Conservation and Care of Collection

Background

  • Preventive Care and Maintenance (PC&M) anticipates and effectively manages risk to LAC’s collection, leverages technology to manage and provide access to the collection, and plays a leadership role in developing and disseminating preservation knowledge, practices, and standards.
  • PC&M’s goal is to ensure a secure preservation environment for LAC’s collection while supporting safe access to it.
  • PC&M is also responsible for the LAC Collection Response and Recovery Program, the Integrated Pest Management Program, the Environmental Monitoring Program and the Preservation Treatment Program.

Considerations

  • Funding/resources. PC&M is a small section with a large mandate that does not have the resources to address preservation issues proactively. PC&M often must reduce the scope of preservation projects or projects that would benefit the collection.
  • Preservation backlog. PC&M works closely with the conservation section to manage/treat material in the preservation backlog. A key challenge is that material is added to the backlog faster than it can be treated and the majority of the section’s resources are currently allocated to treating material for access/loans and exhibitions. In fiscal year 2018-2019, 29 containers of material were treated and 962 were added to the backlog. PC&M is working to define and implement a strategy to address the backlog.
  • Knowledge of the collection. In 2017 PC&M completed a survey of the preservation storage conditions for all of LAC’s buildings in the National Capital Region and Renfrew. The data collected from this survey is being used to establish a collection monitoring strategy. By the end of August 2019, a survey of mould-contaminated material at Renfrew will be completed to support the Gatineau 2 collection move team.
  • Microfilm collection. PC&M is currently in the process of surveying LAC’s microfilm collection to develop a comprehensive inventory of the collection, identify the master and the service copies and develop a strategy to manage this collection more efficiently.

Key Public Messages

  • PC&M provides training, expertise and advice related to the preservation, access, treatment, handling and storage of LAC’s collection.
  • The Collection Response and Recovery Program is a key program aimed at protecting LAC’s collection by ensuring procedures are in place to mitigate against an emergency or a disaster and to facilitate the safety and recovery of the LAC collections in the event of a disaster.
  • PC&M will continue with the implementation of the Preservation Treatment Program.

SME:

Michael Smith, Manager, Preventive Care and Maintenance Section
Roxane Lafrenière, A/Director, Care of Collection Division
Email: michael.smith3@canada.ca
roxane.lafreniere@canada.ca
Tel: 613-790-2415, 613-818-4381

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