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[padg] Re: "Preservation" for music reference
Dear Alice,
I feel you have muddled the definition of Preservation and Conservation.
I think it is not surprising as over the 25 years of being a conservator
I have seen the two approaches intertwine, depending on whether the
person is a librarian or a conservator. I think the approach of both
disciplines is consistent whatever the material the institution has,
Library or Museum , they just have different emphases depending on use
and value and staff support. Here at Berkeley Conservators have taken on
the role of preservation liaisons as well as carrying out treatments.
I am commenting on only your first paragraph as in the second paragraph
you have taken an objects conservation approach. In the third the
overall preservation/conservation approach is very clear. I just came
back from a conference on Preserving our Visual and Audio Materials at
SF Moma and what the presenters said was the most driving force was the
obsolescence of the software and playback materials and migration was a
given for these materials. But there will always be some audio visual
materials that need to treated as rare and unique and
preserved/conserved as such. It seemed like the definitions of
preservation and conservation was similar to those in libraries and
would encompass these materials.
/Often the word conservation is used for one of these (physical object
or cultural content) since the distinction is important. Unfortunately,
different fields use the term in opposite ways, with libraries typically
using //conservation to refer to working with the physical object while
in museums the same term generally refers to work with the cultural
content./
The definition of Preservation in Libraries like museums is not to
separate the form and content but to have Preservation Departments that
oversee all parts of preservation: reformatting, microfilm, digitizing
and conservation. Preservation is also about larger political issues and
policies, the bigger picture, the environmental overview, with concerns
such as HVAC systems, exhibits conditions. Conservation is concerned
with the practicality of preserving the original and indeed in Libraries
this can mean reformatting e.g photocopying, digitizing, and preserving
the born digital by migrating. Conservation takes advantage of these
different methods to supplement or complement the physical conservation
of the item/items in hand. The needs have become very varied and often
require different conservation specialties, objects, paper and book,
photographic and paintings conservators. Libraries have become more like
museums since the computer era.
Hope this helps
Carli, Alice wrote:
Hello all,
I have been asked to provide a definition of “preservation” in 1,000
words or less, for the next edition of the New Grove Dictionary of
American Music. I’d appreciate comments on the first draft that I am
including below, as well as suggestions for further reading. Since the
NGA is musically oriented I am concentrating on the preservation of
musical objects and content, but I’d appreciate hearing from people
with other backgrounds. I’m a music librarian, and that definitely
informs my approach.
Thanks!
Alice Carli
The term /preservation/ encompasses the broad variety of actions taken
to prolong the useful life of an object. In the field of music, the
objects to be preserved include musical instruments and works of art
relating to music, manuscript and printed scores or books on paper,
and audio and video recordings of musical art in many formats, both
analog and digital. The preservation actions may be aimed at
prolonging the life of the cultural content (also called intellectual
content) of an object – the appearance of the score printed on the
paper, the sound of the music on a recording – or the physical object
itself, e.g. a Stradivarius violin, a composer’s manuscript, or a rare
issue of a recording. Often the word /conservation/ is used for one of
these (physical object or cultural content) since the distinction is
important. Unfortunately, different fields use the term in opposite
ways, with libraries typically using /conservation/ to refer to
working with the physical object while in museums the same term
generally refers to work with the cultural content. Generally,
however, /preservation/ is used as the broader term, that includes
both types of work.
The preservation approach to be taken with any particular object or
collection will depend both on the type of object and the type of
expected use. For the physical objects given as examples above, the
total cultural content includes aspects of the physical object that
cannot be taken in abstraction. Ten experts given access to the same
Stradivarius violin or Gershwin manuscript will find ten different and
important uses for it, and no copy will substitute for the original
for any of them. For this reason museum and rare books curators tend
to see preservation of the physical object as paramount. In this type
of preservation, a further distinction relates to the type of use the
object will receive. Enclosing the individual pages of the Gershwin
manuscript so that each can be examined closely without touching it
would be a very appropriate preservation strategy, but a similar
approach would not constitute effective preservation of the
Stradivarius, which cannot be used meaningfully without being handled.
This latter type of object, whose cultural value lies in keeping it in
active use, provides the greatest challenge for preservation, both
because of the possibility of accidental damage and because of the
potential for “restorative” care to cause unintended changes.
Responsible preservation of physical objects therefore tends to be
extremely conservative in approach.
The expected use of a score or book published in black ink on white
paper may be quite different. Whether it is a Henle edition of a
Beethoven quartet which exists in hundreds of copies, or one of two
archival copies of a dissertation, its use by ensembles in performance
or theorists for study will depend on a single aspect of the object –
the appearance of the printed music or text. Any preservation approach
that allows the text to be read easily may be appropriate, whether it
is keeping a bound copy deacidified in a library or digitizing the
text for electronic dissemination. Since digitization allows more
convenient use by a greater number of people, and because so much of
the material held by libraries is in the form of printed publications,
librarians tend to be much aware of the value of preserving the
cultural content of their materials. For cultural content that is not
in the public domain, preservation must also take copyright and
sometimes other types of licensing into account, particularly for
strategies that involve multiple copies. In some cases a single object
will support composite uses. A particular quartet ensemble may all
make pencil annotations in one copy of a published score for a
performance, which will distinguish that copy from all others. One
facet of responsible preservation is determining the importance of
preserving the traces of that particular performance.
The distinction between – and interaction among – physical
manifestation and cultural content is even more complex for sound
recordings and digital objects. On the one hand, the physical objects
may be more ephemeral than even acidic paper, leading to preservation
strategies that concentrate on high resolution duplication and
multiple copies to mitigate loss of quality over successive
generations of copying. On the other hand, the duplication methods
used may introduce alterations, whether through intentional editing or
unavoidable issues such as digital aliasing. Different playback
methods may produce different experienced results from the same
recorded object, and different storage formats, whether analog or
digital, will offer different types of compromise between fidelity,
economy, and ease of use. Finally, the rapid pace of technology
introduces potential not only for fantastic increases in accessibility
and fidelity, but also for the complete loss of cultural content when
a carrier format breaks down or becomes obsolete before the content is
reproduced.
An institutional preservation program will usually need to cover both
object and content preservation. Prolonging the life of objects
includes environmental controls, security from disaster, theft, and
abuse, and repair or appropriate replacement of objects damaged during
exhibition or use. Prolonging the life of cultural content includes
following best practices to balance a level of reproduction fidelity
that will satisfy the needs of users (recognizing that some future
needs may be difficult to anticipate) with the resources the
institution has to maintain and update the records over a long term,
and developing metadata and other publication structures to make the
content widely accessible to audiences that may go far beyond the
institution’s local patrons. Rights management must also be taken into
account for reproductions of content that is not in the public domain.
A well developed preservation program may represent a significant
investment of resources for a cultural institution, but considered as
a means of “retrospective collection development” – keeping
collections fresh and accessible to new audiences and new generations
– it can produce a high return.
--
Gillian Boal
Hans Rausing Conservator
Head of Conservation Treatment Division
Preservation Department
9 Doe Library
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720
510/643-7932
FAX 510/642-4664
email: gboal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx