Preservation planning

We are preparing to develop a written preservation policy and plan
for our institution--a state archives housing public records from
1671 to the present.  We "govern" the complete life cycle of records
under a Public Records Act, scheduling "all" public records for
final disposition.  Our department includes records management, the
records storage center, a microfilming operation, a microfilm
processing and quality control lab, the storage vault for permanent
and long term storage of master negatives, and the archival
repository, which provides reference to accessioned archival
records.  We have in our collection records on a wide variety of
media: parchment, all types of paper, film, magnetic, and optical
disc (even a tree stump).

If your institution has developed a written preservation plan for
its archival collections, would you please respond.  I'd like to get
a copy of your plan--or at least correspond with you regarding the
concerns you addressed in your document.  Anyone with work in
progress is also invited to contact me privately.

Patricia Morris
Head, Collections Management
South Carolina Department of Archives and History


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 14:42
                 Distributed: Monday, February 5, 2001
                       Message Id: cdl-14-42-012
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