Preservation Management for Libraries, Archives and Museums

Today's cultural heritage organisations are facing ever more threats to the integrity and existence of their collections. In addition to neglect, natural disaster and self‐consuming records, there are increased dangers posed by conflict, terrorism, genocide, environmental impact and the challenges of born digital material to contend with. In this environment Preservation Management for Libraries, Archives and Museums, edited by Gorman and Shep, is a timely and welcome addition.

This accessible volume has marshalled a wide range of quality contributions from leading experts in the field such as John Feather, Marilyn Deegan and Barbara Reed. The 11 essays reflect the diversity of contemporary preservation management and range from policy and planning through digital surrogates and born digital material to access and social contract issues.

John Feather begins with an overview of managing documentary heritage and emphasises how selection, as a key preservation strategy, is influenced by a wide range of external forces. Mirjam Foot discusses the integration of preservation‐led decision making into library and archive policy and planning. In tackling the thorny issue of indigenous property rights, ephemera and intangible cultural heritage, David Grattan and John Moses argue for the need to preserve documentation about artefacts as much as the artefacts themselves and recognise the complex network in which many of these items exist.

In the hubris surrounding digital curation and preservation Marilyn Deegan draws our attention to the ongoing debate about the relationship between the original and the digital surrogate. Such debates can often seem rarified but the relationship between content and medium has a direct impact on issues such as retention. Yola de Lusenet continues the digital thread by examining reformatting and migration strategies in the context of competing demands for access and preservation. In her contribution Barbara Reed addresses the unique preservation challenges posed by born digital‐material. These objects' fragility, the pace of technical change and increasing user demands make management strategies for born digital material a priority.

Porck, Ligterink, Bruin and Scholten place a refreshing emphasis on conservation by arguing that conservation research is essential to the development of preservation programmes and not a subsidiary of it. Furthermore, they detail a new model for cost‐benefit decision making for objective setting of conservation research priorities. Bob Pymm focuses his attention on the challenges of preserving traditional and emerging audio‐visual media and emphasises the resource intensive nature of this process and the ongoing commitment it requires. Teijgeler's chapter reminds us that a crucial component of preservation management is planning for man‐made disasters. A case study from Iraq vividly illustrates the consequences of not planning in advance to safeguard cultural heritage and some of the creative responses required.

Helen Ford reflects on the tension between access rights and preservation obligations and how this relationship is being re‐cast in the light of recent developments in areas such as Freedom of Information (FoI), digitisation and outreach programmes. Lastly, the editors consider the changing nature of preservation management in the twenty‐first century. This chapter suggests that the challenges and responses dealt with in the book and the influence of collaborative networks may mean the erosion of library, archive and museum distinctions and the emergence of a “new, hybrid species” of cultural heritage organisation.

If there is a weakness it is in the absence of a chapter that deals explicitly with creating a co‐ordinated preservation management plan that includes such neglected areas as user needs evaluation and the contribution that practice based research can make. However, these absences do not detract from the overall value of preservation management. Preservation managers, and to a lesser extent students and practitioners, will find it a concise, wide‐ranging and forward thinking addition to their bookshelves.