Criteria for selection for preservation

For future generations we want to preserve the important literary
collections in libraries, archives etc. in the Netherlands. Since the
amount of budget available for preservation is not sufficient to
preserve all collections, we try to develop a model through which we can
establish priorities which collections to preserve. There is hardly a
reliable way of predicting what will be of interest in the future. This
problem a.o. raises the following questions:

    Which criteria could underlie the selection of literary collections
    for preservation?

    Which considerations are valid to establish priorities to preserve
    literary collections of books and manuscripts? Can we say e.g.

        books produced in the period between 1850 and 1890 should be
        treated first, because the paper produced in this period is in
        the worst condition (according to recent studies)? (technical
        aspects)

        only books belonging to core of the literary works should be
        preserved? (considering contents)

        treat only the biggest literary collections whatever they
        consist of?  (practical grounds)

What is your opinion about this topic? Do you have experience with
selecting (literary) collections of books and manuscripts (from many
libraries) for preservation? Do you have suggestions for further reading
on this subject?

We appreciate your cooperation!

Hilde Ongering
Royal Library, PO Box 90407
2509 LK The Hague, The Netherlands

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 6:40
                 Distributed: Friday, January 29, 1993
                        Message Id: cdl-6-40-008
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