Preservation (library and archival science)
Encyclopedia
Preservation is a branch of library and information science
Library and information science
Library and information science is a merging of the two fields library science and information science...

 concerned with maintaining or restoring access to artifacts, documents and records through the study, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of decay and damage.

It should be distinguished from conservation which refers to the treatment and repair of individual items to slow decay or restore them to a usable state. Conservation is occasionally used interchangeably with preservation, particularly outside the professional literature.

Antecedents

Although preservation as a formal profession in libraries and archives dates from the twentieth century, its philosophy and practice has roots in many earlier traditions.

In many ancient societies, appeals to heavenly protectors were used to preserve books, scrolls and manuscripts from insects, fire and decay.
  • To the ancient Egyptians, the scarab or dung beetle (see: Scarab (artifact)) was a protector of written products. The scarab was also used as a holder or medium for personal name seals. A figurine of a scarab would be carved out of stone, and then on the smooth stomach of the scarab, the engraving of a seal was made. Later, this oval image was used for the representation of the cartouche, or name/title seals.
  • In ancient Babylon
    Babylon
    Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...

    , Nabu
    Nabu
    Nabu is the Assyrian and Babylonian god of wisdom and writing, worshipped by Babylonians as the son of Marduk and his consort, Sarpanitum, and as the grandson of Ea. Nabu's consort was Tashmetum....

     is the heavenly patron of books and protector of clay tablets. Nabu is the Babylonian god of wisdom and writing, and is the patron of the scribes, librarians and archivists. Nabu’s symbols are the clay writing tablet with the cuneiform writing stylus. He usually wears a horned cap, and often stands with his hands clasped together, in the ancient gesture of priesthood. Nabu engraves the destiny of each person, as the Gods have decided, on the tablets of sacred record. Thus, Nabu has the power to increase or diminish, at will, the length of human life. The image of Nabu is also one of the images on the brass doors designed by Lee Lawrie
    Lee Lawrie
    Lee Oscar Lawrie was one of the United States' foremost architectural sculptors and a key figure in the American art scene preceding World War II...

    , entitled, "A History of the Written Word," on the John Adams Building
    John Adams Building
    The John Adams Building is one of three library buildings of the Library of Congress in the United States. The building was originally built simply as an annex to the Library's Main Building . It opened its doors to the public on January 3, 1939...

     of the Library of Congress. The figures on the doors also include: Thoth
    Thoth
    Thoth was considered one of the more important deities of the Egyptian pantheon. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon, animals sacred to him. His feminine counterpart was Seshat...

    , an Egyptian god; Ts'ang Chieh or Cangjie
    Cangjie
    Cangjie is a very important figure in ancient China , claimed to be an official historian of the Yellow Emperor and the inventor of Chinese characters. Legend has it that he had four eyes and four pupils, and that when he invented the characters, the deities and ghosts cried and the sky rained...

    , the Chinese patron of writing; Nabu
    Nabu
    Nabu is the Assyrian and Babylonian god of wisdom and writing, worshipped by Babylonians as the son of Marduk and his consort, Sarpanitum, and as the grandson of Ea. Nabu's consort was Tashmetum....

    , an Akkadian god; Brahma
    Brahma
    Brahma is the Hindu god of creation and one of the Trimurti, the others being Vishnu and Shiva. According to the Brahma Purana, he is the father of Mānu, and from Mānu all human beings are descended. In the Ramayana and the...

    , the Indian god; Cadmus
    Cadmus
    Cadmus or Kadmos , in Greek mythology was a Phoenician prince, the son of king Agenor and queen Telephassa of Tyre and the brother of Phoenix, Cilix and Europa. He was originally sent by his royal parents to seek out and escort his sister Europa back to Tyre after she was abducted from the shores...

    , the Greek sower of dragon's teeth; and Tahmurath or Tahmuras
    Tahmuras
    Tahmuras or Tahmures , New Persian transliteration ', older Persian Tahmurat or Tahmurath, from Avestan Taxma Urupa, is the third Shāh of the world according to Ferdowsi's Shāhnāma. He is considered as the builder of Merv; we have no proof for his existing as an earlier Aryan chief.-Tahmuras in the...

    , a hero of the ancient Persians.
  • In Hindu beliefs, Ganesh (Ganesvha or Ganapati) is the elephant-headed god of learning and new enterprises. As the god of wisdom, he knows all. Since he has the head of an elephant, he also has the reputed memory of the elephant, and thus does not forget anything. His statue is placed over the doors of and entrances of many buildings in India and Sri Lanka, including most libraries. Ganesh is the scribe who wrote the Mahabharata
    Mahabharata
    The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....

     ("Great Epic of the Bharata Dynasty") from Vyasa
    Vyasa
    Vyasa is a central and revered figure in most Hindu traditions. He is also sometimes called Veda Vyasa , or Krishna Dvaipayana...

    's dictation. Ganesh is credited with inventing the Sanskrit alphabet, and he broke off his right tusk to make the first pen. As the inventor of the alphabet, as a scribe, and as a keeper of wisdom and knowledge, Ganesh is credited as a patron of libraries, librarians and book sellers and buyers.
  • In Arabic and other eastern societies, sometimes a traditional method to protect books and scrolls was a metaphysical appeal to "Kabi:Kaj," the "King of the Cockroaches." By appealing to the king to protect a manuscript, cockroaches of less nobility (or lesser insects) would refrain from intruding on documents which could be eaten by the king only. Since many manuscripts were made with fish-glue, starch-paste, leather and other tasty substances, insect appetites were a constant and never ending problem to Arabic books and scrolls. A similar technique from Syria was to name the first and last page of a document or manuscript "The Page of the King of the Cockroaches", in the hope that the Cockroach King will control all other insects. Translated appeals include "O Kabi:kaj, save the paper!", "O Kabi:kaj, save this book from the worms!" and "O Kabi:kaj, do not eat this paper!" "In Maghribi manuscripts, the word appears in its evidently corrupt form, "Kaykataj" and is clearly used as a talisman... and mentions, after a certain Muhammad al-Samiri, that when one writes "Kaytataj" on the first and last folio of the book, one can be sure that worms will not attack it."

  • There are three saints in the Christian church that are closely associated with libraries as patrons. Saint Lawrence
    Saint Lawrence
    Lawrence of Rome was one of the seven deacons of ancient Rome who were martyred during the persecution of Valerian in 258.- Holy Chalice :...

     is an early saint of the church, who seems to be more respected in European libraries than those in the Western Hemisphere. Saint Jerome
    Saint Jerome
    Saint Jerome is a Christian church father, best known for translating the Bible into Latin.Saint Jerome may also refer to:*Jerome of Pavia , Bishop of Pavia...

     is most often considered the patron saint of libraries in the US and Canada. Saint Catharine of Alexandria or Catherine of Alexandria
    Catherine of Alexandria
    Saint Catherine of Alexandria, also known as Saint Catherine of the Wheel and The Great Martyr Saint Catherine is, according to tradition, a Christian saint and virgin, who was martyred in the early 4th century at the hands of the pagan emperor Maxentius...

     is most often considered the patroness of libraries in the Orthodox tradition.
  • In some Christian monasteries, prayers and curses were placed at the end of books to prevent theft, or to damn the thieves. Frequently called a "book curse
    Book curse
    A book curse was the most widely-employed and effective method of discouraging the thievery of manuscripts during the medieval period. The use of book curses dates back much further, to pre-Christian times, when the wrath of gods was invoked to protect books and scrolls.In their medieval usage,...

    ", these were placed in the book to deter theft. "For him that stealeth a book from this library, may it change into a serpent in his hand and rend him. May he be struck with palsy, and all his members blasted. May bookworms gnaw his entrails, in token of the worm which dieth not. And when at last he goeth to his final perdition, let the flames of Hell consume him forever and aye." Another example of a Christian curse is this medieval jingle placed at the end of a work: "Christ's curse upon the crook who takes away this book." Or in the Latin: "Sit maledictuus per Christum, Qui librum subraxerit istum."
  • The ancient Chinese god Wei T'O is the patron god of libraries and books. Many examples of appeals to Wei T'O can be found in Chinese manuscripts dated five hundred or more years ago. Sometimes the last page of manuscripts would be dedicated to him, in a manner very similar to the Arabic prayer of protection to the King of the Cockroaches. "Wei T'o, an ancient Chinese god, protects books against destruction from fire, worms and insects, and robbers, big or small." Wei T'O is especially invoked for the protection of books and libraries against fire. Since the modern books are suffering from acid decomposition (slow fires), Wei T'O is especially relevant to modern librarianship. A modern product to de-acidify paper is named in his honor.
  • Sri Lankan symbols or images of the Sinhalese "Fire Demons" are hung in the corners of libraries and other buildings to appease the incendiary demons and to avert fire, lightening and cataclysm, according to Sinhalese mythology. The fire demons from Ceylon have no body, and show only a grinning face surrounded by flames. The expressions shown on the figures are of delirious glee or insane pleasure, as these demons eventually burn themselves up, leaving only charcoal and ashes and dust. These demons especially appreciate large amounts of paper such as books or magazines, as they are ready fuel for their infernal fires. Needless to say, these fire demons are hung up around banks and currency exchange offices as well, to avert catastrophe to other paper products. Since fire and acid decomposition (also known as "slow fires") are a special problem for libraries because of the concentration of paper products, the "Fire Demons" are also included when used to assuage these destroyers of libraries and books.
  • The Aztec and Mayan Indians of Latin America also had deities concerned with libraries. The major god, Quetzalcoatl
    Quetzalcoatl
    Quetzalcoatl is a Mesoamerican deity whose name comes from the Nahuatl language and has the meaning of "feathered serpent". The worship of a feathered serpent deity is first documented in Teotihuacan in the first century BCE or first century CE...

    , is credited with the discoveries of the arts, the calendar, and of writing. A single feather or plume at the beginning or at the end of a document or stone carving would indicate a dedication to the "Feathered Serpent." This symbol degenerated over time to a single fringed line.


In library science, preservation is treated as an active and intentional process, as opposed to the passive sense of preservation that might be applied to paleontological or archaeological finds. The survival of these items is a matter of chance, from an information science perspective, while the preservation of them after their discovery is a matter of intentional activity.

Human record-keeping arguably dates back to the cave painting
Cave painting
Cave paintings are paintings on cave walls and ceilings, and the term is used especially for those dating to prehistoric times. The earliest European cave paintings date to the Aurignacian, some 32,000 years ago. The purpose of the paleolithic cave paintings is not known...

 boom of the upper paleolithic
Upper Paleolithic
The Upper Paleolithic is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. Very broadly it dates to between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago, roughly coinciding with the appearance of behavioral modernity and before the advent of...

, some 32,000-40,000 years ago. More direct antecedents are the writing systems
History of writing
The history of writing records the development of expressing language by letters or other marks. In the history of how systems of representation of language through graphic means have evolved in different human civilizations, more complete writing systems were preceded by proto-writing, systems of...

 that developed in the 4th millennium B.C. Written record keeping and information sharing practices, along with oral tradition
Oral tradition
Oral tradition and oral lore is cultural material and traditions transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants...

, sustain and transmit information from one group to another. This level of preservation has been supplemented over the last century with the professional practice of preservation and conservation in the cultural heritage community.
  1. Oral tradition
    Oral tradition
    Oral tradition and oral lore is cultural material and traditions transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants...

     or oral culture, the transmission of information from one generation to the next without a writing system.
  2. Antiquarian practices, including scribal practice
    Scribe
    A scribe is a person who writes books or documents by hand as a profession and helps the city keep track of its records. The profession, previously found in all literate cultures in some form, lost most of its importance and status with the advent of printing...

    , burial practice
    Burial
    Burial is the act of placing a person or object into the ground. This is accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing an object in it, and covering it over.-History:...

    , the libraries at Pergamum
    Library of Pergamum
    The Library of Pergamum in Pergamum, Turkey, was one of the most important libraries in the ancient world.- The City of Pergamum :Founded in the Hellenistic Age, Pergamum or Pergamom was an important ancient Greek city, located in Anatolia. It is now the site of the modern Turkish town, Bergama...

    , Alexandria
    Library of Alexandria
    The Royal Library of Alexandria, or Ancient Library of Alexandria, in Alexandria, Egypt, was the largest and most significant great library of the ancient world. It flourished under the patronage of the Ptolemaic dynasty and functioned as a major center of scholarship from its construction in the...

     and other ancient archives.
  3. Medieval practices, including the scriptorium
    Scriptorium
    Scriptorium, literally "a place for writing", is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European monasteries devoted to the copying of manuscripts by monastic scribes...

     and relic
    Relic
    In religion, a relic is a part of the body of a saint or a venerated person, or else another type of ancient religious object, carefully preserved for purposes of veneration or as a tangible memorial...

     collection
  4. Renaissance
    Renaissance
    The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

     and the changing conception of artists and works of art
  5. Enlightenment
    Age of Enlightenment
    The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...

     and the Encyclopedists
  6. Romantic movement
    Romanticism
    Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...

    ’s imperative to preserve

Significant events

  • 1933: William Barrow introduces the field of conservation to paper deacidification when he publishes a paper on the acid paper problem. In later studies, Barrow tested paper from American books made between 1900 and 1949 and learned that after forty years the books had lost on average 96 percent of their original strength; after less than ten years, they had already lost 64 percent. Barrow determined that this rapid deterioration was not the direct result of using wood-pulp fibers, since rag papers of this period were also aging rapidly, but rather due to the residual sulfuric acid produced in both rag and wood pulp papers. Manufacturing methods used after 1870 employed sulfuric acid for sizing
    Sizing
    Sizing or size is any one of numerous specific substances that is applied to or incorporated in other material, especially papers and textiles, to act as a protecting filler or glaze....

     and bleaching the paper. Earlier papermaking methods left the final product only mildly alkaline or even neutral. Such paper has maintained its strength for 300 to 800 years, despite sulfur dioxide and other air pollutants. Barrow's 1933 article on the fragile state of wood pulp paper predicted the life expectancy, or "LE," of this paper was approximately 40–50 years. At that point the paper would begin to show signs of natural decay, and he concluded that research for a new media on which to write and print was needed.
  • 1966: The Flood of the River Arno in Florence, Italy damaged or destroyed millions of rare books and lead to the development of restoration laboratories and new methods in conservation. Instrumental in this process was conservationist Peter Waters
    Peter Waters
    Peter Waters , former Conservation Officer at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, USA, worked in the areas of disaster recovery and preparedness, and the salvage of water-damaged paper goods...

    , who lead a group of volunteers, called "mud angels", in restoring thousands of books and papers. This event awakened many historians, librarians, and other professionals to the importance of having a preservation plan. Many consider this flood to be one of the worst disasters since the burning of the Alexandria Library
    Library of Alexandria
    The Royal Library of Alexandria, or Ancient Library of Alexandria, in Alexandria, Egypt, was the largest and most significant great library of the ancient world. It flourished under the patronage of the Ptolemaic dynasty and functioned as a major center of scholarship from its construction in the...

     in ancient Rome. It spurred a resurgence in the profession of preservation and conservation worldwide.
  • 1987: Terry Saunders releases the film Slow Fires: On the Preservation of the Human Record which examines paper embrittlement resulting from acid decay
  • 1989: March 7 ["Commitment Day"] Major US print publishers convene at NYPL to endorse a community-wide commitment to utilizing ISO 9706 certified permanent durable paper in order to combat the acid paper epidemic.

Significant people in the history of preservation

  • William Barrow (1904–1967) was an American chemist and paper conservator, and a pioneer of library and archives conservation. He introduced the field of conservation to paper deacidification through alkalization.
  • Paul N. Banks
    Paul N. Banks
    Paul Banks was Conservator and Head of the Conservation Department and Laboratory at the Newberry Library from 1964 to 1981. He left the Newberry Library in 1981 to establish the first United States degree granting program in library preservation at the Columbia University School of Library Science...

     (1934–2000) was Conservator and Head of the Conservation Department at the Newberry Library
    Newberry Library
    The Newberry Library is a privately endowed, independent research library for the humanities and social sciences in Chicago, Illinois. Although it is private, non-circulating library, the Newberry Library is free and open to the public...

     from 1964 to 1981, and published regularly on bookbinding
    Bookbinding
    Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book from a number of folded or unfolded sheets of paper or other material. It usually involves attaching covers to the resulting text-block.-Origins of the book:...

    , book and paper conservation, and problems related to conservation. He designed and implemented a curriculum for Columbia University's
    Columbia University
    Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

     School of Library Science that dealt directly with preservation training.
  • Pamela Darling
    Pamela Darling
    Pamela W. Darling was an American library preservation specialist. She was a leader in developing preservation procedures and planning for academic libraries. She developed a grid that is helpful in prioritizing preservation activities.- Overview :...

    , author and historian, was Preservation Specialist for the Association of Research Libraries
    Association of Research Libraries
    The Association of Research Libraries is an organization of the leading research libraries in North America. As of October 2006, it comprises 123 libraries at comprehensive, research-intensive institutions in the US and Canada that share similar missions, aspirations, and achievements...

    . Her works include materials to aid libraries in establishing their own comprehensive preservation programs.
  • Carolyn Harris
    Carolyn Harris
    Carolyn Lynnet Harris was a library conservationist. She received a B.A. in Art History in 1969 and a Masters of Library Science in 1970, both from the University of Texas at Austin.-Career:...

     worked as head of Columbia University Libraries' Preservation Division from 1981 until 1987, where she worked closely with Paul Banks. She published extensive research throughout her career, especially dealing with mass deacidification
    Mass deacidification
    Mass deacidification is a term used in Library and Information Science for one possible measure against the degradation of paper in old books . The goal of the process is to increase the pH of acidic paper on a large scale...

     of wood-pulp paper.
  • Peter Waters
    Peter Waters
    Peter Waters , former Conservation Officer at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, USA, worked in the areas of disaster recovery and preparedness, and the salvage of water-damaged paper goods...

    , former Conservation Officer at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, worked in the areas of disaster recovery and preparedness, and the salvaging of water-damaged paper goods.
  • Nicholson Baker
    Nicholson Baker
    Nicholson Baker is a contemporary American writer of fiction and non-fiction. As a novelist, he often focuses on minute inspection of his characters' and narrators' stream of consciousness, and has written about such provocative topics as voyeurism and planned assassination...

     is a contemporary American novelist and author of Double Fold
    Double Fold
    Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper is a non-fiction book by Nicholson Baker that was published in April, 2001. An excerpt appeared in the July 24, 2000 issue of The New Yorker, under the title "Deadline: The Author's Desperate Bid to Save...

    , a criticism of libraries' destruction of paper-based media.
  • Patricia Battin
    Patricia Battin
    Patricia Meyer Battin was one of the first librarians to combine the responsibilities of library administrator and technology director. Her focus shifted toward preservation when she became the first president of the Commission on Preservation and Access...

    , as the first president of the Commission on Preservation and Access, worked to organize a national campaign both for the use of alkaline paper in publishing companies and for a national program of preservation microfilming
    Microform
    Microforms are any forms, either films or paper, containing microreproductions of documents for transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about one twenty-fifth of the original document size...

    .
  • John F. Dean, Preservation and Conservation Librarian at Cornell University, has made contributions towards improving preservation efforts in developing countries
    Book preservation in developing countries
    Book preservation in developing countries is a growing concern among preservation and conservation librarians. Without proper resources and training, many countries around the world struggle to maintain books and manuscripts as part of their cultural history. Environmental conditions pose perhaps...

    . Specifically, Dean has created online tutorials for library conservation and preservation in Southeast Asia and Iraq and the Middle East.


The Paul Banks and Carolyn Harris Preservation Award for outstanding preservation specialists in library and archival science, is given annually by the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services, a subdivision of the American Library Association
American Library Association
The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....

. It is awarded in recognition of professional preservation specialists who have made significant contributions to the field. Banks/Harris award winners:
  • Sally Buchanan 2001 - Buchanan received the award in recognition of years of service in the preservation field while an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh
    University of Pittsburgh
    The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...

     School of Information Science
  • Ellen McCrady 2002-2008 - From 1975 to 2004, McCrady edited and published the "Abbey Newsletter", covering important information for preservation professionals. She also conducted research regarding papermaking and acid testing. From 1988-1997 she published the Alkaline Paper Advocate
  • John F. Dean 2003 - Since its inception in 1985, Dean has led the Department of Preservation and Conservation at Cornell University
    Cornell University
    Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

    .
  • Jan Merrill-Oldham 2004 - As the Malloy-Rabinowitz Preservation Librarian at Harvard University
    Harvard University
    Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

    , Merrill-Oldham oversees the Weissman Preservation Center and the Preservation and Imaging Department.
  • Paul Conway
    Paul Conway (Professor)
    Paul Conway is associate professor in the University of Michigan School of Information and has worked with Yale and Duke Universities after starting his career at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. His research and educational work focuses primarily on digital preservation and electronic media...

     2005 - Conway is an associate professor in the University of Michigan School of Information
    University of Michigan School of Information
    The School of Information or iSchool at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor is a graduate school offering both a Master of Science in Information and a Doctor of Information ....

     and has worked with Yale
    YALE
    RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...

     and Duke University
    Duke University
    Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...

     after beginning his career at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
    Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
    The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library is part of the National Archives and Records Administration's presidential library system. The library is located at 1000 Beal Avenue on the north campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where Ford was a student and football player...

    . His research and educational work focuses primarily on digital preservation and electronic media.
  • Gary Frost 2006 - Currently the University Conservator at the University of Iowa
    University of Iowa
    The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...

     Libraries, Frost has been an educator and practitioner in the field of library preservation for almost 40 years. Frost is actively involved in library preservation and maintains an online blog at Futureofthebook.com.
  • Walter Henry 2007 - Henry, a conservator at the Stanford University
    Stanford University
    The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

     Libraries and Academic Information Resources, is the creator of Conservation OnLine and the Conservation DistList
  • Janet Gertz 2008 - Director for Preservation, Columbia University Libraries has been chair of ALCTS' Preservation and Reformatting Section (PARS). She has taught, spoken and published widely on topics ranging from traditional library preservation, disaster preparedness, commercial binding, and preservation microfilming to digital preservation, audio preservation, preservation metadata and large-scale mass digitization. She is an adjunct faculty member in the Palmer School of Library and Information Science, Long Island University, and has been a guest lecturer at Rutgers' Preservation Institute and at Queen's College.

Care and handling

  1. Exhibitions
  2. Circulating collections
  3. Special collections
    Special collections
    In library science, special collections is the name applied to a specific repository or department, usually within a library, which stores materials of a "special" nature, including rare books, archives, and collected manuscripts...


Environmental controls

Environmental controls are necessary to facilitate the preservation of organic library materials and are especially important to monitor in rare and special collections
Special collections
In library science, special collections is the name applied to a specific repository or department, usually within a library, which stores materials of a "special" nature, including rare books, archives, and collected manuscripts...

. Key environmental factors to watch include temperature
Temperature
Temperature is a physical property of matter that quantitatively expresses the common notions of hot and cold. Objects of low temperature are cold, while various degrees of higher temperatures are referred to as warm or hot...

, relative humidity
Relative humidity
Relative humidity is a term used to describe the amount of water vapor in a mixture of air and water vapor. It is defined as the partial pressure of water vapor in the air-water mixture, given as a percentage of the saturated vapor pressure under those conditions...

, pests, pollutants, and light
Light
Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that is visible to the human eye, and is responsible for the sense of sight. Visible light has wavelength in a range from about 380 nanometres to about 740 nm, with a frequency range of about 405 THz to 790 THz...

 exposure.

In general, the lower the temperature is, the better it is for the collection. However, since books and other materials are often housed in areas with people, a compromise must be struck to accommodate human comfort. A reasonable temperature to accomplish both goals is 65-68˚F however, if possible, film and photography collections should be kept in a segregated area at 55˚F.

Books and other materials take up and give off moisture making them sensitive to relative humidity. Very high humidity encourages mold growth and insect infestations. Low humidity causes materials to lose their flexibility. Fluctuations in relative humidity are more damaging than a constant humidity in the middle or low range. Generally, the relative humidity should be between 30-50% with as little variation as possible, however recommendations on specific levels to maintain vary depending on the type of material, i.e. paper-based, film, etc. A specialized dew point calculator for book preservation is available.

Pests, such as insects and vermin, eat and destroy paper and the adhesive that secures book bindings. Food and drink in libraries, archives, and museums can increase the attraction of pests. An Integrated Pest Management
Integrated Pest Management
Integrated pest management is an ecological approach to agricultural pest control that integrates pesticides/herbicides into a management system incorporating a range of practices for economic control of a pest...

 system is one way to control pests in libraries.

Particulate and gaseous pollutants, such as soot, ozone
Ozone
Ozone , or trioxygen, is a triatomic molecule, consisting of three oxygen atoms. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic allotrope...

, sulfur dioxide
Sulfur dioxide
Sulfur dioxide is the chemical compound with the formula . It is released by volcanoes and in various industrial processes. Since coal and petroleum often contain sulfur compounds, their combustion generates sulfur dioxide unless the sulfur compounds are removed before burning the fuel...

, oxides of nitrogen, can cause dust, soiling, and irreversible molecular damage to materials. Pollutants are exceedingly small and not easily detectable or removable. A special filtration system in the building’s HVAC
HVAC
HVAC refers to technology of indoor or automotive environmental comfort. HVAC system design is a major subdiscipline of mechanical engineering, based on the principles of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer...

 is a helpful defense.

Exposure to light also has a significant effect on library materials. It is not only the light visible to humans that can cause damage, but also ultraviolet
Ultraviolet
Ultraviolet light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays, in the range 10 nm to 400 nm, and energies from 3 eV to 124 eV...

 light and infrared
Infrared
Infrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...

 radiation. Measured in lux
Lux
The lux is the SI unit of illuminance and luminous emittance, measuring luminous flux per unit area. It is used in photometry as a measure of the intensity, as perceived by the human eye, of light that hits or passes through a surface...

 or the amount of lumens/m2, the generally accepted level of illumination with sensitive materials is limited to 50 lux per day. Materials receiving more lux than recommended can be placed in dark storage periodically to prolong the original appearance of the object.

Recent concerns about the impact of climate change on the management of cultural heritage objects as well as the historic environment has prompted research efforts to investigate alternative climate control methods and strategies that include the implementation of alternative climate control systems to replace or supplement traditional high-energy consuming HVAC systems as well as the introduction of passive preservation techniques. Rather than maintaining a flat line, consistent 24/7 condition for a collection's environment, fluctuation can occur within acceptable limits to create a preservation environment while also thinking of energy efficiency and taking advantage of the outside environment.

Bound materials are sensitive to rapid temperature or humidity cycling due to differential expansion of the binding and pages, which may cause the binding to crack and/or the pages to warp. Changes in temperature and humidity should be done slowly so as to minimize the difference in expansion rates. However, an accelerated aging study on the effects of fluctuating temperature and humidity on paper color and strength showed no evidence that cycling of one temperature to another or one RH to another caused a different mechanism of decay.

Decision making and criteria

Making a proper decision is an important factor before starting preservation practices. Decision making
Decision making
Decision making can be regarded as the mental processes resulting in the selection of a course of action among several alternative scenarios. Every decision making process produces a final choice. The output can be an action or an opinion of choice.- Overview :Human performance in decision terms...

 for preservation should be made considering significance and value of materials. Significance is considered to have two major components: importance and quality. "Importance" relates to the collection’s role as a record, and "quality" covers comprehensiveness, depth, uniqueness, authenticity and reputation of the collection. Moreover, analyzing the significance of materials can be used to uncover more about their meaning. Assessment of significance can also aid in documenting the provenance and context to argue the case for grant funding for the object and collection.

Forms of significance can be historically, culturally, socially, or spiritually significant. In the preservation context, libraries and archives make decisions in different ways. In libraries, decision-making likely targets existing holding materials, whereas in archives, decisions for preservation are often made when they acquire materials. Therefore, different criteria might be needed on different occasions. In general, for archive criteria, the points include: 1) the characteristics of a record (purpose, creator, etc.); 2) the quality of the information in the record; 3) the record in context (part of a series or not); 4) potential use and possible limitations; and 5) the cost against the benefits from its existence. For library criteria, the following are evidence of significance: 1) uniqueness, 2) irreplaceability, 3) high level of impact – over time or place, 4) high level of influence, 5) representation of a type, and 6) comparative value (rarity, completeness, integrity relative to others of its kind).

Selection

Since the 1970s, the Northeast Document Conservation Center
Northeast Document Conservation Center
The Northeast Document Conservation Center is a non-profit, regional conservation center in the United States specializing in the preservation of library and archival materials....

 has stated that the study of understanding the needs of the library is inherently important to the survival of archives and libraries. In order for the preservation of a collection to survive for a long time it is important that a systematic preservation plan is in place. The first step in planning a preservation program is to assess the institution’s existing preservation needs. This process entails identifying the general and specific needs of the collection, establishing priorities, and gathering the resources to execute the plan.

Because budget and time limitations require priorities to be set, standards have been established by the profession to determine what should be preserved in a collection. Considerations include existing condition, rarity, and evidentiary and market values. With non-paper formats, the availability of equipment to access the information will be a factor (for example, playback equipment for audio-visual materials, or microform readers). An institution should determine how many, if any, other repositories hold the material, and consider coordinating efforts with those that do.

Institutions should establish an environment conducive to preservation changes, involve staff, and create an understanding among administration and staff. The first steps an institution should implement, according to the NEDCC, are to establish a policy that defines and charts the course of action and create a framework for carrying out goals and priorities.

There are three methods for carrying out a preservation survey: general preservation assessment, collection condition surveys, and an item-by-item survey. General condition surveys can be part of a library inventory
Inventory (library)
Libraries need methods, such as inventories, to determine whether or not their collections are in good shape, or whether or not some preservation or conservation activities are necessary...

.

Selection for treatment determines the survival of materials and should be done by a specialist, whether in relation to an established collection development policy or on an item by item basis. Once an object or collection has been chosen for preservation, the treatment must be determined that is most appropriate to the material and its repository. If the information is most important, reformatting or creation of a surrogate is a likely option. If the artifact itself is of value, it will receive conservation treatment, ideally of a reversible nature.

Research and testing

With old media deteriorating or showing their vulnerabilities and new media becoming available, research remains active in the field of conservation and preservation. Everything from how to preserve paper media to creating and maintaining electronic resources is being explored by students and professionals in library and information science. The two main issues that most libraries tend to face are the rapid disintegration of acidic paper and water damage (due to flooding, plumbing problems, etc). Therefore, these areas of preservation, as well as new digital technologies, receive much of the research attention.

The American Library Association
American Library Association
The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....

 has many scholarly journals that publish articles on preservation topics, such as College and Research Libraries, Information Technology and Libraries, and Library Resources and Technical Services. Scholarly periodicals in this field from other publishers include International Preservation News, Journal of the American Institute for Conservation, and Collection Management among many others.

Ethics

Conservators should refer to the AIC Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Practice, which states that the conservation professional must "strive to attain the highest possible standards in all aspects of conservation."

Ethics will play an important role in many aspects of the conservator's activities. When choosing which objects are in need of treatment, the conservator should do what is best for the object in question and not yield to pressure or opinion from outside sources.

Preservation of Cultural Objects

One instance in which these decisions may get tricky is when the conservator is dealing with cultural objects. The AIC Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Practice has addressed such concerns, stating "All actions of the conservation professional must be governed by an informed respect for cultural property, its unique character and significance and the people or person who created it." This can be applied in both the care and longterm storage of objects in archives and institutions.

The AIC Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Practice also states: "While recognizing the right of society to make appropriate and respectful use of cultural property, the conservation professional shall serve as an advocate for the preservation of cultural property." This statement speaks to the conservator’s need to balance his or her duty to conserve objects and maintain a collection with society’s right to have access and use of objects for their own cultural/religious purposes. While it is obvious that a member of a religion should be able to have access to an object or text that has spiritual value to them, it would be against the conservator’s ethics to then allow that object to incur damage from such use. The conservator should make sure that the care of the object is kept in mind when access to an object is granted. The object should remain in the best condition possible not only so it is preserved for prosperity, but also so that it can be studied by researchers and by members of the cultural or religious group that created it.

It is important that preservation specialists to be respectful of cultural property and the societies that created it, it is also important for them to be aware of international and national laws pertaining to stolen items. The AIC Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Practice also states that:

"The conservation professional should be cognizant of laws and regulations that may have a bearing on professional activity. Among these laws and regulations are those concerning the rights of artists and their estates, occupational health and safety, sacred and religious material, excavated objects, endangered species, human remains, and stolen property."
In recent years there has been a rise in nations seeking out artifacts that have been stolen and are now in museums. In many cases museums are working with the nations to find a compromise to balance the need for reliable supervision as well as access for both the public and researchers.

Conservators are not just bound by ethics to treat cultural and religious objects with respect, but also in some cases by law. For example, in the United States, conservators must comply with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). The First Archivists Circle, a group of Native American archivists, has also created Protocols for Native American Archival Materials. The non-binding guidelines are suggestions for libraries and archives with Native American archival materials.

With all these issues of respect and cultural sensitivity to consider, conservation and preservation issues are sure to arise. The care of cultural and sacred objects often affects the physical storage or the object. For example, sacred objects of the native peoples of the Western United States are supposed to be stored with sage to ensure their spiritual well being. The idea of storing an object with plant material is inherently problematic to an archival collection because of the possibility of insect infestation. When conservators have faced this problem, they have addressed it by using freeze-dried sage, thereby meeting both conservation and cultural needs.

Some individuals in the library science community have explored the possible moral responsibility to preserve all cultural phenomena, in regards to the concept of monumental preservation. Other advocates argue that such an undertaking is something that the indigenous or native communities that produce such cultural objects are better suited to perform. Currently, however, many indigenous communities are not financially able to support their own archives and museums. Still, indigenous archives are on the rise in the United States.

Preservation and the library as a sacred institution

In her book "Sacred Stacks: The Higher Purpose of Libraries and Librarianship," Nancy Kalikow Maxwell discusses how libraries are capable of performing some of the same functions as religion. Many librarians feel that their work is done for some higher purpose. The same can be said for preservation librarians. One instance of the library's role as sacred is to provide a sense of immortality
Immortality
Immortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...

: with the ever changing world outside, the library will remain stable and dependable. Preservation is a great help in this regard. Through digitization and reformatting, preservation librarians are able to retain material while at the same time adapting to new methods. In this way, libraries can adapt to the changes in user needs without changing the quality of the material itself. Through preservation efforts, patrons can rest assured that although materials are constantly deteriorating over time, the library itself will remain a stable, reliable environment for their information needs. Another sacred ability of the library is to provide information and a connection to the past. By working to slow down the processes of deterioration and decay of library materials, preservation practices help keep this link to the past alive.

Regional centers

  • The Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts
    Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts
    The Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts , located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was founded by Marilyn Kemp Weidner in 1977, with funding from the and in response to the growing problem of paper deterioration occurring in repositories in the Mid-Atlantic region.Currently one of the...

     in Philadelphia, PA. CCAHA is a non-profit conservation laboratory specializing in the treatment of art and historic artifacts on paper. The Center also trains museum and library professionals in disaster planning, records and archives management.

  • The Northeast Document Conservation Center
    Northeast Document Conservation Center
    The Northeast Document Conservation Center is a non-profit, regional conservation center in the United States specializing in the preservation of library and archival materials....

     in Andover, MA. Since its inception in 1973, the Center has instructed institutions and organizations, as well as librarians, conservators, preservationists and museum professionals in preservation care and procedures. From 1995 to 2007, NEDCC presented its School for Scanning conference eleven times in cities across the United States. The school takes a leading role for digital preservation.

  • LYRASIS
    Lyrasis
    LYRASIS was created in 2009 from the merger of SOLINET and PALINET, two of the strongest and most successful library networks in the United States. NELINET, the New England library network, also merged into LYRASIS in late 2009. In January 2011 the Bibliographical Center for Research phased out...

     is a not-for-profit membership cooperative of libraries and other information organizations in the southeastern United States. Established in 1973, as the largest regional library network in the U.S., LYRASIS provides a variety of preservation education programs and workshops.

Vendor services

Many private entities provide preservation and conservation services and supplies.

Standard functions of preservation programs

  • Collections Care refers to the general maintenance and preventive care of a collection as a whole. This can include activities such as security
    Security
    Security is the degree of protection against danger, damage, loss, and crime. Security as a form of protection are structures and processes that provide or improve security as a condition. The Institute for Security and Open Methodologies in the OSSTMM 3 defines security as "a form of protection...

    , environmental monitoring
    Environmental monitoring
    Environmental monitoring describes the processes and activities that need to take place to characterise and monitor the quality of the environment...

    , preservation surveys
    Preservation surveys
    Preservation survey is the process of collecting and analyzing data about the physical condition of library materials....

     and more specialized activities such as mass deacidification
    Mass deacidification
    Mass deacidification is a term used in Library and Information Science for one possible measure against the degradation of paper in old books . The goal of the process is to increase the pH of acidic paper on a large scale...

    .
  • Conservation refers to the treatment and repair of individual items to slow decay or restore them to a usable state. Conservation is occasionally used interchangeably with preservation, particularly outside the professional literature.
  • Digital preservation
    Digital preservation
    Digital preservation is the set of processes, activities and management of digital information over time to ensure its long term accessibility. The goal of digital preservation is to preserve materials resulting from digital reformatting, and particularly information that is born-digital with no...

     refers to the maintenance of digitally stored information. This should not be confused with digitization, which is a process of creating digital information which must, in turn, be digitally preserved. Means of digital preservation include refreshing, migration, replication and emulation.
  • Disaster Preparedness (RT: Disaster Plan / Business Continuation
    Business continuity planning
    Business continuity planning “identifies [an] organization's exposure to internal and external threats and synthesizes hard and soft assets to provide effective prevention and recovery for the organization, whilst maintaining competitive advantage and value system integrity”. It is also called...

     / Disaster Recovery
    Disaster recovery
    Disaster recovery is the process, policies and procedures related to preparing for recovery or continuation of technology infrastructure critical to an organization after a natural or human-induced disaster. Disaster recovery is a subset of business continuity...

     / Disaster Mitigation Plan) refers to the practice of arranging for the necessary resources and planning the best course of action to prevent or minimize damage to a collection in the event of a disaster of any level of magnitude, whether natural or man-made.
  • Reformatting refers to the practice of creating copies of an object in another type of data storage device
    Data storage device
    thumb|200px|right|A reel-to-reel tape recorder .The magnetic tape is a data storage medium. The recorder is data storage equipment using a portable medium to store the data....

    . Reformatting processes include microfilming
    Microform
    Microforms are any forms, either films or paper, containing microreproductions of documents for transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about one twenty-fifth of the original document size...

     and digitization.

Media specific issues and treatments

  • Books
    • Sizing
      Sizing
      Sizing or size is any one of numerous specific substances that is applied to or incorporated in other material, especially papers and textiles, to act as a protecting filler or glaze....

    • Leather Binding
  • Ephemera
    Ephemera
    Ephemera are transitory written and printed matter not intended to be retained or preserved. The word derives from the Greek, meaning things lasting no more than a day. Some collectible ephemera are advertising trade cards, airsickness bags, bookmarks, catalogues, greeting cards, letters,...

     and Realia
    Realia
    Realia may refer to:* Realia * Realia * Realia...

  • Paper
    • Acid-free paper
      Acid-free paper
      Acid-free paper is paper that has a neutral or basic pH . It can be made from any cellulose fiber as long as the active acid pulp is eliminated during processing. It is also lignin and sulfur free...

    • Japanese tissue
      Japanese tissue
      Japanese tissue is a thin, strong paper made from vegetable fibers. Japanese tissue may be made from one of three plants, the kozo plant , the mitsumata shrub and the gampi tree. The long, strong fibers of the kozo plant produce very strong, dimensionally stable papers, and are the most commonly...

    • Mummy paper
      Mummy paper
      Mummy paper is paper that is claimed to be made from the linen wrappings and other fibers from Egyptian mummies imported to America circa 1855...

    • Paper splitting
      Paper splitting
      Paper splitting is a method of preserving brittle papers often found in library and archival materials. In this process the front and back of a sheet of paper are split apart. A piece of acid-free paper is placed between these two sides of an acidic sheet before the pages are reconnected. The...

  • Parchment
    • Parchment repair
      Parchment repair
      The repair and mending of parchment has taken place for thousands of years. Methods from the earliest hand stitching of tears to today's use of modern equipment to mend and fill parchment show the importance that has been placed on its preservation and conservation....

    • Preservation of Illuminated Manuscripts
      Preservation of Illuminated Manuscripts
      Preserving parchment becomes more difficult when pigments, inks, and illumination are added into the equation. Pigments do not dye parchment; instead, they lie on the surface of the parchment and so are rather fragile. The goal of restoring illuminated manuscripts should be to make them as...

  • Moving image
    • Film preservation
      Film preservation
      thumb|300px|Stacked containers filled with reels of [[film stock]]The film preservation, or film restoration, movement is an ongoing project among film historians, archivists, museums, cinematheques, and non-profit organizations to rescue decaying film stock and preserve the images which they contain...

    • Video recording
  • Sound recording
    • Preservation of magnetic audiotape
      Preservation of magnetic audiotape
      There are multiple types of magnetic media, however this article focuses on recommended best practices for handling, cleaning and storage of magnetic audiotapes in an archival repository, either in the form of open reels or enclosed cassettes...

  • Oral history preservation
    Oral history preservation
    Oral history preservation is the field that deals with the care and upkeep of oral history materials, whatever format they may be in. Oral history is a method of historical documentation, using interviews with living survivors of the time being investigated...

  • Language Preservation
    Language Preservation
    Language preservation is the effort to prevent languages from becoming unknown. A language is at risk of being lost when it no longer is taught to younger generations, while fluent speakers of the language die....

  • Visual material
    • Still Photography
    • Architectural reprography
      Architectural reprography
      Architectural reprography, the reprography of architectural drawings, covers a variety of technologies, media, and supports typically used to make multiple copies of original technical drawings and related records created by architects, landscape architects, engineers, surveyors, mapmakers and...

      , a variety of technologies and media used to make multiple copies of original drawings or records created by architects, engineers, mapmakers and related professionals.
  • Optical media preservation
    Optical media preservation
    The preservation of optical media is essential because it is a resource in libraries, and stores audio, video, and computer data to be accessed by patrons. While optical discs are generally more reliable and durable than older media types, environmental conditions and/or poor handling can result...

  • Ink
    Ink
    Ink is a liquid or paste that contains pigments and/or dyes and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing and/or writing with a pen, brush, or quill...


Education

One of the biggest challenges in the field of preservation today is educating a library's community, especially librarians and other staff, in the best ways to handle materials as well as the conditions in which particular materials will decay the least. This challenge is exacerbated by the fact that preservation is a peripheral element of most library science curricula; indeed, there are few places where one can receive a specialized education in preservation.

One of the primary degree granting institutions for library and archival preservation is the University of Texas at Austin's School of Information Science. The conservation and preservation program is offered in partnership with the Kilgarlin Center for Preservation of the Cultural Record and trains both conservators and preservation administrators. There are a number of other preservation administration programs in the United States including the University of Michigan School of Information which specializes in digital preservation management. Recently the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has funded a number of digital curation education programs around the United States, including at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Digital curation includes the activity of digital preservation management.

Other conservation programs in the United States focus on Art Conservation and are considered to be more museum focused than library focused. These programs are all part of the Association of North American Graduate Programs in the Conservation of Cultural Property (ANAGPIC).

The Rutgers Preservation Management Institute provides post-graduate training in preservation administration for working librarians who have already completed a Master's degree. UT Austin also offers certificates of advanced study in conservation and preservation to librarians who already hold their MLS.

Another educational resource available to preservationists is the Northeast Document Conservation Center or NEDCC. This institution was founded in 1973 as a reaction to the growing problem of paper deterioration occurring in repositories in the New England area. The Center provides institutions and organizations, as well as librarians, conservators, preservationists, and museum professionals, with help in learning proper care and procedures to better preserve the integrity of their collections. The institution provides a variety of services such as imaging, surveys and consultations, and digitation. They also assist with disaster planning. The educational opportunities it provides include provision of workshops, conferences, and specialized trainings. Additional online courses are also available. For instance, some of the workshops offered by the NEDCC include: Basic Preservation, Collections Care, Emergency Preparedness, Integrated Pest Management (IPM), Identification and Care of Photographs, Basic and Intermediate Book Repair, Basic Paper Repair, Preservation of Scrapbooks, Preservation Technologies, Holdings Maintenance, Creating and Maintaining Digital Collections, Scanning Training, and Grant Writing. Additionally, the NEDCC is responsible for the creation of a Preservation Education Curriculum, which has been made available online to serve as an instructional aid for introductory preservation courses taught at Library and Information Science schools.

Additional preservation education is available to librarians through various professional organizations, such as:
  • American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works
  • American Library Association
    American Library Association
    The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....

  • Amigos Library Services Preservation Service
  • Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM)
    Association for Information and Image Management
    The Association for Information and Image Management or AIIM is a non-profit organization that provides education, research, and best practices for document management and enterprise content management...

  • Association for Recorded Sound Collections
  • Buffalo State College
    Buffalo State College
    The State University of New York College at Buffalo, referred to as Buffalo State College, often referred to colloquially as Buff State, is a public, liberal arts college in Buffalo, New York, United States and is part of the State University of New York. Buffalo State was founded in 1871 as the...

    . Art Conservation Department, Buffalo, NY
  • Campbell Center for Historic Preservation Studies, Mount Carroll, IL.
  • George Eastman House
    George Eastman House
    The George Eastman House is the world's oldest museum dedicated to photography and one of the world's oldest film archives, opened to the public in 1949 in Rochester, New York, USA. World-renowned for its photograph and motion picture archives, the museum is also a leader in film preservation and...

    . School of Film & Video Preservation Rochester, NY
  • The Kilgarlin Center for Preservation of the Cultural Record
  • Library Binding Institute
    Library binding
    Library binding is the term used to describe the method of binding serials, and re-binding paperback or hardcover books, for use within libraries. Library binding increases the durability of books, as well as making the materials easier to use...

  • New York University
    New York University
    New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

    . Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts, New York, NY
  • North Bennet Street School. Boston, MA
  • Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC)
    Northeast Document Conservation Center
    The Northeast Document Conservation Center is a non-profit, regional conservation center in the United States specializing in the preservation of library and archival materials....

  • The Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts
    Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts
    The Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts , located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was founded by Marilyn Kemp Weidner in 1977, with funding from the and in response to the growing problem of paper deterioration occurring in repositories in the Mid-Atlantic region.Currently one of the...

     in Philadelphia, PA
  • Queen’s University. Master of Art Conservation Program, Ont, Canada
  • Rare Book School (RBS)
    Rare Book School
    Rare Book School is an independent non-profit organization based at the University of Virginia supporting the study of the history of books, manuscripts, and related objects. Each year, RBS offers about 30 five-day courses on these subjects...

     at the University of Virginia
  • Society of American Archivists
    Society of American Archivists
    The Society of American Archivists is the oldest and largest archivist association in North America, serving the educational and informational needs of more than 5,000 individual and institutional members...

  • LYRASIS
    Lyrasis
    LYRASIS was created in 2009 from the merger of SOLINET and PALINET, two of the strongest and most successful library networks in the United States. NELINET, the New England library network, also merged into LYRASIS in late 2009. In January 2011 the Bibliographical Center for Research phased out...

  • University of Delaware
    University of Delaware
    The university is organized into seven colleges:* College of Agriculture and Natural Resources* College of Arts and Sciences* Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics* College of Earth, Ocean and Environment* College of Education and Human Development...

    . Winterthur Art Conservation Program, Newark, DE
  • The National Archives

Public libraries

Limited, tax-driven funding can often interfere with the ability for public libraries to engage in extensive preservation activities. Materials, particularly books, are often much easier to replace than to repair when damaged or worn. Public libraries usually try to tailor their services to meet the needs and desires of their local communities, which could cause an emphasis on acquiring new materials over preserving old ones. Librarians working in public facilities frequently have to make complicated decisions about how to best serve their patrons. Commonly, public library systems work with each other and sometimes with more academic libraries through interlibrary loan programs. By sharing resources, they are able to expand upon what might be available to their own patrons and share the burdens of preservation across a greater array of systems.

Archival repositories and special collections

Archival facilities focus specifically on rare and fragile materials. With staff trained in appropriate techniques, archives are often available to many public and private library facilities as an alternative to destroying older materials. Items that are unique, such as photographs, or items that are out of print, can be preserved in archival facilities more easily than in many library settings.

Museums

Because so many museum holdings are unique, including print materials, art, and other objects, preservationists are often most active in this setting.

Legal issues

Reformatting, or in any other way copying an item's contents, raises obvious copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...

 issues. In many cases, a library is allowed to make a limited number of copies of an item for preservation purposes. In the United States, certain exceptions have been made for libraries and archives.

Criticism

There is a longstanding tension between preservation of and access to library materials, particularly in the area of special collections
Special collections
In library science, special collections is the name applied to a specific repository or department, usually within a library, which stores materials of a "special" nature, including rare books, archives, and collected manuscripts...

. Handling materials promotes their progression to an unusable state, especially if they are handled carelessly. On the other hand, materials must be used in order to gain any benefit from them. In a collection with valuable materials, this conflict is often resolved by a number of measures which can include heightened security, requiring the use of gloves for photographs, restricting the materials researchers may bring with them into a reading room, and restricting use of materials to patrons who are not able to satisfy their research needs with less valuable copies of an item. These restrictions are annoyances to researchers who feel that these measures are in place solely to keep materials out of the hands of the public.

There is also controversy surrounding preservation methods. A major controversy at the end of the twentieth century centered on the practice of discarding items that had been microfilmed. This was the subject of novelist Nicholson Baker’s
Nicholson Baker
Nicholson Baker is a contemporary American writer of fiction and non-fiction. As a novelist, he often focuses on minute inspection of his characters' and narrators' stream of consciousness, and has written about such provocative topics as voyeurism and planned assassination...

 book Double Fold, which chronicled his efforts to save many old runs of American newspapers (formerly owned by the British Library) from being sold to dealers or pulped. A similar concern persists over the retention of original documents reformatted by any means, analog or digital. Concerns include scholarly needs and legal requirements for authentic or original records as well as questions about the longevity, quality and completeness of reformatted materials. Retention of originals as a source or fail-safe copy is now a fairly common practice. Another controversy revolving around different preservation methods is that of digitization of original material to maintain the intellectual content of the material while ignoring the physical nature of the book. Further, the Modern Language Association's
Modern Language Association
The Modern Language Association of America is the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature...

 Committee on the Future of the Print Record structured its "Statement on the Significance of Primary Records" on the inherent theoretical ideology that there is a need to preserve as many copies of a printed edition as is possible as texts and their textual settings are, quite simply, not separable, just as the artifactual characteristics of texts are as relevant and varied as the texts themselves (in the report mentioned herewith, G. Thomas Tanselle suggests that presently existing book stacks need not be abandoned with emerging technologies; rather they serve as vitally important original (primary) sources for future study).

Many digitized items, such as back issues of periodicals, are provided by publishers and databases on a subscription basis. If these companies were to cease providing access to their digital information, facilities that elected to discard paper copies of these periodicals could face significant difficulties in providing access to these items. Discussion as to the best ways to utilize digital technologies is therefore ongoing, and the practice continues to evolve. Of course, the issues surrounding digital objects and their care in libraries and archives continues to expand as more and more of contemporary culture is created, stored, and used digitally. These born-digital
Born-digital
The term born-digital refers to materials that originate in a digital form. This is in contrast to digital reformatting, through which analog materials become digital. It is most often used in relation to digital libraries and the issues that go along with said organizations, such as digital...

 materials raise their own new kinds of preservation challenges and in some cases they may even require use new kinds of tools and techniques

See also

  • Archaeological site
    Archaeological site
    An archaeological site is a place in which evidence of past activity is preserved , and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and represents a part of the archaeological record.Beyond this, the definition and geographical extent of a 'site' can vary widely,...

  • Architectural conservation
    Architectural conservation
    Architectural conservation describes the process through which the material, historical, and design integrity of mankind's built heritage are prolonged through carefully planned interventions. The individual engaged in this pursuit is known as an architectural conservator...

  • Archival science
    Archival science
    Archival science is the theory and study of storing, cataloguing, and retrieving documents and items. Archival science evolved from mankind's need to classify the world around them...

  • Art conservation and restoration
    Art conservation and restoration
    Conservation-restoration, also referred to as conservation, is a profession devoted to the preservation of cultural heritage for the future. Conservation activities include examination, documentation, treatment, and preventive care...

  • Book preservation in developing countries
    Book preservation in developing countries
    Book preservation in developing countries is a growing concern among preservation and conservation librarians. Without proper resources and training, many countries around the world struggle to maintain books and manuscripts as part of their cultural history. Environmental conditions pose perhaps...

  • Digital artifactual value
    Digital artifactual value
    Digital artifactual value is a preservation term that refers to the intrinsic value of a digital object, rather than the informational content of the object. There are currently no established standards for what constitutes digital artifactual value...

  • Digital preservation
    Digital preservation
    Digital preservation is the set of processes, activities and management of digital information over time to ensure its long term accessibility. The goal of digital preservation is to preserve materials resulting from digital reformatting, and particularly information that is born-digital with no...

  • Disaster recovery plan
  • Film preservation
    Film preservation
    thumb|300px|Stacked containers filled with reels of [[film stock]]The film preservation, or film restoration, movement is an ongoing project among film historians, archivists, museums, cinematheques, and non-profit organizations to rescue decaying film stock and preserve the images which they contain...

  • Hand-colouring of photographs
  • Historic preservation
    Historic preservation
    Historic preservation is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance...

  • History of Public Library Advocacy
    History of Public Library Advocacy
    Public libraries in the American Colonies can be traced back to 1656, when a Boston merchant named Captain Robert Keayne willed his collection of books to the town. Many of the early colonists had brought books with them from England....

  • Information science
    Information science
    -Introduction:Information science is an interdisciplinary science primarily concerned with the analysis, collection, classification, manipulation, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information...

  • Library and information science
    Library and information science
    Library and information science is a merging of the two fields library science and information science...

  • Library management
    Library management
    Library management is a sub-discipline of institutional management that focuses on specific issues faced by libraries. Library management encompasses normal management tasks as well as intellectual freedom, anti-censorship, and fundraising tasks...

  • Mass deacidification
    Mass deacidification
    Mass deacidification is a term used in Library and Information Science for one possible measure against the degradation of paper in old books . The goal of the process is to increase the pH of acidic paper on a large scale...

  • Museology
    Museology
    Museology is the diachronic study of museums and how they have established and developed in their role as an educational mechanism under social and political pressures.-Overview:...

  • Public Library Advocacy
    Public Library Advocacy
    Public library advocacy is support given to a public library for its financial and philosophical goals or needs. Most often this takes the form of monetary or material donations or campaigning to the institutions which oversee the library...

  • Quipu
    Quipu
    Quipus or khipus were recording devices used in the Inca Empire and its predecessor societies in the Andean region. A quipu usually consisted of colored, spun, and plied thread or strings from llama or alpaca hair. It could also be made of cotton cords...

  • Sizing
    Sizing
    Sizing or size is any one of numerous specific substances that is applied to or incorporated in other material, especially papers and textiles, to act as a protecting filler or glaze....

  • Wood-pulp paper
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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