Preservation and Conservation Section
IFLA Section on Conservation Changes Name
August, 1996, Beijing, China
(Old name: IFLA Section on Conservation
New name: Preservation and Conservation Section)
At the meeting of the Standing Committee on Conservation on
August 29, 1996 in Beijing, the name of the Section was discussed at length and a change of name was approved. A survey of the full membership of the Section was conducted during September and October of 1996. Of the 119 members of the Section, almost 50% responded, all positively. The new name of the Section would be
Section on Preservation and Conservation.
The change of name was recommended because of the ambiguity inherent in the words
conservation and preservation. It is generally accepted that in the English language, the word conservation refers to intervention techniques applied as treatment to the physical form of an item to extend its life.
Conservation is an aspect of
preservation which deals with all matters including preventive measures, storage and accommodation provisions, policies, reformatting, treatments, etc. which are involved in extending the physical life of an item or the information contained in it. Conservation is therefore the narrower of the two terms. The scope of the IFLA Section deals with all aspects of preservation, including conservation and is not limited to matters dealing with conservation alone.
These arguments would favour the use of
Section on Preservation. However, there remains confusion between the terms conservation and preservation in some English-speaking countries. More importantly, other languages, notably French, reverse the terminology such that
preservation translates to
la conservation and
conservation translates to
la preservation. For these reasons, the Section recommended that both terms be used in its name.
In addition, the close relationship that exists between the Section and the IFLA PAC Core Programme justifies the use of similar terminology in their names.
A formal proposal to change the name of the IFLA Section on Conservation was submitted in November 1996 to the IFLA Professional Board and at its meeting on December 9-10, the name change was approved to
Section on Preservation and Conservation.
