Over the past several decades, millions of digital objects of significant scientific, economic, cultural, and historic value have been published and distributed to libraries and archives on removable media. Providing long-term access to these documents, media files, and software executables is an increasingly complex task because of dependencies…

Reports on a study to estimate the proportion of the University of Michigan's library collection needing preservation efforts and describes the rating scale used. (FM)

In April 2000, the Digital Library Federation commissioned three reports to address broader concerns about digital collections in research libraries. This report synthesizes the nearly 10 years' experience that libraries have had digitizing items from their rare, special, and general collections, and making them available online. The report…

This report is based in part on an analysis of current preservation practices and of the 1988-89 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Preservation Statistics. It includes discussion of the 10 components of a comprehensive preservation program to which library administrators must give attention. Organizational models for mature preservation…

Arguing that some books and documents must be conserved because they have scholarly value as well as for the information they contain, this report presents reasons for preserving such artifacts and recommends means of developing effective and efficient preservation strategies. Two strategies are suggested. The first advises identifying and ranking…

This report examines the institutional level deacidification program that was formalized and instituted at Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts)) for its research libraries. The report is organized into six sections. The first section, which describes the project's background, discusses the acidic paper problem, available mass…

Recognizing recent efforts by members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in establishing departments or designating full-time staff for preservation efforts, the Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC) undertook a survey to identify ways research libraries are reorganizing for these new activities. Telephone interviews were…

This manual is designed primarily as a guide for libraries undertaking a formal study of preservation needs as a foundation for planning programs to meet those needs. Based on the "assisted self-study approach" process, it presupposes a library staff large enough to permit the assignment of about two dozen people for an average of 5 or 6…

This kit is the result of a written request for sample materials from 35 ARL (Association of Research Libraries) members known to have active preservation programs. Twenty-three libraries responded, and of those, 16 contributed documents--some of which are included here. This kit contains: four preservation-related policy statements; 32 examples…

This resource guide provides information about the range of activities that can be implemented to maintain and improve the condition of research collections to ensure that they remain usable as long as possible. After an introduction that describes the major activities and a review of an investigation process that gives an overview of good…