You want to take care of your organization’s materials and preserve them for future generations. But what do you save? What do you throw? And how do you store the things you keep? How do you best use the time you have for preservation? And why is it important?

The Northfield History Collaborative will host a free workshop focused on the care and handling of books, papers, and printed photographs in a business or organizational setting on May 3. The event, for partner organizations and potential partners, will be held from 8:30 a.m. to noon in the Larson Room 236 (formerly the library) at the Carleton College Weitz Center for Creativity, 320 3^rd St E.

Check-in for the workshop begins at 8:30 a.m., with the program to commence at 9 a.m.  Topics to be covered include preservation basics, how to decide what to keep, options for heavily-used materials, where to get supplies, and the do’s and don’ts of handling and storage. Presenters will include professionals from the Northfield and Rice County historical societies and from St. Olaf and Carleton colleges.

The 30 spaces for the workshop will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Contact Collaborative Project Coordinator Ariel Butler at butler@northfieldhistory.org or call the Northfield Historical Society at 645-9268 to register.

The free workshop is funded by a Legacy Grant through the Minnesota Historical Society to the Collaborative. The Northfield History Collaborative is a partnership of 12 groups in town who work together to digitize materials that tell Northfield’s diverse history. Check out more than 5,000 objects at www.northfieldhistorycollaborative.org.