Jeanne Drewes

Introduction

In 2003 five Cuban librarians attended the ALA Conference held in Toronto, Canada. Their funding to attend the conference was provided in a variety of ways, including a travel grant from the Social Science Research Council, Working Group on Cuba. That funding was the last round in a series of small project grants awarded to promote scholarly exchange and to provide preservation of library and archival research collections in Cuba. (The SSRC is continuing their funding of projects in Cuba to preserve collections but doing that through larger focused projects. See http://www.ssrc.org/programs/cuba/Libraries_and_Archives.page).

For me, this ALA grant was the culmination of five years of collaboration wherein I had traveled to Cuba. I was pleased to be part of a grant award that allowed Cubans to be part of an American institution, an ALA Annual Conference. Previous grants had provided travel to Cuba for collaborative workshops. These workshops were all preservation based and included a hands-on component in repair techniques for books and paper. Other projects funded through other means included a workshop on a specific repair technique on board reattachment for leather bindings. I also participated in two preservation conferences and organized two undergraduate student work projects in Cuban archives. In addition I helped to coordinate three shipments of supplies, books and equipment. I have said that I am the wrong person to be doing this work in Cuba because I don't have a good working knowledge of Spanish. On the other hand one might say that I am the right person since I have been able to gather together the appropriate resources to accomplish the aforementioned projects.

For me it was the personal connection that kept those projects moving forward in spite of difficulties in communication and logistics. It was a personal connection in Cuba that enabled additional projects beyond those that were grant funded. In all cases these projects were a collaborative effort that included institutions in Cuba and involved numerous partners in the United States. There are many components to successful collaborative projects, but I believe that a key element is developing that personal connection. It is the personal interest, passion if you will, that renews the energy for the work required for successful collaboration; it is the personal that keeps a project building from the initial contact; it is the personal story told with energy and passion that persuades others to become involved and to contribute. Drawing on my experiences I offer this view of collaborative projects and recommendations for success.

Suggestion #1: Pick a project where you can make a personal contribution/connection

Some one once asked my why I was doing preservation work in Cuba and why not some other Latin American country that had just as great a need? I said, "Pick your country and make your project; all it takes is making the connection and then having the commitment." In my case the connection found me. I was in the right place (Johns Hopkins University) at the right time (1997). Franklin Knight, Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University, first asked me to meet with the director of the national archives of Cuba to talk with her about preservation issues in her collection. Franklin had heard a short presentation on disaster recovery, which I had given at a "Friends of the Library" program. I have long been interested and involved with preservation training and outreach in the United States and was thrilled with the possibility of carrying that interest further afield. Franklin made arrangements for the Director and Assistant Director of the Cuban National Archive to travel to Johns Hopkins in the spring of 1997. This trip was arranged and funded through the Cuba Exchange Program of the Johns Hopkins University, a program in existence since 1977. The program has provided exchange of scholars between the two countries and since 1997 has also sponsored an undergraduate intercession course for Hopkins students through the University of Havana.

During our first meeting on the Johns Hopkins University campus Berarda Salabarria shared information about her organization, her collections, her staff and her efforts in preservation. I learned that the Archives had a conservation lab and conservators, had extensive collections dating from 1800 and before, and that they had a plethora of preservation concerns, including environmental and pest control, deteriorating collections, limited resources and providing continuing education for staff. All these preservation concerns were issues at Johns Hopkins as well; they differed only in scale. Through several conversations we shared our mutual concern for our collections and considered how we might work together. The outcome was an invitation for me to speak at the conference already in the planning stages to be held in May of 1998. Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) was the American partner for this conference and had helped to secure funding. Fortunately I already knew people at NEDCC and the Director, Ann Russell, graciously agreed to add me as a speaker even at that late date. The Hopkins Cuba Exchange Program agreed to fund my travel both for the conference and for a few days beyond the conference so that I could explore the possibility of future collaboration. Franklin Knight was particularly concerned about a provincial archive in Matanzas where he had done extensive research. He strongly encouraged Berarda to arrange travel so I could see this archive. At this point my personal interest was based on my immediate friendship with Berarda and Franklin and my continuing interest in preservation outreach and training. Once in Cuba I made friendships that have continued to be a source of inspiration for additional projects and connections to the island.

I came to the conclusion that the way I could best contribute to a shared vision of collaborative workshops was to find appropriate people to teach in Spanish and to put my energy into finding resources and connections.

Suggestion #2: From the personal connection find Shared Goals

In order to learn more before my first trip to Cuba I contacted Ann Russell, the Director at NEDCC who had traveled to Cuba and had already arranged a project for one of her paper conservators. Ann suggested I contact several people, involved either with Cuban projects or with Spanish language conservation publications. Ann Russell connected me with Mike Smith, then at the Center for Marine Conservation who was working to ship storage units to Cuban natural history museums. Mike said that after a person first visited Cuba they were either "hooked" and continued or never wanted to go again. Mike thought I was "hooked." He was right, and his institution and I were able to work together for three shipments of materials to Cuban cultural institutions. The second person that Ann Russell suggested I call was Amparo deTorres, who worked in the Preservation Directorate at the Library of Congress. Amparo had long been involved with preservation in Latin America and she assisted me in more ways than I can count, but initially with materials in Spanish to develop a bibliography on tropical preservation (see http://www.lib.msu.edu/drewes/Spanish/tropical.html) to contribute to the conference. Later Amparo was instrumental in assisting with translations of workshop manuals and with acquiring donations of supplies and equipment to ship to Cuba. Amparo was an inspiration to me after hearing about all her work and connections in Latin America. She showed me how pure dedication to a cause was the best way to get things done and how connections could be used in many areas.

Another connection was made through the Guild of Book Workers. The then president of the Potomac chapter, Erin Loftus, called me one day and asked to meet. She wanted to go to Cuba as she had a great love for Cuban dance. Erin was the first person with whom I subsequently traveled to Cuba. Before each of my trips someone very eager to go to Cuba found me and brought an expertise that I lacked. In the case of Erin it was conservation expertise. The goal of each trip was always clear in my mind, to work on preservation projects with designated institutions in Cuba and to explore other possible partnerships for future projects.

Of course the most important sharing of goals was with the Cuban institutions. For me the best way to learn their goals was through meeting and talking first about our common goals for our collections and then considering an appropriate project that could benefit all parties concerned. It was through that dialogue that I learned about tropical preservation issues that informed the design of workshops and projects. The shared goal was always the preservation of research materials that would benefit scholars from many countries.

Suggestion #3: Network, network, network

It was on the first trip to Cuba that I began to consider whether or not partnerships with the national archives and other institutions might be possible. Traveling with a conservator certainly helped to inform the options. It was Erin's idea to utilize the undergraduate exchange travel program at Johns Hopkins University to provide the people power to begin work on a simple rehousing project. It was an excellent idea and I followed up in January 1999 with a two-day work project at the Matanzas provincial archives. This was an archive where Franklin Knight had done much of his research so it was a fitting location for a first project. The students helped rehouse old registries. The following year another project with the students was held at the national archives where new folders were created for some of the map collection. (See AIC Book and Paper Group Annual, Vol. 19, 2000:21-24).

Student work projects are a wonderful way for the students to have the opportunity to meet and talk with everyday Cubans and to do something to assist the Cubans in their efforts to preserve their cultural heritage. In both cases the exchange program was able to pay for the materials needed for the projects. The students helped to carry the materials down and then provided the people power to get the rehousing projects started. In both cases the remaining materials were left at the institution so that the project could continue, as time allowed. It was working with other units on campus that enabled the student work project. It was working with many people in various institutions that provided the supplies needed for other projects.

Americans can travel to Cuba by obtaining a license to travel from the Department of the Treasury. They can take supplies in their luggage on most flights, but to ship larger amounts one had to obtain a license for shipping materials to Cuba. For more information about licenses see: http://www.treas.gov/offices/eotffc/ofac/actions/20030429.html. I mentioned earlier that Ann Russell introducing me to Mike Smith from the Center for Marine Conservation. Mike was interested in shipping museum storage cases to Cuba to help preserve the natural history specimens in collections to document the biodiversity of the Caribbean. Both Ann and I were able to add our supplies to Mike's license and since the shipping container was priced by volume not by weight our conservation supplies were stored in the empty museum cases without additional cost to the Center's project. This also meant that the funders for the Center's project had an added benefit of conservation for archives and libraries. I worked with countless institutions and individuals who helped solicit, store, and finally pack the many donations. Surely the idea of a shared vision was a part of why so many people helped send over $400,000.00 worth of materials to Cuba in those five years. But it is also true that the personal connection helped acquire the donations as well as networking with vendors, institutions and individuals.

Before traveling to Cuba I had learned of a book cooperative through an email on a book arts listserv. What luck that the provincial archive that Franklin Knight wanted me to visit was also where the book cooperative was located. On that first trip I fell in love with these uniquely designed books and purchased as many of them as I could afford. Looking back now I wish I had purchased one of everything. Ediciones Vigia is a small press cooperative in what has long been called the Athens Cuba, Matanzas. (See http://www.lib.msu.edu/drewes/Spanish/cuba/vigia/index.html). It was through talking about and showing these books that many of the donations came to the projects. I also carried donations to the cooperative. As a member of the Potomac chapter of the Guild of Book Workers I presented the talk to that chapter about the books and brought them to the meeting for people to view. It was from that brief presentation that I met a book artist/journalist in the area named Lynn Cothern. Lynn was very interested in my projects and wanted to write about them so she traveled with me on my second trip to Cuba for the first student work project, and she and I worked for an afternoon at Ediciones Vigia. Lynn provided the needed transportation for a shipment of donations to reach New York. In a one day trip up and back we loaded and unloaded her pickup truck, worked with volunteers from the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and others to pack up the rest of the shipment get it on a truck destined for Canada and then a ship bound for Cuba. My friend Nancy Hallock, cataloger at Harvard University and a graduate student from NYU also helped shrink-wrap and pack the donations that had come from all over the United States to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. When it became clear that we didn't have enough time to complete the work before the truck would arrive I made a call in the late morning to the conservation lab at the gardens with a plea for help. The entire conservation lab staff spent their lunch hour helping to complete the wrapping so that everything that was done in time for the two o'clock truck arrival. The conservators did not know about the project before my call and yet they generously gave up their lunchtime to complete the work. I believe it was a shared purpose of helping another institution with their preservation needs that brought forth the needed energy and good will to accomplish the task. So what were in the donations?

The donations for that first shipment consisted of conservation supplies such as binders board, book cloth, leather, PVA, wheat paste, sheets of Japanese tissue, methyl cellulose, small tools, storage boxes, folders, end sheets, Mylar and book tape. The shipment left on a truck for Canada where it was packed into shipping container along with the museums storage cases. It left the Canadian harbor and arrived in Havana several months before the planned workshop. Supplies for all the workshops were either donated or purchased at cost from generous suppliers.

The second shipment of donations was the most extraordinary because of an amazing gift of an entire conservation lab donated by paper conservator Kendra Lovette. Kendra had retired from her private practice because of illness and she donated her entire conservation lab from the largest equipment to the smallest hand tools and supplies of all sorts. It was the most extraordinary gift, worth over $100,000. It was through Amparo deTorres that this gift came to Cuba. By this time I had started in my new position at Michigan State University so it was many other volunteers and friends of Cuba who packed up this stupendous donation in Baltimore. I was able to travel to Baltimore from Michigan on my way to an AIC meeting in Philadelphia in order to spend the day once again with more volunteers to prepare the shipment for transport to Cuba via Canada. That shipment arrived in Cuba in time for the last two workshops. Many of the materials from that shipment were distributed in the workshops but the gift was so large that many other institutions also benefited including an art school, the art museum, the national archives and national library and Ediciones Vigia.

The third shipment, which arrived in 2002, consisted predominantly of books for libraries, some in Spanish some in English. They came from libraries and individuals in the United States and they went to a broad spectrum of libraries in Cuba, including the University of Havana, CENCREM the national center for conservation, a medical school, an engineering school and a number of public libraries. In the case of the third shipment most of the publicity about the shipment was done through ALA listservs and the ALA International Relations Office.

Each donated shipment must have a receiver institution in Cuba. In all these cases these institutions put forth huge effort to physically move the materials from Customs to their institutions pending distribution and they also work within the system to get the materials through the proper channels of Customs so that they can be released. The work on the shipping end pales in comparison to the work required on the receiving end. And in all cases the donations were not kept by these institutions but were distributed among many and various institutions that could benefit from the use of the materials. I was fortunate to have such generous partners who shared the same goal of distributing materials beyond their own institutions.

Networking, inter-institutional and intra-institutional are key to building the communication and support structure necessary for international projects. While communication across national borders have been greatly increased with internet communication, it is still very worthwhile to have face to face communication to help establish rapport and a personal connection. For a library or archive project institutional support that is more broadly based is also extremely helpful.

Suggestion #4: Be Sensitive to Cultural Differences

A possible barrier to successful collaboration can be cultural differences. One example of a cultural difference is time. I tend to be time bound, expecting meetings to start on time and end on time. In Cuba time is much less precise and often the start of a workshop was delayed up to an hour because the participants had trouble finding the necessary transportation to reach the site. While the instructors and I stayed close to the training site that was not true of the participants, many of whom rose very early to arrive an hour after the expected start time. After my first conference experience I learned that starting on time was not going to be possible. For the workshops after the first day we had a more flexible schedule to allow one-on-one instruction with those participants who were able to arrive earlier. This allowed all participants to hear the initial lecture about the new technique being taught that day and also provided useful time for participants who were able to arrive early. Other opportunities for one on one instruction were provided for those participants whose arrival was delayed by using some of lunchtime or even after the end of the daily session. The instructor also encouraged the exchange of information, learning from participants as well as showing techniques used in conservation labs in the United States. Discussion about the value of various repair techniques provided options based on experience, materials and value of items to be repaired.

Suggestion #5: Communicate in the language

Communication is key to organizing any sort of multi institutional project but even more key when the institutions are far apart geographically. Fortunately with e-mail available virtually around the world staying in close communication is not nearly as difficult as it once was. This ease of communication across distances makes planning a project much easier provided that language is not a barrier. If language is a barrier then good translation is very important. While it is helpful for the organizers to be able to speak the same language it is not absolutely necessary. In the case of Cuba, Spanish is the native language but nearly all Cubans also have a second language skill. This is not necessarily English, and is in fact often Russian because of the most recent extended political association between those two countries. English is taught and certainly in the tourist areas there are many Cubans who speak English, but this is not the case outside of Havana and also is not necessarily the case in Cuban cultural institutions. In my case, since I do not have good Spanish language skills I had to rely on translators both for written messages and in person. For this reason as I developed possible workshops to hold on site I also sought out Spanish speaking conservators who could teach workshops in the language thus saving time at the workshop and reducing the additional cost for translators.

After speaking at the conference and visiting several additional institutions using a translator for all my communication, it was clear to me that teaching workshops in Spanish would be more cost-effective because it would take less time. It also would be more useful for hands-on workshops because the instructors could work individually with the participants in perfecting their repair methodology. After returning from the initial conference I began talking with conservators to learn who spoke Spanish and who might be interested in teaching such a workshop. I was most fortunate to meet Priscilla Anderson, who at that time worked at the Walters Art Gallery. Not only does Priscilla have excellent Spanish skills she is also an excellent conservator and expressed strong interest in working with me on such a project.

On my first trip to Cuba I met another American, Bob Muens. Bob had worked at the Library of Congress but had since started his own business as a private conservator in Key West. Bob was on a sailing vacation when I met him. Bob also expressed interest in working with me on training and I added him to my list of conservators. I continued to add names to my list of Spanish-speaking conservators including Ethel Hellman, now at Harvard and Whitney Baker now at the University of Kansas. Amparo de Torres helped me find translators for the manuals we wished to use, or did the translation. Amparo edits the Spanish conservation newsletter Apoyo, which provided me with an avenue to announce the availability of Spanish translations.

Conclusion

So what did I learn from the projects that I have been involved with in Cuba? I have learned how many people it takes putting in long hours of work here and there in order to put on the collaborative workshop in a foreign country. The work I put in is miniscule compared to the work of many individuals at the institution where the workshop was held. In addition those institutions that sent the participants for the workshops also put forth a great deal of effort to provide the transportation to attend. In all cases those institutions supported the individuals who attended the workshops and in the case of the hosting institution not only did they store the donated materials, provide space for the workshop, put up with disruption while workshop was going on, but they also continued to be a resource for the participants after the American instructors had left.

I have learned that the generosity of institutions and commercial companies in supporting these projects is outstanding; not only the donated materials but in many cases the cost of transportation to send the materials to that central location for shipping was born by the donators. I have learned that it is individual contact that is most successful in any appeal for materials and support. I have learned that it takes a whole crew of individuals in the background supporting a workshop. I know that my piece in these projects was very small and that without the contributions of innumerable people the successes that we had would not have happened. Like I said, I was in the right place at the right time.

About the Author

Jeanne Drewes is Assistant Director for Access and Preservation at Michigan State University Libraries.
Email: drewes [at] msu [dot] edu