Sunday, April 24 kicks off the sixth annual Preservation Week®, a national awareness campaign developed by the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS). Established in 2010, Preservation Week promotes the importance and understanding of protecting and caring for personal and community cultural heritage collections, including books, documents, photographs, textiles, artwork, furniture and any other collectible items.
“Preservation Week is a signature event for ALCTS, and we are delighted to be part of it again this year,” said ALCTS President Norm Medeiros. “Be it valuable museum pieces or irreplaceable family photographs, the act of preservation is too crucial to defer, and Preservation Week serves as an annual reminder of this important message.”
Since its inception, Preservation Week has assisted libraries in providing their communities with a variety of resources and event ideas for furthering the public’s awareness and practice of preservation. Libraries are the perfect place to share preservation information, and every year libraries, archives and museums across the U.S. and around the globe celebrate Preservation Week with a range of unique events and activities. In previous years, libraries and other participating organizations have celebrated the week with events such as
- preservation outreach via social networking;
- screenings of restored films;
- providing advice on how to care for military collectibles;
- presentations on how to create family archives; and
- introducing youths to archiving on the Web.
Learn from Preservation Week webinars
In addition, Preservation Week® is full of free webinars that libraries can share with their communities. This year, two hour-long webinars will take place on April 26 and 28, both beginning at 1 p.m. CDT. Although these webinars are free of charge, you must sign up in order to gain access.
April 26: From Cassette to Cloud: Reformatting Audiotape
Join Krista White, digital humanities librarian at the John Cotton Dana Library at Rutgers University-Newark, for this webinar aimed at individuals caring for audio collections, local historical societies and other cultural heritage groups, and those interested in audio conservation. Through this webinar, communities will learn what it takes to digitize audio recordings and how they can make them accessible to family, friends and the general public.
April 28: Preserving Your Digital Life
The ability to easily create audio and video recordings leads to deep and rich documentation of events that may be personally important but may also have regional or national significance. Preserving these narratives for our families and for future generations means considering how we create the files and how we store them. Presenter Krista White explores best practices for ensuring that these valuable files are preserved for years to come.
Ask "Dear Donia"
Another excellent way to engage with your community during Preservation Week is to encourage individuals to submit their preservation questions to “Dear Donia,” the Preservation Week advice column that focuses on educating the public about protecting and preserving their photographs, letters, books, heirlooms and other significant keepsakes. Not only is Donia a preservation guru, she is an independent conservation consultant who has worked with a range of cultural heritage institutions. What’s more, every question submitted to Donia is entered in a monthly raffle for a free Document Preservation Kit from Hollinger Metal Edge.
Additional resources
For additional ways to mark Preservation Week, please view the online Event Map for events, Event Planner for planning tips and ideas, Event Tools for Preservation Week schwag to give out during your events and Preservation Resources to help you respond to difficult preservation questions.
Remember to follow Preservation Week on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news and information.
Established in 2010, Preservation Week is supported by the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS). ALCTS is a division of the American Library Association.
