Certified archivist Helen Wong Smith leads preservation initiatives

Helen Wong Smith continues to work with Lanai Culture & Heritage Center to preserve and catalog its archival collection. She began by working with 30 community members in various workshops to develop best management practices policies for existing collections and new accessions. Several community presentations were also offered to Lāna‘i residents, sharing preservation methods for their own family collections. A community member and founding board member Pamela Pili Alconcel participated in workshops offered by the Western Archives Institute in archival skills. Over the years, dditional archival storage space was given to the Lāna‘i CHC by Pūlama Lāna‘i, and a new H-Vac/Climate Control System was installed in the archives. Subsequently an entire collection of Lāna‘i Culture & Heritage Center was reorganized, and many objects were rehoused in archival-safe storage materials. Following much work and review, PastPerfect Collections Software was purchased to establish a uniform indices of collections. More than 22,532 records were input to the new museum software. Development of the collections indices is ongoing. We welcome inquiries about items that may be eligible for our collections. Contact us.

New accessions also continued to be added to collection during the grant period, and include but are not limited to:

• 22 boxes from the 1987-1988 Kalaehī UH Archaeological Field School Studies
• 20 boxes from the 1989-1991 Hulopo‘e Field Archaeological Inventory Surveys
• 7 boxes from the Kō‘ele and Lāna‘i Rural District Field Archaeological Inventory Surveys
• 3,000+ historic photos have been scanned and accession/call numbers assigned
• 190 Plantation Land Survey Books from the 1920s to 1950s
• Indigenous artifacts
• Plantation family memorabilia