Anne-

You might want to contact the folks at Mystic Seaport's
"Documentation Shop."  Their principle task is to document the
building and or restoration of ships and boats in the museum's
collections, which is pretty similar to what it sounds like you want
to do--without the added complexity of outside contractors. They have
some good systems in place and some very interesting technologies.
The contact there is Mark Starr:

[log in to unmask]

>Hello - If you're on both lists and get this twice, please delete it once!
>The registrar, the archivist and I met this morning to brainstorm about
>methodology for documenting proposed renovations to some of our buildings
>and sites, and eventually the building of a new museum. We want to have
>some sort of mechanism in place whereby we can keep a log of progress,
>photodocumented, as well as files with all the drawings and revisions and
>other detritus of such a project. Institutional archives and history have
>not alwaysbeen kept in a particulary consistent way around here and we
>would like to be able to make it easier to enlist overworked staff in these
>projects. If you successfully used volunteers or interns to help, how did
>you recruit and train them? We are also interested in ways you might have
>found to keep the public informed about and interested in the project.
>
>Many thanks in advance for anything at all from mere snippets to fully
>realized programs


------------------------------------------------------
Guy Hermann
8 1/2 Godfrey Street
Mystic, CT 06355
home: 860-536-2994
cell: 860-857-7363

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