Heritage Hub Collections Care training at Dr Jenner’s House

On 2 March this year, Gloucestershire Archives Collections Care team (Ann Attwood & Rachel Wales) went to Dr Jenner's House, Museum and Garden to train volunteers in Collections Care.   The Jenner Trust is an independent charity which cares for The Chantry, where Dr Edward Jenner practised as a country doctor, and celebrates his life, work and achievements as the father of vaccination and the science of immunology.

The Trust contacted us in December to ask if Gloucestershire Archives could provide collections care training for five of their archive volunteers. Three or four of the volunteers were relatively new and hadn’t had any formal training before.  Much of their work is basic collections care, packing, handling and cleaning. 

As we are in the process of developing the modules for our Heritage Hub ‘Keeping’ training, which provides support for organisations preserving documentary history in Gloucestershire, we were glad to work with the Jenner Trust to provide a training event that would be useful for their volunteers, and potentially others too.  They were also happy to act as a ‘critical friend’, and to give us plenty of feedback to help us develop future training modules.

By the end of the morning volunteers could:

• Understand the importance of collections care
• Identify and manage risks to their collection
• Understand and source archival materials
• Appreciate a range of options for protecting collections
• Use and handle collections in a safe way
• Practice improved basic craft skills
• Use simple protective enclosures
• Link collections care activity to a helpful framework
• Prioritise improvements
• Be aware of other trusted sources of collections care help and advice
• And begin their own journey – by taking away an action plan.

Our aim is to establish and build relationships with people and organisations keeping and caring for archive collections in Gloucestershire by offering Collections Care ‘pick & mix’ training modules linked to heritage sector benchmarks in collection care, with follow-on support as required (charges may apply).

Other modules in development are:

• 'House-keeping' including cleaning, pest control, environmental control and mould prevention
• 'Safe Use' including preparation for display and for digitisation
• 'Specialist' such as caring for photographs, finding and working with a conservator, and salvage of water damaged items.

Training being delivered to The Jenner Trust volunteers.

Rachel shows volunteers how to use a bone folder to get the perfect fold!