Archival Preservation Practice in a Nationwide Context

The preservation of historical materials, in a variety of forms and formats, is both a cultural necessity and a central responsibility for professional archivists. Archivists need to define for themselves just what archival preservation entails and assess the capacity of the thousands of archives, large and small, scattered and isolated from each other, to develop and administer sophisticated preservation programs. The author presents the results of the first nationwide study of archival preservation practices in the United States. He describes a model of archival preservation that partially shaped the research project, summarizes the research process involved, reports the major findings, and discusses the implications of the research for archivists and the archival profession. About the author: Paul Conway is currently undertaking a user study for the National Archives and Records Administration. During 1988 and 1989 he served as preservation program officer for the Society of American Archivists, where he carried out the research described in this article. Prior to joining the SAA staff, he was an archivist for ten years at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library in Ann Arbor. He has an M.A. in history from the University of Michigan and is completing a Ph. D. at Michigan's School of Information and Library Studies. The research was made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views ofNEH or the Society of American Archivists. Archival Preservation Practice 205 THE PRESERVATION OF HISTORICAL materials, in a variety of forms and formats, is both a cultural necessity and a central management responsibility for professional archivists. The findings and implications of a two-year research, evaluation, and planning project, the results of which are described in this article, make it clear now more than ever that archivists confront special challenges in preserving the unique archival materials in their custody. In responding to these challenges, archivists need to develop processes, within the context of a nationwide archival preservation strategy, that improve their capacity to undertake comprehensive preservation programs at the institutional, regional, state, and national levels. Meeting this need is as much an educational problem as a financial one. Until a decade ago, it appeared possible that archivists could fulfill their responsibilities to the historical record, and therefore to society, merely by collecting and housing materials in secure environments and permitting access to those who asked. Today more and more archivists recognize that preservation is a specific set of technical and administrative processes that affect every archival function. The development and implementation of comprehensive, integrated preservation activities in archives can be an expensive proposition. Environmentally benign storage space, for example, comes at a premium price; many treatment activities are labor intensive and often require specialized equipment and supplies and highly skilled personnel. And yet, in the past few years archivists have seen a dramatic increase in popular support and funding from government and private sources for preservation projects. The hypothetical ques'Mary Lynn Ritzenthaler, Archives and Manuscripts: Conservation (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1983), 47. The popular acclaim accorded the film Slow Fires: tion that confronts every person committed to the preservation of what Paul Banks calls our "movable culture" is: "If a windfall befell you, could you spend the money wisely?" Some preservation experts have believed for years that wisdom is learned, not bought. Pamela Darling, for instance, concludes that accurate information is crucial to successful administration, and that the real problem is the shortage, not of money, but of knowledge. "Financial constraints are serious and will become more so; but until the preservation field reaches the point at which most people know what ought to be done and how it should be done, the lack of money to do it on a scale appropriate to the need is not terribly significant." Archivists need to define for themselves just what archival preservation entails and assess the capacity of the thousands of archives, large and small, scattered and isolated from each other, to develop and administer sophisticated preservation programs. From this base of information, archivists will then be able to build a nationwide strategy for archival preservation that supports preservation programs instead of recommending how to pour money into flashy but limited projects. It is with these issues in mind that the Society of American Archivists, with the assistance of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), carried out the first nationwide study of archival preservation practices. This article will describe a model On the Preservation of the Human Record (Council on Library Resources, 1987), and the recent major increases in funding for the NEH Office of Preservation are but two examples of the renewed public commitment to preserving cultural resources. Paul Banks, unpublished keynote address to Latin American Archivists Conservation and Preservation Institute, Austin, Texas, 11 September 1989, 2. "Pamela W. Darling, "Creativity v. Despair: The Challenge of Preservation Administration," Library Trends 30 (Fall 1981): 185. 'National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators, Preservation Needs in State 206 American Archivist / Spring 1990 of archival preservation that partially shaped the research project, summarize the research process involved, report the major findings of a nationwide survey, and discuss the implications of the overall project for archivists and the archival profession. What Is Archival Preservation? One distinguishing characteristic of an evolving field of specialization, such as preservation, is disagreement on key definitions. Definition-setting sometimes seems like a trivial exercise. At certain times, however, program development and research both become dependent on clear statements of principles and priorities. In the past decade, archivists and librarians have been approaching such clarity. The following three-part working definition synthesizes an emerging consensus and serves as a structure for the research project. First and foremost, the essence of archival preservation is resource allocation. Archival preservation is the acquisition, organization, and distribution of resources (human, physical, monetary) to Archives (Albany, NY: NAGARA, 1985). This is a national study, prepared by Howard Lowell, concerning the nation's fifty state archives. '"Glossary of Selected Preservation Terms," ALCTS Newsletter 1 (1990): 14-15. The case for consensus is made in Pamela Darling and Sherelyn Ogden, "From Problems Perceived to Programs in Practice: The Preservation of Library Resources in the U.S.A., 1956-1980," Library Resources & Technical Services 25 (January/March 1981): 10. The best preservation bibliographies are published annually in Library Resources & Technical Services (LRTS). See Lisa Fox, "A Two Year Perspective on Library Preservation: An Annotated Bibliography," LRTS 30 (July/ September 1986): 290-318; Carla J. Montori, "Library Preservation in 1986: An Annotated Bibliography," LRTS 31 (October/December 1987): 365-85; Carla J. Montori and Karl Eric Longstreth, "The Preservation of Library Materials, 1987: A Review of the Literature," LRTS 32 (July 1988): 235-47; and Karl E. Longstreth, "The Preservation of Library Materials in 1988: A Review of the Literature," LRTS 33 (July 1989): 217-26. Archival Preservation: A Proposed Definition Archival preservation is the acquisition, organization, an i distribution of resources (human, physical, monetary) to ensure adequate protection of hist< rical inl irmatioi . • . ii g \ ue for access by present and future generations. Archival preservation encompasses planning and implementing policies, procedues, and j ocesses that '.^gether prevent furt ser detcrioratic n or renew the usability of selected groups of materials. Archival preservation management, when most effective, requires that pi •. •>ning precede implementation, and that prevent! >n activities have priority over renewal activities. ensure adequate protection of historical information of enduring value for access by present and future generations. Underlying this first part of the definition are a number of assumptions. First, as its ultimate goal, preservation is for use and not simply for its own sake. Second, preservation largely concerns information and knowledge, in a variety of forms and formats, that has been identified as having longterm values, including historical, legal, evidential, informational, and monetary. Archivists have the primary responsibility for identifying these values. Third, the word "adequate" in the definition implies that there is no ultimate or perfect solution to the preservation challenge and that there are many ways to approach solutions— probably as many ways as there are archivists. Finally, the definition assumes that responsibility for preservation ultimately rests with every person charged with caring for historical materials and pervades every function of a repository. Collection or reArchival Preservation Practice 207 pository level strategies take precedence over activities directed toward individual items. Although these assumptions are echoed by nearly every author who has written on managing preservation programs, a second level of definition is needed that organizes the wide variety of specific preservation activities into a conceptual structure. Archival preservation encompasses planning and implementing policies, procedures, and processes that together prevent further deterioration or renew the usability of selected groups of materials. The statement suggests a possible way to identify and organize in two dimensions activities relating to the care and handling of archival materials. The first dimension distinguishes between the two basic aspects of the management function: planning and implementation. The second dimension reflects the distinction between activities that prevent or significantly retard deterioration and those that address damage that has already occurred. Less than a decade ago, archivists used the term conservation to describe all activities on archival materials, whether preventive or corrective. Today the term preservation is widely considered by conservators, preservation librarians, and archivists to be an umbrella under which conservation treatments on items or groups of materials are included. Prevention involves identifying probSome of the most persuasive arguments on these points are contained in Pamela W. Darling, "Planning for the Future," in The Library Preservation Program: Models, Priorities, Possibilities, ed. Jan Merrill-Oldham and Merrily Smith (Chicago: American Library Association, 1985), 103-110; Ritzenthaler, Archives & Manuscripts: Conservation; Robert H. Patterson, "Conservation: What We Should Do Until the Conservator and the Twenty-First Century Arrive," in Conserving and Preserving Library Materials, ed. Kathryn Luther Henderson and William T. Henderson (Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois, 1983), 12. "Paul H. McCarthy, "The Management of Archives: A Research Agenda," American Archivist 51 (Winter/Spring 1988): 52-69. lems in the acquisition, storage, and handling of materials; establishing repositorywide policies and procedures that take a systems approach covering the entire lifecycle of materials; and taking specific actions to retard deterioration or damage to the entire collection. There are four major planning activities in prevention. • Survey the building and microenvironments for variation from standards on temperature, relative humidity, light, dust, gases, and pests • Prepare contingency plans for use in case of fire, flood, storms, and other natural or man-made disasters • Establish policies on use of holdings by patrons and staff and on the public display of holdings • Conduct surveys assessing the scope and nature of deterioration within collections The model contains four corresponding implementation activities. • Install equipment to monitor and stabilize environmental conditions • Maintain the physical facilities routinely • Enforce security procedures for staff, patrons and others • Implement routine holdings maintenance actions, including rehousing, and removing or replacing damaged or deteriorated items Renewal involves policies, procedures, and processes that improve or otherwise enhance the usability of groups of archival materials. There are two principal planning activities in the renewal area. The specific activities noted in figure 1 are adapted from "Standard Terminology for USMARC 583," recently developed by ALA's Preservation of Library Materials Section, with cooperation from the Library of Congress. Mary Lynn Ritzenthaler, Preservation of Archival Records: Holdings Maintenance at the National Archives, Technical Information Paper Number 6 (Washington, DC: NARA, 1990). 208 American Archivist / Spring 1990 • Develop a set of strategies to evaluate and select materials for physical and chemical treatments, for reformatting, and for replacement, as appropriate • Establish or review specific recovery procedures to be followed in the case of disaster The model contains four corresponding implementation activities. • Treat batches of materials physically or chemically, including washing, deacidifying, drying or humidifying, resizing, dry-cleaning, restoring, repairing, and rebinding • Reformat materials on microfilm, fiche, paper, optical, or magnetic media • Replace original items with duplicates, microform, or paper • Respond to emergencies and disasters in a timely fashion Figure 1 displays archival preservation activities graphically. Several observations are important here. First, the structure is not media-specific but includes prevention and renewal activities appropriate for all types and formats of materials found in an archives (indeed, even in the same box), including loose and bound paper-based materials, film, and magnetic and optical media. Second, in reality archival preservation is neither as static nor as two-dimensional as presented above. There should always be an ongoing interaction between planning and implementation that involves monitoring progress and making adjustments as necessary. Third, activities such as staff and user education, outreach and community liaison, and fund raising certainly have major impacts on the preservation of archival materials; and they should be considered in developing a preservation program. The management of archival preservation in any institutional setting is largely incremental and involves making choices