|
(Under development)
The Area Studies Council (ASC) is engaged in ongoing efforts
to provide information on preservation resources and initiatives,
focusing on the needs of an international audience.
The ASC plans to update this page with links and resources
in various languages for preservationists to further the
cause of worldwide preservation of library materials.
The Association for Library Collections & Technical
Services division of ALA formed the Preservation
and Reformatting Section to encourage and promote
preservation and reformatting of library materials in
all types of institutions. The group has discussion
groups and listservs for preservation administrators and
educators. ALA also publishes on-line the Preservation
Education Directory.
ARL has a preservation
program that supports its members' efforts to preserve
research collections, both individually and in the aggregate.
Its page describes its efforts and agenda, and provides
additional information on its related publications.
ARL also publishes annual reports on preservation statistics in North American
research institutions.
CoOL, a project of the Preservation Department of Stanford
University Libraries, is a full text library of conservation
information, covering a wide spectrum of topics of interest.
Its site contains news on events and training programs,
plus a directory of people involved professionally with
the conservation of museum, library, and archive material.
Of note is a report by Whitney Baker on Latin American Conservation
Resources For Libraries and Archives in English and
Spanish.
One of the four program areas CLIR upholds is the Commission on Preservation
& Access. The Commission's international
program works with institutions abroad to raise awareness
about issues in preservation and supports activities to
address these issues. It publishes the "Preservation
and Access International Newsletter" quarterly
and works in cooperation with international institutions
on preservation projects. Other publications (or abstracts)
available on-line include reports on preservation in Bulgaria,
Canada, China, Latin America, Russia, and Vietnam, and
the use of digitization for preservation.
The ECPA was established in 1994 and is the European
partner of the CLIR Commission on Preservation & Access.
Its website hosts the Preservation Map of Europe,
which contains information on current preservation and
conservation practice and policies in each European country.
It also presents a thorough list of Institutes and Organizations
Working in the Preservation Field.
ICCROM is committed to preserving cultural heritage,
whether historic city or archaeological site, museum or
library. Its site provides an on-line database of
worldwide conservation training programs and offers its
own training courses in preservation across the globe.
ICA is a multi-faceted group that addresses all manners
of archival concerns, with a special interest in the developing
world. The organization has a committee on preservation
of archive materials, and supports regional branches of
archival associations outside of Europe and North America.
The European Programme, formed in 1990 to address developing
challenges in the area, has its own web page with a slightly
outdated report on archival
activities in Europe.
IFLA maintains several Core Programmes, one of which
is for Preservation and Conservation (PAC).
IFLA publishes "International Preservation News"
twice a year, distributed to libraries free of charge.
Several Publications are also available in print, including
"Principles for the Preservation and Conservation
of Library Materials," by Jeanne-Marie Dureau and
David W. G. Clements. This document will soon be
available in several languages, and is distributed through
the PAC regional centers.
The Library of Congress's Preservation
Directorate provides basic on-line information regarding
preservation of various media, emergency preparedness,
and a list of publications and bibliographies of interest.
NEH is one of the largest supporters of preservation
and access in the United States. A complete
description of their program and application materials
can be found on-line.
The NEDCC is a non-profit regional conservation center
specializing in the preservation and conservation treatment
of paper-based materials. It offers its Preservation of Library &
Archival Materials manual on-line. "The
manual is one of few preservation publications written
in layman's language that is an authoritative reference
source for up-to-date scientific research. Sections include
planning and prioritizing, the environment, emergency
management, storage and handling, reformatting, and conservation
procedures. Professional illustrations make the 'how-to'
leaflets easy to understand and use."
NEDCC offers an on-line Spanish translation
of its manual, El Manual de Preservacion de
Bibliotecas y Archivos. The first edition is
also available in Russian, Sokhranenie bibliotechnikh archivnikh
materialov (rukovodstvo).
PRESED-X, the preservation educators exchange web site,
includes course syllabi, workshop outlines, handouts and
exercises used in training, as well as links to related
resources. Future plans to expand the site include
a searchable directory of trainers. This site is
available through the Regional
Alliance for Preservation (RAP) site.
The Translation and Dissemination of Preservation Knowledge
project in Brazil, funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
and coordinated by CLIR, has established a Web site in
Portuguese to provide access to preservation information
in Brazil. Featured are a preservation map of Brazil,
a list of translated preservation literature with access
to full text, and links to related sites.
RLG is a non-profit membership corporation devoted to
improving access to information that supports research
and learning. RLG hosts the Research Libraries Information
Network (RLIN) database and manages the PRESERV program, which has
produced handbooks and manuals for preservation microfilming.
PRESERV is currently focusing on the use of digital media
as a preservation strategy and has many on-line resources
in this area.
SOLINET is a not-for-profit library cooperative providing
resource sharing for the educational, cultural and economic
advancement of the southeastern United States and the
Caribbean. Its preservation department has provided
on-line texts of preservation
leaflets and handouts of the organization. The
site also presents a broad list of links to preservation
resources on the Internet, many of which are not duplicated
here.
UNESCO's Memory
of the World Programme focuses on preserving documentary
heritage of countries and supports activities to preserve
archival holdings and library collections. The site
provides basic texts and
databases in English (and French) for preservation
and safeguarding of documentary heritage, and a survey
commissioned in 1996 of preservation activities worldwide.
See also UNESCO's World Heritage site.
UNESCO US Mirror
Sites
Please feel free to submit additional resources, suggestions
or links to James
Simon, the ASC representative at CRL.
Return to the Area
Studies Council homepage
|
