Conference proceedings 'Preservation in Perspective'

The conference proceedings 'Preservation in Perspective: International Strategies for the Preservation of Written Cultural Heritage', published by the KEK, have been released as a printed book and an open access digital publication. The digital volume is accessible for free via the KEK portal and the De Gruyter website. The English-language publication contains 15 interdisciplinary and cross-sectional articles on the preservation of written cultural heritage, with contributions from Denmark, England, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the USA. 

With the conference 'Preservation in Perspective', which took place in November 2021 at the James-Simon-Galerie in Berlin the KEK invited participants to an international exchange on fields of action and perspectives for the protection of written originals in archives, libraries, museums and other memory institutions. The conference proceedings bring together the revised and updated conference papers. The texts provide up-to-date professional impulses for an international discourse on methods along with strategies for coordinated and sustainable preservation, the relevance of cooperation as well as the synergy potential of original preservation and new technologies. 

International perspectives on original preservation

The opening article by Richard Ovenden (Bodleian Libraries) sets the scene for the international focus of the publication, using historical and current events to illustrate not only the political and cultural importance of preserving original written sources, but also to describe the preservation of written sources as an indispensable collaborative task. 

The following contributions are divided into four sub-chapters. The first, 'International Initiatives and Cooperation', includes articles by Susann Harder (Blue Shield Germany), Dr Johanna Leissner (Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft), Jody Butterworth and Dr Sam van Shaik (both British Library). Using a heterogeneous range of case studies, they highlight the importance of international and interdisciplinary cooperation in protecting written cultural heritage during armed conflict and disasters, in meeting the challenges of climate change, and in developing digital forms of preservation and archiving.
The second part of the book, 'Preservation Management and National Strategies', provides an insight into nationally coordinated forms of preservation. In Germany, the 'National Recommendations for Action’, published by the KEK in 2015, serve as a guide for the preservation of originals across federal states and sectors in Germany. The articles by Dr Johannes Kistenich-Zerfaß (Hessian State Archives) and Dr Michael Fischer (Baden State Library) present preservation strategies developed at their respective institutions in response to the 'National Recommendations'. The following article by Dr Agnes Blüher and André Page (both Swiss National Library) reports on the coordinated mass deacidification of library and archive materials in Switzerland. Marie Vest (Royal Library of Denmark) describes the organisation of the cold storage of written originals used in Denmark as an alternative to mass deacidification. 
 

The following contributions are divided into four sub-chapters. The first, 'International Initiatives and Cooperation', includes articles by Susann Harder (Blue Shield Germany), Dr Johanna Leissner (Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft), Jody Butterworth and Dr Sam van Shaik (both British Library). Using a heterogeneous range of case studies, they highlight the importance of international and interdisciplinary cooperation in protecting written cultural heritage during armed conflict and disasters, in meeting the challenges of climate change, and in developing digital forms of preservation and archiving.

The second part of the book, 'Preservation Management and National Strategies', provides an insight into nationally coordinated forms of preservation. In Germany, the 'National Recommendations for Action’, published by the KEK in 2015, serve as a guide for the preservation of originals across federal states and sectors in Germany. The articles by Dr Johannes Kistenich-Zerfaß (Hessian State Archives) and Dr Michael Fischer (Baden State Library) present preservation strategies developed at their respective institutions in response to the 'National Recommendations'. The following article by Dr Agnes Blüher and André Page (both Swiss National Library) reports on the coordinated mass deacidification of library and archive materials in Switzerland. Marie Vest (Royal Library of Denmark) describes the organisation of the cold storage of written originals used in Denmark as an alternative to mass deacidification.