Preserving our heritage: perspectives from antiquity to the digitial age

Abstract

Drawing on historical texts, this all-encompassing, accessible volume provides a comprehensive understanding of preservation for librarians, archivists, and museum specialists. By grounding key readings in context, Michele V. Cloonan offers students and professionals an overview of longevity, reversibility, enduring value, and authenticity of information preservation. In considering the history and context of preservation, she provides significant insight into conservation, historic preservation, moving images, and other cultural heritage institutions. The text is divided into eight themes designed to provide specific readings in context with this broad subject: * History and context * Collections * Risks to cultural heritage * Conservation * Frameworks for digital preservation * Preservation policy * Ethics and values * Multicultural issues * Sustainability. Each section includes historical works that form the basis of contemporary thinking and practices, readings from a variety of fields that are primarily concerned with the preservation of cultural heritage, and hard-to-find publications that shed new light on how to approach contemporary problems. The author's selections and insightful commentary on each comprise a truly global and current view of preservation. Readership: Students and researchers in archives, museums and libraries courses around the world.

Contents

1. Early perspectives on preservation -- 2. Perspectives on cultural heritage -- 3. Preservation in context: libraries, archives, museums, and the built environment -- 4. Collections: development and management -- 5. Risks to cultural heritage: time, nature, and people -- 6. Conservation -- 7. Framework for digital preservation -- 8. Preservation policy -- 9. Ethics and values -- 10. Multicultural perspectives -- 11. Sustainability.