Preservation Policy Statement

The Preservation Department of the University of Wisconsin General Library System is committed to ensuring long-term access to the libraries' research collections through a variety of preservation strategies. These include:

1. Maintaining an acceptable environment for all formats held by the libraries;

2. Working with other library staff and community services to provide adequate security for library materials

3. Updating the disaster response plan annually and training a network of library personnel for disaster response and salvage;

4. Maintaining an acute awareness of last copy issues and assuming responsibility for retention of originals and/or preservation-quality reformatting of materials in GLS collections;

5. Contributing to the OCLC database complete and accurate bibliographic records for reformatted materials, and tracking all materials in the local Voyager database, in order to ensure access to both local and remote users;

6. Cooperating with other libraries of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) to advance preservation efforts in the areas of preserving content, cooperative purchasing, evaluation and assessment, and information sharing, as outlined in CIC Preservation Officers Strategic Directions, March 28, 2003 (www.cic.net/groups/PreservationOfficers/archive/ProgramDescription/StrategicDirections28Mar03.pdf);

7. Accepting and acting upon the Association of Research Libraries' tenets regarding preservation, as put forth in The Responsibility of Research Libraries for Preservation, May 22, 2002 (www.arl.org/preserv/presresources/responsibility_preservation~print.shtml) and Research Libraries’ Enduring Responsibility for Preservation, July 24, 2007 (www.arl.org/bm~doc/preservation_responsibility_24july07.pdf) ;

8. Employing established treatments (e.g., binding/rebinding, repair, rehousing, deacidification), in accordance with designated standards and guidelines for methods and materials, in order to maintain the original in a useable condition;

9. Relying on mature technologies, governed by widely accepted standards and guidelines, when reformatting to microfilm or paper facsimile;

10. Utilizing digitizing technologies to reduce handling of fragile originals and to increase online access to research materials;

11. Working with the broader preservation and technology communities toward the goal of developing the safeguards and standards necessary for acceptance of digital technologies as preservation media;

12. Assuming responsibility for preservation education of library staff and users on campus and throughout the state via various means, including preservation committees, consulting, workshops, exhibits, printed handouts and other graphic materials.