Charting the development of preservation from antiquity to the digital age

Drawing on historical texts, this all-encompassing, accessible volume provides a comprehensive understanding of preservation for librarians, archivists and museum specialists. By grounding key readings in context, Michèle V. Cloonan offers students and professionals an overview of longevity, reversibility, enduring value and authenticity of information preservation. In considering the history and context of preservation, she provides significant insight into conservation, historic preservation, moving images, and other cultural heritage institutions. 

The book aims to introduce students and professionals to readings that will help them in their studies and their professional practice. Curated by an advisory board from across the cultural heritage sectors, it offers a unique compilation of key texts from a range of international contributors, charting the development of preservation from its origins to modern day practice.

The text is divided into eleven themes designed to provide specific readings in context with this broad subject:

• Early perspectives on preservation
• Perspectives on cultural heritage
• Preservation in context: libraries, archives, museums, and the built environment
• Collections: development and management
• Risks to cultural heritage: time, nature, and humans
• Conservation
• Frameworks for digital preservation
• Preservation policy
• Ethics and values
• Multicultural perspectives
• Sustainability.

Each section has historical works that form the basis of contemporary thinking and practices, readings from a variety of fields that are primarily concerned with the preservation of cultural heritage, and hard-to-find publications that shed new light on how to approach contemporary problems. Cloonan's selections and her insightful commentary on each comprise a truly global view of preservation. 

This rich book acts both as a reader for heritage professionals, a textbook for students and researchers in archives, museums and libraries courses around the world and as a reference work for professionals and scholars.

Preserving our Heritage: Perspectives from antiquity to the digital age is published by Facet Publishing and is available from Bookpoint Ltd | Tel: +44 (0)1235 827702 | Fax: +44 (0)1235 827703 | Email: facet@bookpoint.co.uk | Web: www.facetpublishing.co.uk. | Mailing Address: Mail Order Dept, 39 Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4TD. They are available in North America from the American Library Association.