"Preservation is a set of preventive conservation activities aimed at prolonging the life of a record, book, or object while making as few changes as possible."
The techniques and strategies used to preserve and maintain special collections materials, including materials handling, housing, storage, disaster planning, and conservation treatments.
Conservation Ethics: The principles and values that guide conservation and preservation practices, including responsible stewardship, respect for the original object, authenticity, and sustainability.
Materials Science: The study of the physical and chemical properties of materials used in special collections, such as paper, leather, textiles, and metals.
Preservation Strategies: The development of plans to protect special collections from loss or damage, including preventive measures, conservation treatment, and emergency response procedures.
Digital Preservation: The methods and technologies used to ensure the long-term access to and usability of digital materials, including digitization, metadata creation, and file formats.
Environmental Monitoring: The ongoing monitoring of temperature, humidity, light, and other environmental factors that can affect the condition of special collections.
Disaster Planning and Response: The preparation for and mitigation of disasters that can impact special collections, such as fire, flood, and earthquake.
Collection Care and Maintenance: The daily care and handling of special collections, including storage, display, and transportation.
Documentation and Record-Keeping: The creation and maintenance of accurate and comprehensive records that document the history and condition of special collections.
Legal and Ethical Issues: The laws, regulations, and ethical considerations that govern the acquisition, ownership, and use of special collections.
Collaboration and Partnerships: The development of partnerships with other organizations and professionals to share information and resources and to promote the preservation of special collections.
Preventive Conservation: This involves the use of routine measures to prevent deterioration of artifacts, such as appropriate storage, handling, and environment.
Structural Conservation: This involves the repair of the physical structure and integrity of an artifact, such as stabilizing a cracked piece of pottery.
Textile Conservation: This involves the specialized treatment of textiles to restore or preserve their condition, such as cleaning fragile fibers or repairing tears.
Paper Conservation: This involves the specialized treatment of paper and parchment to restore or preserve their condition, such as repairing tears, flattening creases, or removing stains.
Book Conservation: This involves the specialized treatment of rare or fragile books to restore or preserve their condition, such as re-sewing pages, stabilizing bindings, and repairing covers.
Painting Conservation: This involves the specialized treatment of paintings to restore or preserve their condition, such as cleaning, repairing cracks or tears, and stabilizing the canvas or panel support.
Sculpture Conservation: This involves the specialized treatment of sculptures to restore or preserve their condition, such as cleaning, repairing cracks or missing pieces, and stabilizing the structure.
Archaeological Conservation: This involves the preservation of archaeological artifacts and sites through various preservation methods and techniques.
Natural History Conservation: This involves the preservation of specimens from natural history collections, such as skeletons, taxidermy, and botanical specimens, through specialized methods.
Digital Preservation: This involves the preservation of digital material, such as digital art, photographs, and documents, through various preservation methods and techniques.
"Preservation activities vary widely and may include monitoring the condition of items, maintaining the temperature and humidity in collection storage areas, writing a plan in case of emergencies, digitizing items, writing relevant metadata, and increasing accessibility."
"Preservation, in this definition, is practiced in a library or an archive by a conservator, librarian, archivist, or other professional when they perceive a collection or record is in need of maintenance."
"Preservation should be distinguished from interventive conservation and restoration, which refers to the treatment and repair of individual items to slow the process of decay, or restore them to a usable state."
"Preventive conservation" is used interchangeably with "preservation."
"[Preservation activities are] aimed at prolonging the life of a record, book, or object while making as few changes as possible."
"Maintaining the temperature and humidity in collection storage areas."
"A conservator, librarian, archivist, or other professional [can practice preservation]."
"Writing a plan in case of emergencies" can mitigate potential damage.
"Digitizing items" and "writing relevant metadata" are crucial parts of preservation.
Monitoring the condition of items helps in identifying when preservation actions are needed.
Preservation activities can include "increasing accessibility" to enhance users' access to items.
Preservation techniques aim to make as few changes as possible to the original item.
Distinguishing preservation from interventive conservation clarifies the specific objectives and approaches used for different forms of conservation.
Preservation activities aim to prolong the life of a record, book, or object.
A conservator is one of the professionals involved in the practice of preservation when maintenance is required.
Yes, preservation activities can include digitizing items to ensure long-term access to their content.
Writing an emergency plan ensures that preservation actions can be taken promptly to safeguard collections in case of unexpected events.
One preservation activity involves "maintaining the temperature and humidity" within appropriate ranges in collection storage areas.
Preservation enhances the longevity, usability, and accessibility of records, books, and objects in libraries and archives, thereby contributing to the overall quality of research and knowledge preservation.