DHPSNY’s Planning & Assessment services can help your organization set achievable goals and discover resources to guide you in caring for your collections. Participating in these services helps to support and advocate for those doing the work of stewardship and can often make your requests for collections-care funding stronger.
Thanks to the generosity of the NYS Library and NYS Archives, our Planning & Assessment Services are provided for free to accepted eligible organizations. You can learn more about eligibility for each service at the links below.
What service would be the right fit?
DHPSNY’s five Planning & Assessment service tracks cover a wealth of topics. Answering the question of which service is the right fit for your organization right now is often a matter of identifying your most pressing concerns or needs. You can find more details about each service and how to apply at the pages linked below. Use the guiding questions provided to determine which service to look at first.
We’ve also created this Planning & Assessment services flowchart to help you navigate through in a more visual format.
Are you looking to:
Set short-term goals, establish policies and procedures, and build capacity towards future collections efforts?
Then Foundational Planning Assistance might be the place to start. This service consists of an informal half-day site visit focused on building a framework of goals achievable over the next two years to strengthen collections care.
Identify strategic goals with input from the whole organization?
Our Strategic Planning Assistance aims to help organizations think proactively about future goals and hopes for the collections. Working with a trained facilitator, the organization will shape a three-year strategic plan to serve as a roadmap for future decision-making and action.
Take a detailed look at how you document, organize, describe, and make collections accessible?
An Archival Needs Assessment is best for organizations that are looking for ways to make more of the collection accessible to the public. We’ll examine your archival program thoroughly, focusing on collections management practices, policies, and preservation.
Evaluate collections preservation and environmental needs in order to establish future priorities?
A Preservation Survey will take a detailed look at how policy, practice, and current conditions work together as a whole to impact collections. You’ll finish with a plan focused on preventative care and risk management.
Document the preservation and conservation needs of a specific collection or set of materials?
A Condition Survey is a valuable tool to address the more involved care needs of a specified set of materials. You’ll work directly with a conservator who will provide detailed item-level findings and recommendations for next steps.
Not sure where to start?
The DHPSNY team is always here to answer any questions you have. If more than one service sounds like a good fit, we can help you navigate the best order of operations for your organization. While you can only participate in one service per application round, organizations are eligible and often encouraged to continue working with us through other services to achieve their goals.
Reach out anytime to Amanda Murray, DHPSNY Program Manager, at (215) 545-0613 ext. 337 or amurray@dhpsny.org.