Preserving Our Heritage

Preserving Our Heritage aims to introduce students and professionals to readings that will help them in their studies and their professional practice. Curated by an advisory board from across the cultural heritage sectors, it offers a unique compilation of key texts from a range of international contributors, charting the development of preservation from its origins to modern day practice.

Drawing on historical texts, this all-encompassing, accessible volume provides a comprehensive understanding of preservation for librarians, archivists and museum specialists. By grounding key readings in context, Michèle V. Cloonan offers students and professionals an overview of longevity, reversibility, enduring value and authenticity of information preservation. In considering the history and context of preservation, she provides significant insight into conservation, historic preservation, moving images, and other cultural heritage institutions.

The text is divided into eleven themes designed to provide specific readings in context with this broad subject:
- Early perspectives on preservation
- Perspectives on cultural heritage
- Preservation in context: libraries, archives, museums, and the built environment
- Collections: development and management
- Risks to cultural heritage: time, nature, and humans
- Conservation
- Frameworks for digital preservation
- Preservation policy
- Ethics and values
- Multicultural perspectives
- Sustainability

Each section has historical works that form the basis of contemporary thinking and practices, readings from a variety of fields that are primarily concerned with the preservation of cultural heritage, and hard-to-find publications that shed new light on how to approach contemporary problems. Cloonan's selections and her insightful commentary on each comprise a truly global view of preservation.

1. Early Perspectives on Preservation
2. Perspectives on Cultural Heritage
3. Preservation in Context: Libraries, Archives, Museums, and the Built Environment
4. Collections: Development and Management
5. Risks to Cultural Heritage: Time, Nature, and Humans
6. Conservation
7. Frameworks for Digital Preservation
8. Preservation Policy
9. Ethics and Values
10. Multicultural Perspectives
11. Sustainability
12. Epilogue