Laura Bedford

EDUCATION

The Kilgarlin Center for Preservation of the Cultural Record
The University of Texas School of Information, Austin, TX

• Second year candidate for Master of Science in Information Science, with a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Conservation of Library and Archival Materials. Expected graduation date following final internship: May 2010

Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
BA in Romance Languages/Art History, June 1989

CONSERVATION EXPERIENCE

Alexander Architectural Archive, The University of Texas, Austin, TX
Preservation Assistant, September 2008 to present

• Supervision of volunteers re-housing drawings and blueprints from the Roy Thomas collection.
• Preservation assessment of a collection of architectural renderings, involving graphite, ink and colored wash on paper, mounted on cloth and/or acidic boards.
• Research into lighting for display cases.
• Updates to Disaster Response Plan and overall Preservation Policies Binder.
• Surface cleaning and enclosure construction for small collection of plaster models.
• Environmental and pest monitoring.

Harry Ransom Center, Austin, TX
Senior Student Associate in Paper Conservation, September 2007 to May 2008

• Conservation of 900 page manuscript which involves digital photo documentation, removing rusty pins, surface cleaning, humidifying and flattening, mending, photomechanical copying and reassembling of a variety of early 20th century papers.

Hoover Institution of War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford, CA
Preservation Intern, September 2006 to May 2007

• Mending newspapers, posters, book pages; removing of staples and tape; cutting open book pages.
• Resewing of textblocks, consolidation of spines, recasing of books with existing covers or creation of new covers.
• Rehousing of material into corrugated clamshell boxes, phase boxes, tuxedo wrappers, traditional wrappers, and greyboards.
• Humidification, flattening and encapsulation in mylar sheets of early 20th century Chinese land deeds and propaganda posters from around the world.
• Performed on-going pest monitoring, setting out and retrieving bug traps and identifying insects caught.
• Downloaded environmental data on monthly basis into Climate Notebook software from Preservation Environment Monitors (PEM) dispersed throughout Library and Archive. (Attended Creating Cost-Effective Preservation Environments for Cultural Collections, October 2006, discussing dataloggers, HVAC system optimization and the effects of variable temperature and relative humidity on collections.)
• Provided minor disaster recovery of water-damaged posters; items were separated to dry flat, flattened under weight and then gently vacuumed to remove dried mold growth.

OTHER PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Community Foundation of Jackson Hole, Jackson, Wyoming
Special Projects Officer/ Interim Finance Officer, August 2000 to October 2002

• Interim finance officer responsible for processing donations, bequests, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, payroll.
• Organized Old Bill’s Fun Run for Charities, a major fundraising campaign and day-long event involving 137 local non-profit organizations. Sole employee responsible for recruiting and managing hundreds of volunteers who worked thousands of hours. The event raised over $5 million under my management.
• Developed strategic marketing and fundraising plans and materials, including the Community Foundation’s annual report, fundraising brochures, and event marketing materials. Managed the relationship with the foundation’s advertising agency.

The Learning Center, Jackson, Wyoming
Fundraising/Transportation Associate, August 1998 to July 2000

• Organized two annual fundraisers, Wild Game Dinner and Miles for Money, raising over $100,000 each year. Both events involved recruitment and orchestration of volunteers, solicitation of prizes, selection and coordination of service providers, and print advertising materials.
• Day-to-day office responsibilities included grant writing and database management of confidential Medicaid information.

Kinnaird Properties, Lafayette, California
Office/Property Manager, March 1996 to April 1997

• Leased vacant spaces for six commercial properties of a family-owned holding company, including one restaurant and one art gallery.
• Managed tenant and vendor relations, created annual operating budgets, performed monthly property inspections and supervised all improvements.
• Maintained separate books for each entity, tracked rent collection, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, payroll and benefits using Skyline software.

Bedford Property Investors, Lafayette, California
Acquisitions Analyst, October 1994 to March 1996

• Identified potential acquisitions in target markets, performed preliminary financial analysis to refine search.
• Developed recommendations for final purchase, focusing on market analysis of property type and rents, economic analysis of existing tenants, structural inspections with resulting improvement recommendations, proposed annual budgets.
• Orchestrated development of raw land purchases, including devising construction budgets; design phase with architect and presentation to local authorities; coordination of lien releases and project drawdown payments; creation of broker events to promote leasing.

Bank of America, Paris, France
Cash Management Specialist, March 1991 to September 1994

• Provided installation and technical support of in-house software facilitating electronic funds transfer, account balance reporting, foreign exchange transactions, cash-pooling facilities for multiple currencies.
• Monitored credit line and overdraft facilities for bank customers, creation of letters of credit, daily customer service interaction.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

• Member, The American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works (2003-2008)
• Member, American Library Association (2007-2008)
• Member, Western Association of Art Conservation (2008)

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

North Bennet Street School, Boston, MA
Bookbinding Workshop student, July 2003 to August 2005

• Limp Vellum on Alum-tawed Thongs with Stacy Dolin, July 2003
• Intro to Cloth Case Bookbinding with Stacy Dolin, August 2003
• Intro to Non-Adhesive Bookbinding with Mark Anderson, June 2004
• Crossed Structure with Margot Ecke, November 2004
• Advanced Non-Adhesive Bookbinding with Stacy Dolin, January 2005
• Book Repair and Conservation I with John O’Regan, February 2005
• Japanese Bookbinding with Kiyoshi Imai, August 2005

Garage Annex School, Easthampton, MA
Bookbinding Workshop student from March 2005 to July 2006

• Thin Metal over Boards Meets the Gutter Wire with Daniel Kelm, March 2005
• Flatback Case Revisited with Daniel Kelm, May 2005
• A Stitch in Time with Bonnie Stahlecker, May 2006
• Leather Intensive with Daniel Kelm, July 2006

SKILLS

• Software & Database: MS Office 97, 2000, XP & Vista (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint), Dreamweaver, Photoshop, InDesign, FileMaker Pro, knowledge of EAD and XML.
• French language: read, write and speak with little difficulty.
• Italian language: read, write and speak with some assistance.

REFERENCES

Available upon request.