Collections management and preservation must be considered in all institutional decisions, from building maintenance to security to staffing. Only when the infrastructure of collections care and management is in place and is constantly and consistently supported can an institution safely design and install exhibitions, plan public programming, and provide researcher access. The public entrusts cultural institutions with the task of properly caring for collection materials, and the institution has an ethical obligation to do this to the best of its ability.

1. PRESERVATION PLANNING AND
MANAGEMENT
Prepared By: Mr. Jolo Van Clyde S. Abatayo, RL

2. Preservation Management
Collections management and preservation must be
considered in all institutional decisions, from building
maintenance to security to staffing.
Only when the infrastructure of collections care and
management is in place and is constantly and consistently
supported can an institution safely design and install
exhibitions, plan public programming, and provide researcher
access.

3. The public entrusts cultural institutions with the task of
properly caring for collection materials, and the
institution has an ethical obligation to do this to the
best of its ability.

4. Written Preservation Plan
It is a document that “defines and charts a course of action to
meet an institution’s overall preservation needs for its
collections…
It provides the framework or context for carrying out
established goals and priorities in a logical, efficient, and
effective manner; it is a working tool for achieving agreed-
upon priorities over a set period of time.”

5. PREPARING FOR THE PLANNING PROCESS
A good starting point for preservation planning is to carry out
a Preservation Needs Assessment.
The assessment report can serve as a guide for creating a
preservation plan, generating a list of preservation priorities,
and assessing other preservation needs.
The report will help to evaluate preservation issues and
provide greater awareness of the conditions of an institution’s
collections.

6. PREPARING FOR THE PLANNING PROCESS
Recommendations highlighted in the report will address the
collections’ preservation needs and concerns in the areas of
policies, staffing, building and maintenance, environment,
security, emergency preparedness, collections care, and
preservation planning.
It is valuable to have an outside consultant carry out the Needs
Assessment because outsiders are often able to more
objectively evaluate the preservation needs than individuals
affiliated with the institution.

7. THE PLANNING TEAM
Once an institution decides to implement a formal
preservation program with a written preservation plan, it
is necessary to identify and agree upon where the
responsibility and authority for the preservation program
lies.
It is also necessary to identify who will be responsible for
writing the preservation plan.

8. THE PLANNING TEAM
Support for a preservation program and preservation plan
should exist throughout the institution.
Development of a preservation plan should include
collections staff, administrators, and board members since the
successful implementation of the plan requires input and buy-
in from all areas of the institution.

9. IDENTIFYING NEEDS & PRIORITIES
Study the recommendations from the Needs Assessment and from
any other surveys the institution has had conducted.
Note the preservation needs and the recommended actions.

10. IDENTIFYING NEEDS & PRIORITIES
Other documents to review might include the following:
the institution’s mission statement
strategic, long-range plan
collections policies
 emergency preparedness and response plan
 appraisals
 grant proposals

11. Prioritize the recommendations. Some questions that can be
used to evaluate the recommendations include the following:
What actions will benefit the largest portion of the collections?
What collections or collections items are an institutional priority?
What are the institution’s most immediate and pressing needs?
Which of the recommendations are feasible in the next five
years and which require long-term planning/investment?

12. WRITING THE PLAN
Using the prioritized recommendations, outline the
institution’s preservation goals, both short-term and long-
term.

13. The goals for each institution will vary, but the majority
will fall into the following categories:
mission and collections
management policies
 environmental conditions
Facilities
 security and emergency
preparedness
 space and storage
 exhibitions
overall collections care
individual collections
 resources

14. Example: Goal III:
To maintain environmental conditions that meet
conservation standards for the long-term preservation
of the collections in all areas with collections materials.

15. Further outline the strategies necessary to meet each
goal in a series of objectives.
These objectives will be self-contained and will form
the foundation of the course of action outlined by the
preservation plan.

16. Example: Objectives needed to reach Goal III:
1. Establish an ongoing environmental control program.
2. Limit the UV and visible light exposure of collection items.
3. Maintain an integrated pest management program.
Each objective can be further broken down into more easily
accomplished activities.

17. Example: Activities needed to reach Objective 1:
1. Develop a comprehensive environmental monitoring
program for all collection storage and exhibition areas.
2. Purchase environmental data loggers for exhibition
and collections storage areas

18. Example: Activities needed to reach Objective
1:
3. Monitor and document the temperature and relative humidity
of collections exhibition and storage areas with data logger.
4. Provide training for staff members (collection staff and facilities
committee staff) on interpreting the results of the environmental
monitoring.
5. Establish protocol for adjusting or servicing the HVAC systems
when data shows that it is necessary

19. WRITING THE PLAN
After listing the activities, designate responsibility for
each activity and establish a timeline for completion.
Determining the schedule for completion, who will carry
out the activity, and who will be responsible for ensuring
that it is completed on schedule are key for successful
implementation of the preservation plan.

20. WRITING THE PLAN
Identify what resources are required to carry out each activity
so that those resources can be factored into the institutional
budget.
Resources can include staff, space, time, supplies, finances,
and outside expertise.
Create a schedule for completion of each activity.
Be sure to keep time schedules realistic.

21. WRITING THE PLAN
For ease of reading and recording progress, it may be
helpful to create tables listing the activity, the staff
responsible, the necessary resources, and the time table.
Preservation plans are complex documents that will need
to be read and interpreted by multiple audiences within an
institution.
Aim for clarity in the written text.

22. AN EVOLVING DOCUMENT
Once the written preservation plan is complete, it must be
implemented.
A staff member should be appointed to spearhead the project,
but the day to day implementation work will include all staff,
administrators, and board members.
Provide ongoing staff training, and develop tools and
procedures to monitor the preservation program and to
evaluate progress.

23. AN EVOLVING DOCUMENT
Remember that a preservation plan is an evolving document.
Priorities change over time.
A new goal or objective could develop; an activity could move
from implementation to continuation to re-evaluation and then
back to implementation.
Be prepared to review the plan at least annually and make
necessary updates, adjustments, and/or changes.

24. Building a preservation policy
Preservation is the art of ‘keeping safe’, ‘maintaining’,
‘retaining’, and ‘keeping alive’.
Preservation, as it applies to library and archive collections,
can be defined as ‘all managerial, technical and financial
considerations applied to retard deterioration an extend the
useful life of (collection) materials to ensure their continued
availability.

25. Preservation policy
Preservation policy
- It is an essential component of a collections management
framework, regardless of the size of the collection or
organization.
- It sets out an organization's approach to preservation,
addressing the questions of what needs to be preserved,
why, for what purpose, and for how long.

26. Preservation policy
The policy clarifies the responsibilities of all concerned,
staff, volunteers and users alike.
- It enables organizations to set and validate priorities, and
to review long-standing practices.
Preservation strategies, work plans, procedures and
processes should all follow from a preservation policy

27. Benefits of a preservation policy
The need for a preservation policy is not new, but it has become
more acute in recent years.
With ever-dwindling resources and many more claims on those that
are available, the need for accountability and the need to prioritize
and justify expenditure have become more pressing.
Clear statements, agreed at the highest level in an organization,
about what needs to be preserved, why, and for how long, are
essential for long-term collections management

28. A strong preservation policy will:
clarify the relationship between the organization's mission and
preservation activity
clarify the scope of preservation activity by identifying the collections to
be preserved, their significance and the desired retention period
act as a focal point for collaborative working across organizations and
in some cases between organizations
clarify relationships with other aspects of collections management such
as collections acquisition, access and security

29. A strong preservation policy will:
provide a statement of accountability against which
performance can be monitored
demonstrate the organization's long-term commitment to its
collections to funders and users, internal and external
act as a communication tool, internally and externally
provide a basis for the development of preservation strategy
and preservation programmes

30. A strong preservation policy will:
provide a basis for establishing priorities and justifying
investment
demonstrate responsible stewardship for the benefit of
current and future users
explain to users why certain actions are taken and others
are not.

31. Relationship to other policies, strategy and action
plans
The length of a preservation policy and the level of
detail included will vary from organization to
organization.
A short, high-level document is much more likely to
be agreed, read and acted upon than a very lengthy
or complex document.

32. Relationship to other policies, strategy and
action plans
For these reasons, it is generally most effective to limit
a preservation policy to short 23 statements of intent
that are agreed at a senior level in the organization,
and to highlight other relevant organizational policies,
strategy, or sub-policies to provide greater levels of
detail as needed.

33. Relationship to other policies, strategy and
action plans
A preservation policy is likely to impact on the work of
more than one person or department, e.g. retrieval staff,
reading room staff, collection care staff, curators, estates &
facilities staff, reprographics staff and volunteers.
For the preservation policy to be successful, it is important
to involve colleagues in its creation as well as its on-going
communication.

34. Foundations for a preservation policy
Before identifying the sections and content for your
policy you need to give careful thought to the
questions: what needs to be preserved, why, for what
purpose, and for how long?

35. Purpose of the organization
There are many different kinds of libraries and archives,
ranging from national institutions and large research
collections, to specialist libraries and archives, local record
offices and public lending libraries.
They cater for a wide variety of users, from academics,
businesses and private researchers, to children and all
others who want to be educated and entertained.

36. Purpose of the organization
What needs to be preserved and why are directly
linked to the purpose and function of the collections
and of the organizations in which they are kept.

37. Purpose of the collection
A broadly-based, international collection will comprise
original sources and secondary material, as well as
basic research material and ephemera, all in a variety
of media and formats.
It is the purpose of the collection, more than its
physical format, which determines its preservation
needs at policy level.

38. Purpose of the collection
Different formats and different media may need
different preservation strategies and demand different
technical solutions, but the aims and the purpose of
the library or archive and its functions determine its
preservation policy, which must cover all formats and
all media.

39. Functions of the organization
The purpose of a collection will strongly influence the actions
taken to preserve it, but other library and archive functions
that are closely linked to preservation must also be
considered, such as acquisition, retention, access, use, and
collaboration.
The strength of these links and the relative importance of
these functions again depend on the purpose of the
organization, as well as on the nature of the material.

40. Acquisition
Decisions made at the point of acquisition have an impact on
the preservation requirements during an item’s lifecycle.
Preservation decisions will be influenced by both the format,
e.g. hard copy or digital format, paperback or microfilm; the
condition, e.g. good or poor; and the purpose of the
acquisition, e.g. for short term use to be replaced when worn
out, for the primary purpose of lending or remote access, or
for long term retention, to become the national archival copy
or master.

41. Retention
In most libraries, as opposed to archives, material is not always
acquired with a retention decision clearly in mind.
Frequently, the decision to retain an item for medium term, long term
or indefinite use, can only be made once its short term usefulness has
been proven.
Before any preservation decision is made, a retention decision is vital.
Without a clear retention policy, preservation rapidly becomes a
haphazard and potentially wasteful exercise. The decision on the
format in which an item is to be retained is equally important.

42. Access
The kind of access required will need to be considered when
formulating a preservation policy.
Access can take many forms.
Access to information about holdings, through good and
accessible catalogues, and wider library and archive networks
will increase use and thereby the need for good handling
policies, conservation treatment, protection and good storage
policies.

43. Access
Catalogues
- They can also help by defining what is in a collection,
preventing readers from asking for the wrong material and
thereby minimizing unnecessary handling.
-They can also be used to refer readers to surrogates, to be
used in preference to the originals.

44. Use
Use can take many different forms such as direct or remote
consultation, or as part of an exhibition.
The needs of the users will determine whether the original
document (provided it is in a fit state to be used) or a surrogate
is issued, while the kind of use will determine the security
measures needed.
The concept of use is an important one for most libraries and
archives, and many organizations take the amount of use as an
indication of preservation need.

45. Use
Heavily used material is commonly recognized as needing
protection and/or treatment to keep it in a usable state.
However, low use alone is no justification for neglect: regular
preservation surveys will ensure an awareness of the needs of all
collections.
The shift in many libraries and archives from ownership and
collecting to the provision of access means we must be very clear
that the responsibilities for long term preservation are shared by
all staff, users and volunteers.

46. Collaboration
Cooperative acquisition, collection management or
preservation programs may be planned, or already in
place.
A preservation policy must incorporate such
commitments.

47. Collection assessment
Good knowledge of the collection, its significance and the
way it is used is very valuable when building a preservation
policy.
There are a number of different ways in which this
information can be collected.
Each has a slightly different emphasis so be clear about what
you are seeking to gain from an assessment before choosing
a methodology.

48. Risk assessment
A risk management framework provides a good approach to
collection care.
By identifying the threats to collections, understanding the
likelihood and impact of the risk, and thinking about the
strategies needed to mitigate or eliminate the risk, you will gain
knowledge of the vulnerability of the collections and the
elements that need to be addressed by the preservation policy

49. Significance assessment
Significance refers to the values and meanings that items
and collections have for people and communities
Understanding the significance of collections helps the
prioritization of preservation management activities.

50. Preservation needs assessment
A preservation needs assessment combines information on
access, significance, use, condition and preservation measures
in place, to determine preservation needs

51. Benchmarks in Collection Care
This is a self-assessment checklist which can be used to plan
and assess collection care activity.
This checklist covers many different areas of activity, both
policy and practice.
It identifies current achievements and gives an indication of
which improvements in collection care might be needed, thus
providing a useful planning tool

52. Condition surveys
Condition surveys can be carried out item-by-item, or on a
sample of the total collection.
They provide useful information to gauge conservation
requirements and will also help to inform preservation needs.
However, they provide an assessment of current condition
(damage) and do not assess the causes of damage and are
therefore are of limited use when planning future preservation
activity.

53. What is a Preservation Needs Assessment?
A Preservation Needs Assessment - provides clear guidance for the
future management of museum and other significant collections.
- It is an important document for museums and other collecting
institutions.
Basically, a Preservation Needs Assessment evaluates the policies,
practices and environmental conditions of a museum, with the aim of
identifying factors which may have an adverse affect on the future
preservation of a collection.

54. What is a Preservation Needs Assessment?
It will look at the physical condition of a collection and the
suitability of current housing, display and storage facilities.
In addition to identifying factors that may affect the
preservation and future condition of a collection, a
Preservation Needs Assessment provides recommendations
for the development of a conservation program.

55. Some areas that are looked at as part of the Preservation
Needs Assessment are (and please note that this is not an
exhaustive list):
The building (how well it houses the collection)
The environment within the buildings where any collection
material is stored, housed or displayed
The general condition of the collection
Display conditions
Storage conditions
Security and access issues