| Summary: |
Background and History: The human record has entered a new phase.
At a time when many questions remain about the best strategies to
preserve traditional media, a steadily growing volume of cultural
documentation is stored in media, found in audiovisual and digital
collections, whose preservation challenges we have barely begun to
understand. Without rapid, focused, and cross-disciplinary materials
research, cultural institutions risk losing access to an expanding
body of knowledge and history.
To support the preservation of increasingly diverse traditional
and new media, the Library of Congress has recently committed significant
new resources to its Preservation Research and Testing Division.
This commitment includes expanding instrumental capabilities, laboratory
infrastructure, and number of personnel dedicated to scientific
research. Such commitment underscores the essential partnership
of materials science with library and computer sciences for preservation
of library, archive, and museum collections in the digital age.
The Library recognizes that progress in preservation science in
the United States requires an agreed-upon national research strategy
for coordinated effort. A national research strategy will maximize
efforts by clearly identifying areas where collaborative research
is most needed, reducing duplicate efforts, encouraging fiscal responsibility,
and fostering financial support from grant and other funding organizations.
Goal and Program Description: In order to address the goal of a
consensus-based national research strategy, the Library of Congress
will convene a collaborative scientific working group, or summit,
on July 24-25, 2008, in Washington, DC. Recognizing that communication
promotes both scientific understanding and creativity, thirty senior
conservation scientists will be invited to attend a two-day meeting
to 1) share the intellectual and “purpose driven” objectives
of scientific research in which they are currently engaged and 2)
identify essential lines of research needed to meet today’s
preservation challenges.
Participants: Selection criteria require that participants have
a proven record of long-term research, publication, and other contributions
in some discipline of preservation science. They are also required
to work for facilities that will enable collaboration with others,
to advance knowledge in the field of document preservation. Representative
participants will come from the Getty Conservation Institute, the
Museum Conservation Institute, the Canadian Conservation Institute,
the National Archives, the Image Permanence Institute, the National
Center for Preservation Technology and Training, the National Gallery
of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Freer Gallery, British
Library, the Lawrence Berkley National Labs, Harvard University,
Carnegie Mellon University, Pepperdine University, Arizona state
Museum and University of Arizona, the University of Delaware, the
University of Texas (Austin), the Centre de Rescherche sur la Conservation
des Documents Graphiques, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, and the National
and University of Slovenia, among other places.
Outcomes: The program will develop a consensus-based research strategy
that supports conservation and preservation across collection types
and scientific specialties. The strategy will be aided by international
participation and will have international impact. Meeting results
will include the dissemination of research priorities that 1) contribute
to immediate progress through communication among a network of scientists
and 2) evolve over the longer term through collaborative opportunities
as goals are achieved and new challenges developed.
In addition, participants will develop a charter of principles
for preservation strategies of research scientists, outlining assumptions
and guiding principles to enhance mutual assistance in order to
better connect scientists to collection research needs.
Support: Initial support for this summit has been provided by the
Samuel H. Kress Foundation and by the American Institute for the
Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC). Co-Sponsors include
the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training (NCPTT)
and members of the International Federation of Library Associations
Preservation and Conservation North American Network (IFLA PAC NAN),
including the Preservation Directorate of the Library of Congress;
Yale University and Pepperdine University Libraries; the Kilgarlin
Center for the Preservation of the Cultural Record, University of
Texas at Austin School of Information; and Preservation Programs,
National Archives and Records Administration.
The Library of Congress is seeking additional support for the summit.
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