New ALA Preservation Policy adopted

Contact: Charles Wilt


312-280-5030

ALA News Release


For Immediate Release


August 2001

New ALA Preservation Policy adopted

At its June 19, 2001, meeting the American Library Association (ALA) Council approved a revised ALA Preservation Policy following a recommendation from the Association of Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS).

At the 1999 ALA Annual Conference, the ALA Policy Monitoring Committee presented the following recommendation regarding the ALA Preservation Policy, adopted in 1991, to ALA Council:

"While the existing policy mentions electronic formats as well as print resources, there is no reference to the Internet and the impact this is having on the preservation of historical records and intellectual property. While various divisions and other ALA units are certainly taking action on this issue, the ALA needs to amend this policy so that libraries have clear direction."

This recommendation was referred to the Policy, Planning, and Research Committee of the Preservation and Reformatting Section (PARS) of ALCTS, chaired by Irene Schubert of the Library of Congress. This committee took on the responsibility for revising the policy as recommended. The Committee presented a revised policy to the ALCTS board at its June 16, 2001, meeting at the ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco. The ALCTS board adopted the revised policy with the recommendation that the policy be approved by ALA Council.

The revised policy is available on the
ALCTS Web site.

ALCTS is a division of the ALA.