NCPTT Catalog of Products is preserved locally in the Voices archive from the original 2005 final-layout PDF.
A surviving Scribd copy is retained as a secondary source.
This catalog features research conducted over the first ten years of the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training. I conceptualized, designed and wrote (except where noted) this catalog in 2004–2005 as a way to more effectively market these free research products to the professionals who could use them. Product requests and downloads averaged a 500 percent increase in the year following its publication.
Project Catalog Card
View the publication record, role, outcome & trajectory
| Project | NCPTT Catalog of Research |
|---|---|
| Institution | National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, National Park Service |
| Period | 2004–2005 |
| Role | Concept, design, and most writing. |
| Problem | How could a decade of free preservation research become easier for practitioners to discover and request? |
| Practice | Created a print catalog that translated research output into an organized, browsable communications product. |
| Outcome | Product requests and downloads averaged a 500 percent increase in the year following publication. |
| What survives | The embedded catalog and current NCPTT online research resources. |
| Trajectory | Research catalog → online resource discovery → present-day interest in knowledge systems and public access. |
| Status | Historical publication; distribution model moved online. |
Supporting Documents & Sources
View the catalog & current research-distribution system
Archive Note / Provenance
View what changed & what the publication still demonstrates
The printed catalog documented NCPTT’s first decade of research; the distribution model later moved online. The container changed, but the underlying problem did not: research has little practical value if the people who need it cannot discover, understand, and reuse it.
This is an early example of a recurring idea in my work: communications can function as knowledge infrastructure rather than simply promotion.
Critical Questions + Add to the Record
- How do we make knowledge more accessible without losing its meaning?
- What happens when useful tools become systems we depend on?
Application here: the catalog treated discoverability as part of the research lifecycle. Publishing knowledge was not enough; the institution also had to build a pathway by which practitioners could find and use it.
Did you use the catalog, request research through it, or work on NCPTT distribution during this period? Add firsthand context or surviving documentation.
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