With improvements to our expanding website, the time has come to try to advocate for our common goals. The AIC should take a stand on timely issues and let its viewpoint be known. Position papers provide a means for asking for support of conservation issues or expressing an opinion about a controversial topic. The audience for the position papers is intended to be the general public, collectors, museum personnel and browsers to our website – not conservation professionals. Position paper topics should be generally agreed upon by the conservation community. The blog or specialty group list serves are a better place for discussion of material that is not agreed upon within the conservation community.
The AIC has one excellent position paper addressing Conservation and Preservation in Collecting Institutions that has been online since 2002. This paper is located in About AIC (scroll down to Position Papers) or can be found by searching for “position paper” on the website. A practice of producing additional position papers has not been established, however, several new position papers are currently being developed and a draft procedure for preparing these papers is being tested. Ideally the papers will be persuasive, roughly 2-3 pages in length and have a brief bibliography that is accessible online. If appropriate, sidebars with short stories, images or supporting facts may be added. Volunteer authors are at work on papers on the following topics:
- . Addressing the recent loss of training positions
. Encouraging emergency planning and support of AIC-CERT
. Stolen or looted archaeological artifacts
. Potentially changing museum standards in response to environmental sustainability
It is envisioned that the position papers will be professionally edited and adopted by an AIC Board vote prior to being posted on the website. The position papers would remain posted until outdated or no longer relevant.
If you have ideas for topics, would like to participate or have suggestions or questions regarding position papers, contact Meg Craft at mcraft@thewalters.org.