Putting It Into Practice

Assessing Collections

Conducting a Survey

As noted elsewhere, you may choose to conduct a preservation survey of your institution as you work through this course. Completing such a survey and summarizing your findings in detail will require a significant commitment of time, so alternatively, you may choose to work through this course as a learning exercise and to conduct a complete preservation survey as a separate project.

An outside consultant, who usually makes a one-day site visit and writes a summary report of his or her findings, or in-house staff can conduct a survey. If you choose to engage an outside consultant, several regional conservation and preservation centers, as well as many individual conservators, can provide this service. Various regional and national grant programs provide funding for such projects.

(See the Regional Alliance for Preservation for information on regional centers, and the American Institute for Conservation of Artistic and Historic Works for information on locating a conservator. See Session 8: Building a Preservation Program for information on grant funding.)

Using an Outside Consultant

Keep in mind your goals for the survey when deciding whether to engage an outside consultant. A consultant can provide an objective viewpoint and is often seen by the administration as having special credibility, thus making it more likely that his or her recommendations will be acted upon. In addition, grant programs often require a general preservation planning survey before an institution can apply for grants for activities such as reformatting, rehousing, or conservation treatment. If the institution is looking to apply for grants, an "outside" survey can be performed more quickly than an in-house survey, and the resulting recommendations may carry more weight with granting agencies.

Conducting an In-House Survey

Staff members, however, bring important knowledge of the institution's values, conditions, and functions to the survey process. As long as the surveyor can suspend assumptions about an institution's capabilities and can look open-mindedly at issues that may have been ignored for years, an in-house survey can be very effective. Such a survey will require more staff time, but it can be very detailed and involve the whole staff actively.

If a survey is undertaken in-house, it is important to divide the project into manageable pieces. If the repository is very small, one staff member may have to undertake the entire survey. Putting together a brief written report after each section is completed may be helpful. If there are several staff members, it may be most helpful to put together a committee and assign each member a section of the survey. Each member would then report findings back to the committee, and the committee would draft a final summary report with suggestions for preservation priorities.