IFLA Core Activity for Preservation and Conservation (PAC)

• IPN (International Preservation News) = PAC Newsletter
• IPN 26 published in December 2001 was distributed in January 2002. Print run 3000 copies
• IPN 27 - August 2002. Print run 3000 copies
• IPN 28 – December 2002. Print run 3000 copies

Due to the absence of a programme officer during four months, PAC could only publish 2 issues of IPN in 2002.

• IPI (International Preservation Issues)

N° 4 - A Blue Shield for the protection of our endangered cultural heritage. Proceedings of PAC Open Session at the General IFLA Conference in Glasgow. The five presentations were translated by Corine Koch and will be published in a bilingual version in 2003.

• Symposium – Paris – 21-24 August 2000

Proceedings of the symposium on Managing the preservation of periodicals and newspapers (Paris, 21-24 August 2002) were edited by Jennifer Budd, an intern hosted by PAC and were published by Saur as IFLA Publication 103.

• CD ROM

The CD-ROM "Safeguarding our Documentary Heritage" (originally in English and French) was produced in an English, French and Spanish version by the University of Colima thanks to UNESCO support.

• Guidelines for digitisation projects for collections and holdings in the public domain particularly those held by libraries and archives. Produced by working group representing IFLA and ICA with the support of UNESCO (available on the IFLANET).

• Articles:
• French Blue Shield Committee in: ICOMOS – Heritage at risk – June 2002, by Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff
• The preservation of digitised collections: an overview of recent progress and persistent challenges world-wide, by Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff and Sara Gould in: UNESCO Web World News / Point of view – April 2002

• Translations
• The centre in Caracas regularly translates into Spanish summaries and articles to be published in IPN
• The centre in Moscow joins translations into Russian to IPN
• The centre in Paris, besides translating texts into French for IPN, makes numerous translations from English to French or vice-versa
• The CD ROM above quoted was translated into Spanish by the University of Colima
• IFLA Principles on the Care and handling of library material (IPI 1) was translated into Czech.

• Communications
  Papers by Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff
• Leipzig – LIBER - The Share of Preservation Issues when Planning a Library Building in: LIBER Quaterly 12, 2002, n°1
• Paris – ARSAG – Le Bouclier Bleu
• Paris – Seminar of Archivists – Presentation of IFLA PAC
• Graz – LIBER – The Blue Shield Initiative. Joining Efforts to Preserve our Cultural Heritage in Danger in: LIBER Quaterly 12, 2002, n°2/3
• Glasgow – IFLA Conference: Disaster Plans as a Priority: Development and Implementation
• Rio – ICOM CC – The Blue Shield Initiative
• Rio – ABINIA – La Organisación de la Red de IFLA PAC en América Latina y el Escudo Azul para la Protección de los Bienes Culturales en caso de Urgencia
• Riga (Latvia) – National Library of Latvia and UNESCO - IFLA Involvement in Digital Preservation

• Canberra: 1 100 copies
• Caracas: 600 copies
• Moscow: 400 copies
• Paris: 1 400 copies
• Tokyo : 1 000 copies
• Washington: 900 copies

Paris Focal Point received 1 617 mails and sent 780 answers.

• Preservation Requirements for exhibiting graphic and photographic materials / Prescriptions de conservation des documents graphiques et photographiques dans le cadre d’une exposition.
  The standard completed in January 2001 was published in June 2002: AFNOR Standard CG46-CN10Z40L
• Assessment methods to determine the state of preservation of archives and library materials / Méthode d’évaluation de l’état physique des fonds d’archives et de bibliothèques.
• A third working group on the terminology of the degradation of items is in process.

In 2002, Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff attended 7 meetings.

• Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff is member of the Committee chaired by John McIlwaine and including archivists and librarians which elaborated the Guidelines for digitisation. (see B1)
• Colin Webb (Canberra) was contracted by UNESCO to write guidelines on digital preservation. A draft Guidelines for the Preservation of Digital Heritage was largely circulated and discussed. Four meetings were respectively organised in Australia, Nicaragua, Ethiopia and Latvia to present the draft and collect comments. Amendments will be brought before publication.
• Guidelines for Digitisation Projects… (see B1)

Paris PAC Centre was much involved in the organisation of an international Preservation training course at the BnF in Paris – October 7-25, 2002. 14 participants from 11 countries (Algeria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Lebanon, Mali, Morocco, Mauritius, Mauritania, Senegal, and Tunisia) attended the course. Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff was responsible for 6 of sessions.

Advisory Boards
PAC director is a member of the following advisory boards or committees

• Social Sciences Research Centre, NY, USA: Standing Committee on Libraries and Archives in Cuba
  A meeting was held in Havana (Cuba) January 28-29, 2002
• Memory of the World Register Sub-Committee
  A contract is to be signed between IFLA and UNESCO. Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff represents IFLA in this sub-committee.
• CLIR
  Advisory Board for the Web-Based Tutorial on Preservation and Conservation Project
• International Council on Archives (ICA)
  Committee on preservation of Archives in Temperate Climates
  Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff attended a meeting in Smolenice (Slovakia) in June and proposed that guidelines be written on the preservation of documents during exhibitions. The work was divided between members of the committee. PAC will focus on contracts and agreements between parties.

Survey
The results of the survey initiated by PAC on the existing collections of newspapers in Africa and their state of preservation, following the symposium on Managing the Preservation of Periodicals and Newspapers were partly analysed in 2002 thanks to Else Delaunay, Section on Newspapers. On a mutual agreement the survey was passed on to the IFLA Section of Newspapers for achievement and follow up.

Cooperation

1. Blue Shield

ICBS (International Committee of the Blue Shield)

Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff attended three meetings (June 6, October and November 18)
PAC revised the text of the existing leaflet in order to make it more attractive, 3 000 copies were printed. The leaflet was largely distributed during IFLA Conference in Glasgow.
In Glasgow PAC also presented a poster on the Blue Shield. The poster was set up by Corine Koch.

National Blue Shield Committees

PAC Paris is much involved in the management of the French Blue Shield Committee. Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff attended 8 CFBB meetings
Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff is vice-president and member of several working groups: "communication", "disaster planning",…
Isabelle Fornoni, PAC secretary, has taken over CFBB secretariat in September 2002.

Promotion of the Blue Shield

• A press release was sent to major French newspapers and main journals
  Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff presented the Blue Shield at various meetings and conferences
• PAC Open Session in Glasgow was organised in co-operation with the Section on National Libraries under the title: A Blue Shield for the Protection of our Endangered Cultural Heritage. 5 speakers presented the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Heritage in the Event of Armed Conflict, the International Committee of the Blue Shield, case studies on the 1966 floods in Florence and the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff advocated disaster planning.
• PAC presented a resolution on the necessity for national libraries to implement a disaster plan. One resolution was adopted by IFLA council.

Floods in Central Europe

In the framework of the French Blue Shield, PAC took several initiatives which contributed in:

• sending an expert from the Centre de conservation du livre (Arles, France) to Prague
• raising funds for rescue operations.

PAC also managed to bring expertise to colleagues whose collections were flooded in Southern France.

2. UNESCO

• "Memory of the World"
  The co-operation with UNESCO on the Memory of the World Programme has been on-going in 2002. No major activity was conducted but steps towards tangible actions were taken (Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff is member of the MOW Register Sub-Committee which will convene twice in 2003 in order to advise the International Advisory Committee (IAC) on the nominations.
• Guidelines for digitisation projects for collections and holdings in the public domain, particularly those held by libraries and archives by John McIlwaine (see B1)
• Guidelines for the preservation of digital heritage by Colin Webb (see B3)

International Council on Archives

• JICPA
  This is also a field of activity that was not much covered in 2002. A meeting was planned in Gaborone (Botswana) in December 2002. Alain Godonou, Director of Ecole du Patrimoine africain (EPA, Benin) had been asked to make an evaluation of JICPA’s activities over the past years. A preservation workshop funded by UNESCO was to be organised at the same time, Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff being one of the trainers. The organising committee held a preliminary JICPA meeting in Glasgow. Finally for various reasons independent from PAC, the meeting was postponed and then cancelled.
• Committee on Preservation of Archives in Temperate Climates (see B5)

Funding

PAC financial situation has been improving, thanks to the support of CLIR and its president, Deanna Marcum. The allocation of 20 000 $ that was offered by CLIR will be spent over 3 years (2002-2004). The first part, 6 666 $, was used to published IPI 4 and to promote Blue Shield at the IFLA Glasgow Conference.

The BnF and IFLA Governing Board have finally decided to reconnect their agreement for three years. After much hesitation and worries, the situation of PAC seems to become more secure and stable.

Visits and Participation in Conferences and Meetings

Visits

The following persons visited PAC in Paris:

• Takao Murayama (Tokyo) – 25 March
• Suzanne Seidelein (FAIFE) - 24 April
• Pamela Najar-Simpson (National Library of New-Zealand) – 31 May
• Ould El Ghassem (Mauritania) – 18 June
• Chinese Delegation – 19 June
• Maria Antonietta Palma (Chile) – 15 October
• Ignace Kouakoua (Congo) – 11 December

Activity Reports from PAC Regional Centres

The reports by the four regional centres of Canberra, Caracas, Moscow and Tokyo are to be found in annex. Report from Washington has not arrived.

The activities of the PAC regional centre in Paris cannot easily be isolated from those of the Focal Point, although some of them –French Blue Shield, JICPA, international training course- are more specific of the regional centre’s concern.

All centres reported to have distributed IPN in their region. Because of financial problems, Caracas could not send IPN n°27 which will be sent with IPN n°28 in 2003.

The French translation of IFLA Principles for the Care and Handling of Library Material was distributed to French speaking colleagues.

The Japanese translation is in process. Caracas has translated a number of articles and summaries for IPN.

Among specific publications let us quote two leaflets by Tokyo on acid free paper and microfilm. The updating of the database on preservation institutions or conservators in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the revision of "Emergency Procedures in case of disaster in collection deposits" by Caracas.

Mark Roosa (Washington) updated the preservation package on the care, handling and storage of photographs first published in 1992.

The regional centres agreed to translate it in the main language spoken in their region by the end of 2003.

Training is for all centres an important activity and includes long term training courses and specific shorter courses, workshops or seminars. Topics range from preservation and conservation towards more specific topics like leather binding, handling of library materials, small repairs, bookbinding, audio visual, disaster prevention. Three centres deal with microfilming issues (Moscow, Caracas, and Canberra).

It is still an important concern: standards on permanent paper, glossary on paper preservation terms are being prepared by Caracas.

Canberra has obviously focused its activities on digital preservation, its field of excellence: draft of UNESCO Guidelines by Colin Webb, PADI site, co-operation with UK digital Preservation Coalition and with ERPANET, department of a new harvesting system for the PANDORA archive, etc…

Because of a number of inconveniences (lack of personnel and technical failures) Caracas was unable to complete the digitisation of the Latin American newspapers from the 19^th century.

Another important point was the reorganisation at the National Diet Library due to the opening of Kansai Kan. The Preservation office was closed and the preservation division became part of the acquisition department. Takao Murayama remains director of PAC.

As a whole the regional centres are much more active than it appears but some of them do not communicate enough about their numerous and valuable activities. Communicating is something that really needs to be regularly improved in the future.

Paris, February, 2003