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Managing Preservation for Libraries and Archives: Current Practice and Future Developments Edited by John Feather Ashgate Publishing Aldershot 2004 188 pp. ISBN 0754607054 US$79.95 (hard cover)
Keywords Conservation, Libraries, Archives management
Review DOI 10.1108/14684520410570625
John Feather, who is well known as a preservation management educator, has put together a volume that will be of value to anyone involved in managing the preservation of digital or analogue information resources. The authors of the various chapters in this book come from a variety of backgrounds, including preservation microfilming, systems librarianship, audiovisual archiving and preservation management.
After an introductory chapter by Feather about principles and policies for preservation management, there are three chapters that focus specifically on preservation management of digital information resources, an area that is evolving very rapidly. Colin Webb, the Director of Preservation Services at the National Library of Australia, leads off by providing an insightful overview of the nature of digital preservation with a focus on the major challenges involved - challenges that are technical (e.g. unstable technology and obsolescence, migration), organisational (e.g. assigning and understanding responsibility) and societal (e.g. awareness). Webb also provides some basic conclusions that must be heeded if we are...