Putting It Into Practice

Managing Conservation Treatment

Managing conservation treatment of paper-based collections involves:

• identifying collections in need of treatment;
• setting priorities for treatment among those collections;
• choosing a conservator;
• analyzing use and preservation needs, and choosing the appropriate preservation strategy;
• finding funding for the project(s);
• interacting with the conservator or technician during the treatment process; and
• integrating the treated item back into the collection after the project.

For most small institutions, in-house repair and library binding should be used only minimally for historical collections, and professional conservation treatment should be reserved for those materials of greatest value to the institution. For medium to large institutions, a collections conservation program, a library binding program, and/or individual special collections treatment projects may be appropriate.

See Session 8: Building a Preservation Program for information on setting overall institutional preservation priorities.