Needs assessment survey methods

Collection Survey Method for Assessing Preservation Needs in
Libraries and Archives
A Loughborough University Research Project

A national preservation policy cannot be determined without accurate
information about the  preservation needs of library and archive
collections. Individual libraries and archives cannot develop
preservation policies without similar information about their own
collections. A standard method of surveying collections will provide
reliable and comparable data on the nature and scale of national
preservation needs, and enable national and organisational
priorities to be established.

This research project has been initiated by the National
Preservation Office (NPO) in collaboration with the British Library
Research and Innovation Centre (BLRIC). The NPO's remit includes the
development of a national preservation policy, and the preservation
of library and archive materials is one of BLRIC's priority research
areas for 1997/98.

The Centre has awarded a grant of 51,136 Pounds to Graham Matthews,
Lecturer, and Paul Eden, Research Fellow, in the Department of
Information and Library Studies, Loughborough University, and Nancy
Bell, Senior Conservator, Oxford Conservation Consortium, to develop
a standard method. The project runs from May 1997 to August 1998.

The project will identify and evaluate recent and current survey
methods and packages for assessing preservation needs in individual
libraries and archives; conduct interviews with individuals and
organisations who have carried out collection surveys;  produce a
draft survey method to test in a variety of libraries and archives;
analyse the results of the trials and amend the methodology to
produce a final version of the survey method.

If you would like further information about this project please
contact Naomi Dungworth at the address below. We would also like to
hear from you if you have conducted, or are about to conduct a
survey to assess your organisation's preservation needs.

Naomi Dungworth
Research Assistant
Department of Information and Library Studies
Loughborough University
+44 1509 223074
Fax: +44 1509 223053

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 11:3
                   Distributed: Monday, June 23, 1997
                        Message Id: cdl-11-3-009
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