Mary E. Brown, Ph.D., Professor
Information Science

Southern Connecticut State University
501 Crescent Street, New Haven, CT 06515

Department of Information and Library Science
Fax: 1.203.392-5780 / Phone: 1.203.392-5781
Toll Free: 1-888-500-SCSU, then press 4

The Library of Congress reminds us that "Like all organic things, library materials, in simplistic terms, begin deteriorating the moment they are made, some much more rapidly than others. In other words, all library materials are inherently unstable." [Brief History of Preservation and Conservation at the LOC/Conclusion]

Preservation is about preserving the informational content of an item while conservation is about preserving the artifact itself. That is, preservation involves "the activities associated with maintaining library and archival materials for use either in their original physical form or in some other usable way" while conservation is "the reactive or proactive treatment of library material to strengthen them physically or stabilize them chemically thus sustaining their survival as long as possible in the original form."

It should be noted that the difference between preservation and conservation (the content versus the object) is also the basis of a debate on whether the full information/intellectual content/cultural content of a book can be captured in another format, such as microforms or digital forms. That is, what information/value is lost when the informational content of the pages is removed from the physical book.

For approximately 150 years (1830-1980), books were printed on acidic paper. Understandably, we reached a time when we understood the problem of acidic paper and how to resolve it; but faced so many books that needed "saving" that we realized the life of some recorded information/knowledge/culture would expire before the pages that contained them could be treated. Libraries were faced with identifying the neediest (in terms of damage) and most worthy (in terms of value to future readers) books for treatment while other books (information/knowledge/culture) were left to the fate of their medium (acidic paper). For an example of how one library is managing deacidifying the collection, see Mass deacidification initiative at the Univeristy of Maryland. See also Brittle books: What's the deal? and The influence of deacidification on the deterioratin of paper

Brittle books (books beyound saving by deacidification) who informational/intellectual contents were chosen for preservation, underwent reformating. Reformating is "the transfer of information from one medium to another." Microfilming had been the most common form of reformatting; recently, digital scanning has begun to be used.

In 2001 the American Library Association (ALA) updated its [1999] policy on preservation to more fully include the use of digital formats. All libraries/libraries should be aware/knowledgeable of the most current ALA Preservation Policy

See Preservation of Your Materials and other topics at The Library of Congress Preservation, specifically Caring for Your Collections and Preservation - Frequently Asked Questions.

References

Arney, J. S., Jacobs, A. J., & Newman, R. (1979). The influence of deacidification on the deterioratin of paper. Journal of the American Institute for Conservation, 19(1), 34-41. Retrieved October 16, 2005, from http://aic.stanford.edu/jaic/articles/jaic19-01-005_indx.html

Brittle books: What's the deal? Retrieved October 16, 2005, from http://libweb.uoregon.edu/~catdept/presbind/brittle.html

Harris, K. E., & Schur, S. E. (2002). Caring for America's library: A brief history of preservation and conservation at the Library of Congress. Retrieved October 16, 2005, from http://www.loc.gov/preserv/history/careamer.html

The Library of Congress Preservation. Retrieved October 16, 2005, from http://www.loc.gov/preserv/

Preservation and Archives Professionals. The National Archives. Retrieved October 16, 2005, from http://www.archives.gov/preservation/