Preserving our Heritage: Perspectives from Antiquity to the Digital Age

Winner of the Preservation Publication Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA)

Drawing on a multitude of historical texts, this sweeping yet accessible volume provides a broad understanding of preservation for librarians, archivists, and museum specialists, and related LIS and continuing education classes. Cloonan offers readers an overview of longevity, reversibility, enduring value, and authenticity of information preservation. Each section features historical works that form the basis of contemporary thinking and practices. Readings from a variety of fields primarily concerned with the preservation of cultural heritage, including many from hard-to-find publications, shed new light on how to approach contemporary problems. An ideal teaching text as well as a benchmark reference source for researchers, this book covers such key topics as

• Early perspectives on preservation, from 700 BC to the 19th century
• Cultural heritage and risks to cultural heritage, such as time and nature
• Preservation in the context of libraries, archives, museums, and the built environment
• Digitization, the preservation of time-based media, obsolescence, and other contemporary collection development and management issues
• Important frameworks for the discipline, such as policy, ethics and values, sustainability, multicultural perspectives, and more

Cloonan's selections and insightful commentary on each facet of preservation comprise a truly global and current view of the field.