Preservation and Conservation Section

The IFLA Preservation and Conservation Section is pleased to provide a platform to preservation and conservation professionals from all over the world at the World Library and Information Congress (WLIC).

For the two-hour long Section’s Open program, we invite proposals for papers on the topic: “Keeping collections alive: Preventive conservation policy and practice”.

Collections held by libraries continue growing, both in volume and range, as traditional holdings of books, documents and photographs are supplemented by audio and video recordings, microforms and digital records. As part of collections management, preventive conservation aims to retard deterioration and thus extend the life of documents to ensure their continued availability and accessibility. The basis for comprehensive care of any collection is a thoughtful policy that encompasses preventive conservation and interventive conservation.

Focus of the Session

The focus of this session is on preventive conservation or how to avoid small and great disasters to collections especially by:

• Conservation Management: e.g. policies, assessments, prioritization systems, allocation of resources, emergency planning, response and recovery
• Environmental Control: e.g. temperature and humidity controls, integrated pest management
• Collections Maintenance: e.g. handling, rehousing, transport, exhibition, loan, and access policies
• Reformatting and Surrogacy: e.g. digitization, microfilming, photocopying

We invite paper proposals dealing with any type of collection, including but not limited to collections of manuscripts and rare books. We intend for papers to show that preventive conservation is a pervasive function and represents an integral part of all library activities from acquisition through to access. The emphasis should be on issues of management and methodology, e.g., policies regarding preventive conservation, or cross-institutional cooperation in emergency planning. Proposals dealing with only one of the areas of preventive conservation or with more than one will receive equal consideration. 

Submission Guidelines

Paper proposals should be framed within the theme of the WLIC Lyon 2014 “Libraries, Citizens, Societies: Confluence for knowledge”.

Submission of abstract:

The abstract must contain:

• Title of paper
• Summary of paper (about 350 words)
• Speaker’s name, institutional affiliation, address, telephone

Submission of paper:

Confirmed presenters will be asked to submit a formal paper (for inclusion on the IFLA conference website) no later than May 15, 2014. Papers can be submitted in one of the official IFLA working languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Russian, Spanish. Papers should be no longer than 15 pages, with a one-page abstract in English.

All submissions should be sent as a MS Word doc by 15 February 2014 via Email to:

Danielle Mincio, Preservation and Conservation Section Chair
E-mail: danielle.mincio@bcu.unil.ch

Irmhild Schäfer, Preservation and Conservation Section Program Chair
E-mail: irmhild.schaefer@bsb-muenchen.de

Philippe Vallas, Preservation and Conservation Section Program Co-Chair
E-mail: philippe.vallas@bnf.fr

Presentation at the Conference:

Each paper is allotted a 20 minutes time slot. Please note that while every effort will be made to provide simultaneous interpretation into other IFLA languages, we cannot guarantee that interpretation will be available. Presenters are therefore asked to use a PowerPoint in English to facilitate understanding of the presentation. The PowerPoint file of the presentation needs to be submitted to both Program Chairs by 1 July 2014.

Please note that in accordance with IFLA’s Open Access Statement, all papers that are presented at the WLIC 2014 will be made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.

We regret to inform you that the IFLA sections have no funds for financial assistance to prospective authors: abstracts should only be submitted with the understanding that the expenses of attending the conference (including travel expenses, conference registration fee, and accommodation) will be the sole responsibility of the presenter(s) of accepted papers.

Important Deadlines