What is Preservation Week?

In 2004 Heritage Preservation carried out the first national survey, the Heritage Health Index, to document collections preservation needs in libraries, museums, and archives. That survey showed that roughly 1.3 billion items need treatment to reduce the risk and rate of damage. The condition of 30 percent of items across every type of collection is unknown. No one knows of preservation needs in the collections of individuals, families, and community organizations, which were not surveyed. Even when condition is known, our cultural and information heritage, especially in digital collections, continues to be at risk.

Recognizing this need, ALA and its Association for Library Collections and Technical Services inaugurated national collections Preservation Week, May 9-15, 2010, along with national partners that include the Library of Congress, Institute of Library and Museum Services, American Institute for Conservation, Society of American Archivists, and Heritage Preservation.

Preservation Week is your opportunity to inspire action to preserve collections—in libraries, archives, and museums, of course, but especially the items held and loved by individuals, families, and communities. Preservation Week activities will also raise awareness of the role libraries and other cultural institutions play in providing sound preservation information.

Individually and as community partners, libraries, museums, and archives are encouraged to do at least one thing, even if it’s small, to celebrate Preservation Week. Host a program, event, or display; put a banner on your website; provide tip sheets from the Preservation Week website; talk to your policy makers and resource allocators about your community’s preservation needs. focus our combined attention and energy on preserving our information and cultural heritage in all collections.

More Information from Preservation Week Founding Partners

For ideas and information, see these websites for preservation information and resources you can use to celebrate Preservation Week.

Association for Library Collections & Technical Services

Preservation Week website. Includes a speakers bureau, tip sheets, links to basic and extensive preservation information, logos, free webinars, and information about programs to be offered during Preservation Week.

American Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works

Caring for Your Treasures. Guidance for care of common categories of collections, printable as handsome two-sided 8.5 x 11” broadsides. Find a conservator tool.

Heritage Preservation

Heritage Health Index. Provides valuable preservation information, with extremely useful information about responding to sudden emergencies in collections.

Institute of Museum and Library Services

Connecting to Collections. Links to online resources, grouped by category, and a bibliography of collections care titles distributed as a bookshelf to more than 2,500 local libraries and museums. Information includes video and news about IMLS’s national conservation initiative.

Library of Congress

Collections Care. Links to more comprehensive information grouped by topic and type of material.

Personal Archiving. Advice about preserving your digital memories and archiving personal digital material.

Society of American Archivists

Selected Links to Preservation Websites. Links to a wide variety of preservation websites with preservation information useful to archivists and archives, among others.

About Preservation Week

Memories and treasures should last a lifetime and be passed on to future generations. President Obama once wrote, “Part of America's genius has always been its ability to absorb newcomers, to forge a national identity out of the disparate lot that arrived on our shores.” The memories and treasures of individuals, families, and communities are essential to our record of this process—they contribute to our understanding of history and its participants just as collections in libraries, museums, and archives do.

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