Net notes: preservation and conservation

It is perhaps ironic that the medium of the web, not known for its ability to preserve yesterday until today, let alone tomorrow, has substantial amounts of information on preserving books and other tangible objects. National libraries, archives, and assorted other organisations have web pages dedicated to papers debating the issue of how to preserve digital objects, practical advice on environmental controls and other aspects of preserving library or archival collections, reports, conferences, and back issues of relevant journals. Some web sites which are a good starting point for research in this area are listed below.

CoOL conservation online
This is one of the most substantial preservation sites available with information about preservation issues, links to relevant organisations, e-lists, newsletters, and so on. You are guaranteed to be getting warm (as in close to finding what you are looking for) when you reach CoOL. http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/

IFLA core activity on preservation and conservation (PAC)
http://www.ifla.org/VI/4/pac.htm#4

Library of Congress - preservation
http://www.loc.gov/preserv/

National Library of Australia - preservation
http://www.nla.gov.au/preserve/

Northeast Document Conservation Center
http://www.nedcc.org/

PADI - Preserving access to digital information
http://www.nla.gov.au/padi/about.html

Publications on preservation

reCollections: caring for collections across australia
http://amol.org.au/recollections/index.htm

Library preservation and conservation tutorial Southeast Asia
http://www.librarypreservation.org/index.php

Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR)
A number of CLIR reports examine preservation issues, including:
Report 121 care and handling of CDs and DVDs: a guide for librarians and archivists by Fred R. Byers and
Report 116 national digital preservation initiatives: an overview of developments in Australia, France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom and of related international activity by Neil Beagrie.
The full text of most CLIR reports is available in html and sometimes pdf as well from http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/reports.html

International preservation issues
This series includes IFLA principles for the care and handling of library material, a concise general introduction to preservation issues. http://www.ifla.org/VI/4/ipi.html

Some proceedings of the National Preservation Office conferences are available from http://www.bl.uk/services/npo/publicationsconf.html

Some Records and Archives Management Programme (RAMP) studies cover preservation issues. The complete title list and the full text of some RAMP studies are available at http://www.unesco.org/webworld/portal_archives/ramp_studies_list.html

Leaflets

Archives advices - preservation
http://www.naa.gov.au/recordkeeping/preservation/advices/preservation.html

Conserv O Grams
These are published by the museum management program within the National Park Service in the United States. There is a strong focus on museum objects but part 13: paper objects, part 14: photographs, part 19: archival and manuscript collections and rare books, and part 21: disaster response and recovery are of interest. http://www.cr.nps.gov/museum/publications/conserveogram/conserv.html

National Preservation Office leaflets
http://www.bl.uk/services/npo/publicationsleaf.html

Solinet (Southeastern Library Network) leaflets
http://www.solinet.net/preservation/preservation_templ.cfm?doc_id=115

Books

Preservation of library and archival materials: a manual third edition, revised and expanded. Edited by Sherelyn Ogden. 1999
They were right about 'expanded' as this substantial manual is over 500 pages. It is available in pdf (be prepared to wait a while for it to download) from http://www.nedcc.org/plam3/manhome.htm

Serials

The Journal of the American Institute for Conservation 1977 to 1999 http://aic.stanford.edu/jaic/

The Book and Paper Group Annual 1982 to 2000 (The Book and Paper Group is a section of the American Institute for Conservation) http://aic.stanford.edu/sg/bpg/annual/

Back issues of The Abbey Newsletter and the Alkaline Paper Advocate http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byorg/abbey/

Camille Peters

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