About the Preservation Directorate
The Library of Congress offers users a universal collection of ever-increasing diversity and scope. The Preservation Directorate sustains and ensures long-term access to these unmatched collections by evaluating, managing, and responding to the risks and challenges associated with the wide variety of materials in the Library’s care.
Organization of the Preservation Directorate
The work of the Preservation Directorate is carried out by four divisions (see also the Preservation Directorate Organization Chart)
Collections Management
The Collections Management Division is responsible for inventory control, collections security, and space management for tens of millions of collection items across three Capitol Hill buildings and the Library’s off-site facilities, including the environmentally optimized preservation repository in Fort Meade, MD.
More about Collections Management
Conservation
The Conservation Division is responsible for the conservation of the Library's paper-based special collections and undertakes activities including: conservation assessment, treatment, research, and housing; storage materials procurement and testing; environmental monitoring and analysis; exhibition, loan, and digitization evaluation and preparation; collections emergency management and response.
Preservation Services
The Preservation Services Division is responsible for aftermarket binding services for the LC-classified collection, preservation of information in at-risk materials (e.g., brittle newspapers) by copying to alternative, normally digital, format, and support of the overall preservation program through contract management and information systems.
More about Preservation Services
More about Binding and Collections Care
Preservation Research and Testing
The Preservation Research and Testing Division is responsible for scientific undertakings to support and advance the Library’s preservation program, including materials research; material analysis; quality assurance for preservation supplies and materials; maintenance of the Library's low-oxygen exhibition cases.
More about Preservation Research and Testing
History of the Preservation Directorate
Thanks to the real threat of fire (and the devastation of the Library from fires in 1814 and 1851) the Library's preservation concerns extend far into the Library's history. Preservation activities grew organically throughout the first two-thirds of the 20th century, and the Library established the Preservation Office (now Directorate) in 1967, six months after the November 1966 flood in Florence that damaged more than one million books.
More about the history of the Preservation Directorate
News about the Preservation Directorate
Read about current activities of the Preservation Directorate in our blog.
