Florida’s collections are for everyone. Every day they inspire, they educate, they strengthen communities, they draw tourists, and they help us understand who we are, where we come from, and where we are going. Yet these collections are at risk.

Florida was selected by the Institute of Museum and Library Services to plan how we should preserve our collections. Florida is part of the IMLS initiative Connecting to Collections: A Call to Action, a multi-year, multi-faceted national initiative to raise public awareness and inspire action.

The initiative is grounded in the results of A Public Trust at Risk: The Heritage Health Index Report on the State of American’s Collections. Read more at www.imls.gov/collections/about/hhi.htm.

To better understand the state of Florida’s collections, the Florida Association of Museums Foundation is working with collaborators to plan a statewide assessment of Florida’s collections and to develop strategies to educate legislators and public officials about their responsibility to preserve and conserve Florida’s collections. FAM’s collaborators include Florida Art Museum Directors Association, Florida Library Association, Florida Public Archaeology Network, Florida Trust for Historic Preservation, Department of State, and Society of Florida Archivists.

To learn more about the Florida project, please follow the links to the left.