I No Risk
2.11 PRESERVATION PLANNING
• Copying of records: when considering various methods of preventive p~servation, archival institutions should be prepared, where feasible, to copy archival materials onto alternative and more physically manageable mediums.
• Public displays and exhibitions: while seeking to encourage public awareness of archives archival institutions should also be aware of all risks to the physical safety of
.
, records associated with placing them on open display. Wherever records are publicly exhibited, the office must ensure that proper preservation standards are observed throughout the periods of public showing.• Conservation and repair of records: whenever necessary, archival institutions must submit any record(s) that are suffering or are at risk from serious physical damage or deterioration to remedial chemical and physical treatments.
• Disaster management: if archival institutions are to safeguard their records adequately, they must have effective procedures in place to prevent, or enable them to react swiftly to, sudden, unexpected events which could have destructive consequences for all or part of their holdings. Such procedures should be integrated into a fully functional disaster plan.
• Housekeeping.
• Ethics: preservation must respect and maintain the integrity of original material.
• Access.
Essentially, policies are planning documents. They compel staff to think through the archive preservation goals as well as identifYing the short and long-term needs of the programme.
Policies provide information to assist in allocating resources. The success of preservation po licies depends upon how they are taken at the highest level, and upon managers and staff having a clear awareness of the preservation goals. Staff should be aware of the existence of the policy as well as their own preservation responsibilities. Preservation plans can then be formulated on the basis of policies.
archives' preservation programme helps to ensure the systematic maintenance of, and access to the archival information resources. Preservation planning has been defined as a process of setting present and future preservation agendas. It identifies resources that are required for the preservation of records and archives as well as setting priorities to address holding maintenance (Jones & Ritzenthaler 1988:201; Ogden 1999). In other words, planning is a systematic balancing of the aims and resources of an organisation.
The result of planning process is a plan in the shape of a system of binding organizational measures, procedures and stipulations that lead to the achievement of the set aim. A preservation plan helps to ensure that limited resources are used consistently and economically. It also helps to raise awareness of the archives' preservation problems as well as the institutionalisation of the preservation process and increasing knowledge among staff of issues in preservation (Reed-Scott 2000:84).
According to Ogden (1996b), the objectives of a preservation plan are to:
• delineate an institution's preservation needs and chart a course of action to meet these needs for its collections;
• provide the framework for carrying out established goals and priorities in a logical, efficient, and effective manner;
• maintain continuity and consistency in a preservation programme over time;
• validate the role and importance of preservation, helping to make preservation an equal partner with acquisitions and interpretation;
• aid in securing necessary resources to assist with implementation of recommendations;
and
• to record the past and current preservation activities and shape the future efforts of an institution.
Designing a preservation plan is a management activity. It does not require technical expertise in paper chemistry or hands-on conservation skills (Child 1999a). Preservation as an aspect of collection management is much like any other management decision-making process involving allocation of available resources to activities and functions important to achieving the objectives of an organisation.
According to Child (1999a) and Ogden (1996b) the basis offonnulating the preservation plan is the organisation's mission statement and a needs assessment survey. On the other hand, Garlick (1990:258) and Reed-Scott (2000:84) identified three major phases in preservation planning. The first phase comprises preservation needs assessment, whereby background infonnation is gathered. The second phase is concerned with policy and procedure fonnulation. This phase provides tools for organising and evaluating the plan. The third phase identifies and implement holdings maintenance projects.
The needs assessment survey analyses the policies, practices, and environments that affect the preservation of the collections. It reviews the general state of the documents. It pinpoints specific preservation needs, proposes actions to meet those needs, and prioritises the recommended actions.
In other words, a survey identifies hazards to the records and archives, taking into consideration such factors as environment, storage, security and access, housekeeping, conservation treatment and policies and practices. Environmental factors to be considered are light, relative humidity, temperature and gaseous pollutants (Child 1999a; Ward 2000:51). In tenns of security of the holdings, fire detection and suppression systems should also be assessed. In the same vein security systems, both mechanical and procedural, and disaster planning should be evaluated. The survey should examine staff and user training in the care and handling of documents. In addition storage equipment must be evaluated.
The product of the planning process is the fonnulation of a written preservation plan (Jones &
Ritzenthaler 1988:201; Ogden 1999; Ward 2000:52). According to Hazen (1990:348) and Ward (2000:52), the plan should explicitly address the following elements:
• goals of the preservation programme;
• activities necessary to reach the goals;
• designated responsibility for each activity;
• resources required to carry out each activity; and
• a schedule for beginning and completing each activity.
It is mandatory that preservation plans reflect local needs and resources (Garlick 1990:259).
Furthennore, plans should serve as working tools for achieving agreed-upon priorities over a
set period of time. Planning should involve as many members of staff as possible so that they would assume ownership of the preservation programme. Acceptance of the plan by staff its an important factor that could determine the difference between the success and failure of the preservation programme.
The plan should include both short- and long-term goals. For example, the long-range goal for Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Ulundi provincial archives may be to plan and build a custom made building that meets local preservation standards since at the moment they do not have such buildings. On the other hand, short-term goals may be to either create and maintain an environment that retards the deterioration of records and archives and provides for recovery in the event of a disaster or revise staff training procedures in order to improve appreciation of preservation needs of the institution.
Once the preservation plans have been formulated financial resources are needed to translate them into action plans. The financial budget can be based on the objective and task method model, that is, it should be based on defined objectives, tasks to be performed and estimates of performing the tasks (Kotler & Andreasen 1991 :367). According to Ritzenthaler (1993:14) little data is available on exactly how much institutions with coordinated preservation programmes actually spend.
Child (1999a) pointed out that preservation planning does not always lead to additional budget lines or substantially increasing existing ones. For example, activities such as training staff and users in care and handling of materials, carrying out systematic holdings and stack maintenance, adhering to preservation criteria when buying storage furniture and supplies, and incorporating preservation considerations into all policies and procedures can often be accomplished with existing personnel and budget allocations.
Project planning tools such as the program evaluation and review technique (PERT) and critical path method (CPM) can be used for planning and scheduling the preservation plan (Burke 1993 :2). These techniques can provide a framework for defining the activities to be done, integrate them in a logical time sequence and finally afford a system of dynamic control over the process of the plan. These models ensure that all the needed tasks are due in time and
done on time. Some of the planning activities that an archival institution can undertake in order to preserve its documentary materials are outlined at Appendix Fifteen.
Planning is not a panacea for all preservation problems. Indeed, Darling (1981b:182) noted,
"[p ]lanning is not the solution to the preservation problem, but it is an essential tool for drafting responses to the preservation challenge". Planning for preservation will help archivists to preserve their archival holdings for current and future use.
The formulation and implementation of preservation policies and plans, and the enforcement of preservation principles in archival institutions is going to be possible if the archive staff is armed with the approp~iate and preferably the most up-to-date knowledge on preservation issues (Albrecht-Kunszeri & Kastaly 2000:10). The next section looks at preservation training and education issues with special reference to Africa. Archival training in South Africa is dealt with in Chapter Three.