Catt Thompson-Baum ACR
About Me
Catt Thompson-Baum is one of the UK's leading experts in conservation for digitisation, ranging from small projects to mass digitisation of tens of thousands of documents. Her specialisms, including conservation surveys, assessment and treatment, workflows, team and project management and preservation advice, can be applied to any heritage project. She also has affiliations with experts in licensing content for access and income, heritage digitisation companies and private conservators, as well as other heritage specialists.
Since 2017 she has worked with Wiley Digital Archives as Collection Care Consultant and Project Manager on a series of large-scale digitisation projects. She was the Senior Collection Care Consultant for Find My Past for the digitisation of the 1921 Census and has worked with the Commonwealth War Graves Committee and Conservation by Design.
Catt operates as CTBHeritage Consulting Ltd. She has many years experience in both institutions such as the British Library, the Wellcome Library, Trinity College Dublin and The National Archives of England and Wales (where she refined and established most of the practises for digitisation conservation that are now widely accepted), as well as in private practise working with leading archive collections and academic and genealogical publishers.
Training
Postgraduate Diploma (PgDip) in Conservation of Paper, Camberwell College of Arts (University of the Arts, London)
MA (with Distinction) in Conservation of Books and Library Materials, Camberwell College of Arts (University of London)
BA(hons) (2:1) History of Arts, University of Warwick
Work History
Independent Collection Care Consultant. Clients include: Wiley Digital Archives (multiple projects and archives including Royal Anthropological Institute, Royal College of Physicians, Royal Geographical Society, Kew Gardens); Commonwealth War Graves Commission (Collection Care Consultant for Digitisation Project); Find My Past (Senior Collection Care Consultant, 1921 Census Digitisation Project); Conservation by Design (Archives123 Pilot Project)
Senior Conservation Manager for Digitisation Conservation, The National Archives
Parchment Conservation Intern, Trinity College Dublin: specialising in treatment and re-housing of items made of or including parchment and vellum as a substrate and binding material.
Book Conservation Intern, The British Library: Conservator treating Western and Eastern Collection items, bound and unbound. Duties included treatment proposals, treatment reports for exhibition purposes, carrying out practical treatment, presenting to public tours, communication with curators and other internal and external contractors
Conservator, The Wellcome Library: Conservation of library collections, including Eastern and Western books, archives, prints and drawings; Facilitating exhibitions including condition assessment, conservation and installation/deinstallation of objects; Assist other team members on wider preservation projects; Management of disaster equipment, including trolleys and new system of storage
