MISSION STATEMENT

The Preservation Department supports the University research mission to acquire, organize and deliver information by maintaining collection resources in useable condition. The Preservation department will respond promptly to any concerns with the physical care of collections.

OVERVIEW

The Conservation Department was established in 1984. The Preservation department was established in 1987, drawing together various preservation activities previously carried out in other departments. In the mid 90's Preservation and Conservation were merged into a single department as a part of a library wide reorganization. The current Preservation Department consists of three units; Conservation, Assessment/Reformatting and Binding/Marking all under the administrative head of the Preservation Librarian.

The Preservation Department is responsible for activities that relate to the care and handling of Library materials, both circulating and non-circulating. Services include commercial and in-house binding, repair, marking, attaching security tapes and in-house and vended reformatting. The Conservation unit provides specialized treatments. The Preservation department also provides services aimed at improving the storage condition of the collections including environmental monitoring, emergency planning and preparedness and staff and user education.  In 2003, the department assumed the responsibility of directing the activity of the statewide digital collections initiative and is an integral part of digital initiative planning and production.