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Class 7 Lesson Plan
Surveys and Assessments

Overview

This class module, which builds on material from Class 5: Building-wide Concerns, focuses specifically on preservation surveys as a tool for determining preservation program needs and planning to meet those needs.

The session serves three functions: to introduce the concept of surveying collections, to provide a context for why surveys are useful and how they are used, and to give examples of types of survey instruments and designs.

The lesson is divided into four parts:

Part I: Introduction to Surveys. In this section students should be given a brief introduction to the reasons for conducting surveys and the various types of surveys, emphasizing that preservation surveys are a mechanism to measure progress over time.

Part II: The General Preservation Survey. This section introduces the general preservation survey. It covers planning, issues that should be included in a survey, and model survey instruments.

Part III: The Collection-level Survey. This section covers the various types of collection-level surveys, ranging from an overview survey of a particular collection by a conservator, to an item-by-item survey, to a random-sample statistical survey.

Part IV: The Survey Process. In this portion of the class, students are led step-by-step through the process of conducting a general preservation survey using a case study or a real-life example.