Conservation and preservation

The course focuses on the physical management of the information carriers, mainly their conservation and preservation. It briefly discusses the history, production technology, properties, decay mechanisms and the conservation and preservation strategies of paper, parchment, leather, inks, audio records, magnetic tapes, films, photographs and digital objects.

Course syllabus

1. Objects and materials: Books, archival material, film, magnetic and optical media. Paper, leather, parchment, inks, audio records, magnetic tapes, films, photographs, digital objects. Book binding.
   2. Causes and mechanisms of deterioration of paper, books and archival material. Chemical, mechanical and biological decay.
   3. Paper, book and archival material conservation methods. Conservation, restoration, preservation.
   4. Preservation in libraries and archives. Preservation planning. Risk assessment and management. Storage guidelines.
   5. Principles and best practices in digitization of books and archival material.

The students will be able to understand the preservation needs of an information organization, implement preservation strategies for the safekeeping and protection of its material and compile a preservation master-plan. They will also be able to manage -from the non-technical perspective- the conservation activities and integrate them to the preservation master-plan.