The paper describes how specific descriptors for the Conservation-Restoration profession have been developed by the European Confederation of Conservator-Restorers' Organizations. The result of which is in accordance with the threefold rubric of Knowledge, Skills and Competence as defined by the European Qualifications Framework. Instead of giving…

Since the second century, libraries have been esteemed as keepers of the flame of knowledge and culture. At the stone Library of Celcus, constructed in Turkey in 1100 A.D., for example, 15,000 documents were kept safe from the elements and other destructive forces such as rodents. In places like Celcus, the knowledge of Greek philosophy, Roman…

More than 200,000 people worked in the museum industry in May 2008, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). A museum hires workers in a variety of occupations to help share its treasures with the public. BLS data also show that workers in the museum industry had a median annual wage of $27,456 in May 2008, less than the annual…

Urban sprawl and intergenerational transfers are fostering a new period of family forest ownership in the United States typified by larger numbers of younger owners with smaller parcels that are interested in managing their forests but often lacking requisite knowledge. At the same time, there is a general decline in the public's connection to…

This essay--a combination of authorial narrative and scholarly critique--examines a grassroots organization's (Friends of Historic Northport) campaign to preserve a site in west Alabama where a pivotal Choctaw-Upper Creek battle took place in 1785. The organization has faced opposition from city planners and business leaders intent on developing…

Our institutions of record are facing a new digital knowledge management challenge: stakeholder communities are now expecting customized Web interfaces to institutional knowledge repositories, online environments where community members can contribute content and see themselves represented, as well as access archived resources. Digital curation…

The preservation of newspapers is the main topic of this paper. A theoretical overview of newspaper preservation is given, with an emphasis on the importance of a systematic and comprehensive approach. Efficient newspaper preservation implies understanding the meaning of preservation in general, as well as understanding specific approaches,…

The cultural heritage of library collections and individual items is of importance and interest outside the profession of librarianship. This paper gives an introduction to the concept of "movable heritage" from the heritage professional's perspective and provides suggestions as to how this concept can be applied to libraries.…

This paper reports on a study of librarian initiated publications discovery (LIPD) in U.S. state digital depository programs using the OCLC Digital Archive to preserve web-based government publications for permanent public access. This paper describes a model of LIPD processes based on empirical investigations of four OCLC DA-based digital…

Preservation and conservation of library materials is an important aspect of library and information management. Their importance and necessity are more paramount in countries where resources are limited and libraries need to balance them with the needs of an ever increasing number of students hoping to use them. This article reports on the…

Recent surveys indicate that many colleges and universities have reached a pivotal moment in assessing the function and future development of their institutional repositories. Other surveys convey that archivists are participating in the development and implementation of institutional repositories at a variety of levels and have contributed to the…

There is a general perception that as librarians, we know what constitutes and defines a rare book, that our heritage book collections are well-documented and their future survival is planned for and secure. This discussion paper asks whether our definitions of heritage material might be too narrow and whether they reflect the reality across all…

Traditional large digitization projects demand massive resources from the central unit (library, museum, or university) that has acquired funding for them. Another model, enabled by easy access to cameras, scanners, and web tools, calls for public contributions to community collections of artifacts. In 2009, the University of Oxford ran a…

This paper reports on a questionnaire survey of 16 national libraries designed to clarify how national libraries attempt to justify their web archiving activities. Results indicate they envisage that a) the benefits brought about by their initiatives are greater than the overall costs, b) the costs imposed on libraries are greater than the costs…

This article identifies and provides some commentary on the key issues emerging from research into the digitisation of Indigenous materials in collections conducted in collaboration with three state libraries. It situates the research project within the broader context of related activity aimed at addressing the ongoing challenges of access,…