The
Big Picture: Preservation Strategies in Context
Safeguarding Heritage Assets: A Planning Framework for Preservation
Doris A. Hamburg
Library of Congress
The
Library of Congress collections security program integrates four components-physical
security, preservation, and bibliographic and inventory controls. Each
of the components focuses on a critical aspect of ensuring that the collections
will be available for future generations. The preservation plan provides
the framework for identifying the Library of Congress's minimum standards
for preservation controls requisite to preserving its analog collections
for future generations. The preservation grid of standards is now fully
integrated within the Library's overall security planning framework, across
the five tiers of risk and collections cycles. Development of the preservation
framework reflects the knowledge that collections deteriorate because
of inherent chemical changes and/or a host of external forces, including
the environment, handling, storage conditions, and disaster-like occurrences.
The minimum standards in the preservation grid address the need to minimize
the collections' deterioration.
Preservation control measures depicted in this framework are grouped in seven primary areas: environment, emergency preparedness, storage, handling, needs assessment, physical treatment, and reformatting. The framework provides an integrated, comprehensive preservation approach, that addresses collections needs on both the macro and the micro levels. An integral component is the need to prioritize these requirements in an overall implementation plan addressing the minimum standards in widely diverse collections.
The overall framework of defining and articulating the collections' needs provides a useful approach in addressing those needs. The implications will be discussed. An additional effect has been the growing communication and interaction between the security and preservation departments yielding activities and projects beneficial to the future of the Library of Congress collections.
