMQ)!

Together, we’re advancing a shared goal: helping heritage institutions in Quebec adopt sustainable climate control practices through outreach, awareness and training on CCI’s new “Climate Guidelines.” These guidelines balance preservation, energy use, costs and long-term access to collections.

Curious to learn more? Check out CCI’s updated “Climate Guidelines.”
👉 https://www.canada.ca/en/conservation-institute/services/preventive-conservation/climate-guidelines.html

We look forward to working with the SMQ to support more sustainable and resilient approaches to collection care.

This , we’re reminiscing about the time when CCI scientists worked on a hockey sweater worn by Maurice “Rocket” Richard in the 1959 Stanley Cup playoffs. They used a portable Fourier transform infrared spectrometer to analyze a stain on the sweater and found that it was consistent with blood and was probably a result of some rough play on the ice. 🏒

👀 Check out the Canadian Heritage Information Network’s (CHIN) updated digital preservation landing page.

You’ll find new links to tools and resources, such as “CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance,” as well as a more user-friendly navigation that categorizes the tools and resources by type of action: planning, selecting, storing, etc.

With links to 41 tools and resources from CHIN and other organizations, you’re sure to find what you’re looking for.

🔗 https://www.canada.ca/en/heritage-information-network/services/digital-preservation.html

🔍✨ Go behind the scenes of the treatment of a 1907 view camera from the Musée Colby-Curtis / Société historique de Stanstead . 🏛️

Last year, we posted that Conservator Anne-Stéphanie Etienne would perform a conservation and restoration treatment on a view camera once owned by John Joel Parker. This first video showcases the before treatment process. Watch it to find out how she uses the manufacturer’s sales catalogues, photographic documentation as well as scientific imaging and analysis in order to identify the view camera’s model, construction and materials and to develop a treatment proposal.

Discover how the process unfolds below, and stay tuned for our next video! ⬇️

CCI/ICC CHIN/RCIP View Camera, Before Treatment

👀 Looking for a key reference work on the management of heritage environments?

If so, check out “The Museum Environment Revisited: Managing Heritage Environments in the 21st Century.” This book brings together contributions from leading international experts working in heritage fields and explores topics such as environmental monitoring, integrated pest management and sustainability. It also includes a chapter on light, co-authored by CCI’s own Eric Hagan.

📔 The book re-examines concepts from Garry Thomson’s landmark work through a contemporary lens. It is designed to support gallery, library, archive and museum professionals in making more sustainable, evidence-based decisions regarding environmental control.

If you live in Canada, contact the CCI Library to borrow a copy of the book for free: [email protected].

🔗 https://www.routledge.com/The-Museum-Environment-Revisited-Managing-Heritage-Environments-in-the-21st-Century/ThompsonWebb-Smith/p/book/9781032583846