LIS 5653 Preservation of Information Materials/ Spring 2018
Instructor: Sarah Clayton
Student Learning Objectives:
-
Demonstrate an understanding of the nature and structure of library and archival materials.
-
Identify agents of deterioration of library and archival materials (including multimedia collections), as well as accepted preservation functions that help mitigate deterioration.
-
Explore treatment and reformatting options available to libraries and archivists.
-
Identify the elements of an effective disaster plan, and be aware of methods for preventing, mitigating, and responding to disasters in libraries and archives.
-
List the components of a preservation program and describe how they can be incorporated into an organization’s policies.
-
Demonstrate an awareness of the role of preservation in ensuring continued access to digital information.
-
Recognize preservation as a central function that has implications throughout libraries and archives.
My experience:
I really enjoyed my time in this class, and I was able to take theory and practices from it and apply them to real-life situations. The class introduced the history behind archival theory and touched upon the current practices for different formats of information: audio, video, digital, paper, and artifacts. It was interesting to me to see the different perspectives and the issues that archivists face on a daily basis.
Through studying these issues, which included destroying to preserve, i.e. cutting books to digitize them, limited funds, potential disaster, and what it means to preserve information vs physical items, I gained even more appreciation of what these professionals do and the hurdles they have to jump in order to not only preserve, but to ensure the integrity of each and every item and the information it possesses. Archivists also have to protect from further damage, slow down deterioration, and apply reformatting where possible for the future of valuable information. I also recognized how many of the concepts taught could be applied to documents and records management, not only for archives and museums, but in other types of institutions.
I can appreciate both sides of the issue when considering preservation, due to my love of history and a desire to preserve it. How can we destroy by cutting into valuable old books to preserve the text by digitizing it? How do we throw away an old VHS tape after we have moved the contents to another media? It is so difficult to accept these ways of preserving informational materials, but, as with document and records management, we have to in order to access this information and to cut down on costs.
Other valuable tools that I discovered were preservation assessment and disaster plans. A preservation assessment allows the archivist to inspect current conditions in terms of the facility where archives are housed as well as the collection itself to look for damage. The assessment also helps the archivist to determine preservation measures, and to prioritize what needs to be done to protect the overall collection.
As I was taking this class, I implemented both tools at my local museum and historical society where i am a board member and archivist. I wrote the disaster plan which will hopefully be approved for official use at the annual meeting, I hope to introduce other practices that I have learned to our museum to improve the health of the collection and its access.