Overview
This module discusses basic management activities needed to establish a preservation program, including planning, budgeting, and personnel issues. Collaborative models and advocacy activities in preservation and digitization are also highlighted. To put U.S. preservation activities in context with other developments worldwide, information about preservation research and key international preservation issues and resources are discussed, and some comparison is made to preservation efforts in other fields and in times of great change.
In the first portion of the class, students review basic information on determining institutional needs, which was covered in detail in Class 7: Surveys and Assessments. An overview of the components of short- and long-term preservation planning is also given in this introductory section.
Information on budgeting for preservation — the components of a preservation program budget and the methods of securing institutional funding, grant funding, or monies through fund-raising — are discussed, including a list of top funding organizations. Because personnel costs have traditionally been a large part of expenditures, staffing, organization, and management models for preservation programs will be reviewed. The option to use outsourced services in many areas of preservation management will also be explored, to let students know this is a growing option.
The importance of collaboration in preservation and digital activity has grown considerably in the last 25 years; that trend will be recognized by discussions of key collaborative programs in the field.
Advocacy for preservation — within one’s library, parent institution, local area, or regionally — has been an important force in the growth of preservation awareness and in the trend toward collaborative activities in preservation. To give students an overview of the global interest in and advocacy for preservation, key international issues and resources will be highlighted, as well as critical current topics in preservation and conservation research and the organizations that are studying them.
Finally, advocacy, on all levels including national and international, is discussed, and preservation advocacy and activity are compared to advocacy in ecology and environmentalism, especially in times of great changes, such as digitization and great disasters such as the hurricanes of 2005.