The Preservation Statistics Survey is a project to document and analyze the preservation activities of cultural heritage institutions in the United States.
Preservation activities encompass a broad range of tasks to ensure long-term access to traditional and digital cultural heritage collections in libraries, museums, archives, historical societies, and more. The Preservation Statistics Survey records how these preservation programs are administered (leadership, staffing, and funding) as well as preventive preservation activities (library binding, mass deacidification, environmental monitoring, disaster planning, outreach, training, and others), conservation activities, reformatting and digitization activities, and digital preservation responsibilities.
For more information about the history of the ARL and ALA Preservation Statistics programs, read our 2016 paper "Do You Count? The Revitalization of a National Preservation Statistics Program" in Library Resources and Technical Services V. 60, Issue 1.
Surveys, Reports, and Data
FY2022
Download the Data Set: FY2022 Preservation Statistics Survey Data (.xlsx).
Download a PDF printout of the FY2022 survey questions.
For participants who would like a PDF of their individual survey responses, please email one of the Co-Chairs of the Core Preservation Standards & Practices Committee.
FY2019
Download the Data Set: FY2019 Preservation Statistics Survey (DATA)(.xlsx).
An updated version of the survey was used this year. Download a PDF printout of the survey.
For participants who would like a PDF of their individual survey responses, please email one of the Co-Chairs of the Core Preservation Standards & Practices Committee. Data are archived in the ALAConnect committee library.
FY2018
Download the full Data Set: FY2018 Preservation Statistics Survey data set (.xlsx).
Presentation-ready graphs and slides Summary data charts: FY2018 Preservation Statistics Survey Summary Data Charts (.ppt).
For participants who would like a PDF of their individual survey responses, please email either Co-Chair of the Preservation Standards & Practices Committee. Responses are archived in ALAConnect committee library.
Download the FY2018 Survey Questionnaire (.pdf).
FY2017
Download the full Data Set: FY2017 Preservation Statistics Survey data set (.xlsx).
Presentation-ready graphs and slides Summary data charts: FY2017 Preservation Statistics Survey Summary Data Charts (.ppt).
For participants who would like a PDF of their individual survey responses, please email either Co-Chair of the Preservation Standards & Practices Committee. Responses are archived in ALAConnect committee library.
Download the FY2017 Survey Questionnaire (.pdf).
FY2015
The FY2015 Preservation Statistics Survey Report (.pdf) provides an analysis of the survey results from 2015.
Download the full FY2015 Preservation Statistics Survey data set (.xlsx) and the Total Library Expenditure (TLE) scaled data for 2012-2015 (.xlsx), helpful for tracking trends over time while accounting for the varying respondent pool. See “Using the Survey Data to Track Long-Term Trends” in the FY2015 Report for an additional explanation of how TLE is used in our analysis.
Download the FY2015 survey questionnaire (.pdf) and the FY2015 Instructions and Definitions document (.pdf). Some respondents used the Preservation Statistics Worksheet (.xlsx) to track their data.
FY2014
The FY2014 Preservation Statistics Report (.pdf) provides analysis of the survey results, including examinations of trends in libraries and other cultural heritage institutions from 2000-2014.
Download the full FY2014 Preservation Statistics Survey data set (.xlsx) and the Total Library Expenditure (TLE) scaled data for 2012-2014 (.xlsx), helpful for tracking trends over time while accounting for the varying respondent pool. See “Using the Survey Data to Track Long-Term Trends” in the FY2014 Report for an additional explanation of how TLE is used in our analysis.
Download the FY2014 survey questionnaire (.pdf) and the FY2014 Instructions and Definitions document (.pdf). Check out the Preservation Statistics worksheet (.xlsx) that helped track and calculate statistics.
FY2013
The FY2013 Preservation Statistics Report (.pdf) provides analysis of the survey results, including examinations of trends in libraries from 2000-2013, based on statistics from the FY2012 survey and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) preservation statistics survey.
Download the full FY2013 Preservation Statistics Survey data set (.xlsx) and check out our FY2013 Preservation Statistics Infographic - Preview PNG (via Google Drive - 1.8MB) | Large PNG (via Google Drive - 6.4MB) | Full-Size PDF (8.5MB).
Download the FY2013 survey questionnaire (.pdf) and the FY2013 Instructions and Definitions document (.pdf). Check out the FY2013 Preservation Statistics worksheet (.xlsx) that helped track and calculate statistics.
FY2012
The FY2012 Preservation Statistics Report analyzes the data collected in the FY2012 survey, which was open to all cultural heritage institutions in the U.S. that conducted preservation activities.
Download the full FY2012 Preservation Statistics Survey data set (.xlsx).
Download the FY2012 survey questionnaire (.pdf) and the FY2012 Instructions and Definitions Document (.pdf).
Preservation Metrics
In the spring of 2015, Kara McClurken, then Chair of the Preservation and Reformatting Section (PARS) of the Association of Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS), surveyed the preservation community to better understand how we are using data from preservation metrics. Broadly defined, preservation metrics include national efforts such as this Preservation Statistics Survey and the Heritage Health Information 2014 survey, as well as local data gathering efforts within institutions and at the regional level within consortiums. Please see the results of the Preservation Metrics Survey presented at the PARS Forum at ALA Annual 2015.
Preservation Statistics is a project of the Preservation Standards and Practices (PS&P) Committee of PARS. Contact survey coordinators at preservationstatistics@gmail.com.