Abstract
Founded in 1989, APOYOnline – Association for Heritage Preservation of the Americas - www.apoyonline.org (formerly Apoyo), has been deeply committed to strengthening exchange and global professional networks, promoting professional development and sharing technical preservation information across Latin America, the Caribbean region, and other Portuguese and Spanish speaking countries. As a grassroots non-profit association of volunteers, APOYOnline aims to disseminate the preservation philosophy, and to share the challenges, practices, and experiences of people dedicated to preserve their common cultural patrimony. APOYOnline has been providing access to hands-on training and professional development, grant funding to attend workshops and conferences, organizing regional conferences, leading the donation of preservation materials to institutions in need, and improving access to technical knowledge through translations of key publications into Portuguese and Spanish. There are several collaborative projects in progress among institutions of the region and critical research shared thanks to the support to APOYOnline. Today, 30 years later, over 4,500 professionals across Latin America, the Caribbean, Portugal, Spain and other Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries are connected and close to 1,000 professionals from 27 countries have received specialized training through multi-lingual events organized by APOYOnline. This paper highlights the trajectory of this organization, emphasizing the challenges, lessons learned, and future plans in building multilingual bridges of communication among professionals dedicated to the preservation of cultural heritage.
Presenters
Beatriz HaspoCollections Officer, Preservation Directorate, Library of Congress, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
HERITAGE, PRESERVATION, CONSERVATION, PATRIMONY, NETWORK, PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, TECHNICAL TRANSLATION
