Service Description 

Preservation Services staff offer several types of evaluations of special collections, audiovisual materials, and digital file formats to help repositories understand the current state of and risks to these unique and/or vulnerable collections, and to make informed recommendations for actions to mitigate those risks.  

Surveys

Formal studies to gather a range of information about collections or items 

• For physical collections, especially small to medium-size collections 
• Assesses the stability of individual items and prioritizes treatment or housing activities 
• May include condition of individual items on a custom form or spreadsheet 
• Produces a formal report 

Assessments

Quicker and/or less formal than surveys; targeted to answer specific questions 

Digital File Format Assessment 

• Assesses digital file formats not yet in the digital preservation repository (the DRS) prior to accepting such files for long-term preservation in the DRS
•  Guidelines for the formats preferred and accepted in the DRS 
• See the Digital Preservation wiki for more information on format assessment.   

Environmental Assessment 

• For buildings, storage, and exhibition spaces 
• Summarizes general building conditions, identifies building conditions that might shorten the life expectancy of collections, and recommends actions to correct those situations 
• First step for building systems/HVAC renovation and emergency planning  

Preservation Assessment 

• For physical collections 
• Similar to environmental assessment but focuses more specifically on preventing and mitigating risks to collections
• Identifies the different formats in a collection and their storage, handling, cataloging, and treatment needs
• A good first step in developing preservation priorities for collections

Collection Assessment 

• For physical collections 
• Flags items for treatment or custom housing, but does not provide condition notes for each item
• Available for (but not limited to): 
  • planning for digitization projects 
  • mold or unknown/suspicious condition 
  • contaminated collections 
  • nitrate film identification
  • potential or recent acquisitions 

Request information and/or service  

Preservation Services units provide survey and assessment services for the following types of materials: 

• Mixed physical collections and buildings/spaces: Preservation Services
• Audiovisual collections: Media Preservation 
• Digital collections: Digital Preservation 
• General and circulating collections: Collections Care 
• Special collections: Weissman Preservation Center