RAP
REGIONAL
ALLIANCE for
PRESERVATION
The Regional Alliance for Preservation provides information and resources on preservation and conservation for cultural institutions and the public throughout the United States.
Library of Congress Preservation Directorate
As the oldest national cultural repository, the Library of Congress (LC) holds the nation’s largest staff of conservators and scientists. Centralized since 1968, the LC Preservation Directorate’s mission is to assure long-term, uninterrupted access to the national library collections in original or reformatted form by coordinating and overseeing all activities relating to the preservation and physical protection of LC collections. The Preservation Directorate accomplishes this through its programs for Binding and Collections Care, Conservation, Preservation Reformatting, Preservation Research and Testing, and Mass Deacidification. Over 100 expert LC preservation staff members further this mission by assessing and mitigating risks to LC collections, and managing major projects in support of exhibitions, scanning and microfilm reformatting, and moves to new storage areas, and research room use.
The Preservation Directorate has a strong outreach program and provides information about preservation to Congress; government agencies; the general public; and libraries and archives at all levels, both nationally and internationally. LC also provides programs that raise preservation awareness and increase the level of knowledge about preservation policies and practices, through fellowships and public programs such as its Topics in Preservation Series (TOPS) lectures.
The Library of Congress welcomes opportunities for collaborative emergency response networking, education and training, fundraising, outreach, publications, research, and standards development with other preservation-focused organizations on issues such as assessment, risk management, priority setting, exhibition and facility planning, reformatting procedures, stabilization and treatment procedures, and best care practices for special formats of materials. The Library also provides advice, guidance, publications, and training nationwide.
In addition, the Library of Congress provides services for Congress and the Library of Congress' 144 million item collections. These services include continuity of operations planning; binding; collections care; preservation; reformatting including Microfilming and Digitization; mass deacidification; integrated pest management; critical preservation product testing and quality control; collections storage and exhibit systems evaluation and testing; collections rehousing and stabilization for transport and moves; handling training; development of national and international preservation standards; research into preservation problems to develop unified strategies for their solution and the development of new storage spaces and standards for such spaces.
The Library does not provide these services to outside organizations. Much of the data on these services and how the Library offers them is available on the Library's website such as the Library's housing product specifications.
The Library regularly shares information on how we preserve the Library's collections through publications, through the Library's Website at http://www.loc.gov/preserv/; through the Topics in Preservation series (TOPS); through a variety of ongoing symposia; through several university graduate level courses offered at intervals; through regular workshops offered via FLICC and FEDLINK; through Webinars and online training; through the Library's preservation internship program; and through annual offer ings for such events as May Day, National Preservation Week, and Personal Archival Day. If you are interested in involving the Library of Congress in your event or in collaborating on a project such as a Webinar, please contact us.
Library of Congress Preservation Directorate (LOC PD)
101 Independence Avenue, S.E.
Washington, DC 20540-4530
Contact: Mary Oey, Preservation Education Specialist
Tel: 202-707-8345
Above: Library of Congress Senior Paper Conservator Cyntia Karnes positions remnants of a late eighteenth century nautical map from the Geography and Map Division's Atlantic Neptune Collection in preparation for filling the losses with paper pulp using a leafcas.