Forms of Education
Preservation education can be taught through workshops, seminars, academic programs, apprenticeships, and internships. Each form offers a different level of education and training over a varied period of time.
Workshops and seminars
Workshops and seminars can be an excellent way to raise awareness of some of the challenges in preservation and to identify general areas of concentration. These usually one-day affairs are also helpful in demonstrating special techniques or apparatus, or in introducing new approaches to old methods. They can be valuable to administrators, as they often engender ideas, and valuable to preservation professionals if they present new information. For example, disaster-response exercises may enhance the skills of preservation professionals. Special workshops on new equipment and materials can be helpful to practicing preservation technicians in maintaining skills and keeping abreast of recent developments. Workshops and seminars are especially valuable as part of a continuing series dealing with consistent topics. This cumulative approach allows working library staff to participate without handicapping the parent institution by spending time training key staff for long periods or time.
The advantage of regional education and training programs is that not only do they provide access to expert knowledge and skills, but they also help establish a peer group of preservation professionals.
Academic programs
Academic programs for library and archive preservation, relatively new, are based on advanced degree programs in art and archeology conservation. Such programs can be valuable in combining a scientific with a managerial approach to preservation. Courses may cover general preservation management issues including disaster-response planning, care of collections, building design, environmental control, reformatting, needs assessment, grant writing, and long-term planning. Clearly, such programs are most useful to preservation administrators, as classroom work is designed to build theoretical knowledge rather than technical skills.
Many library schools around the world offer courses in preservation, but most of these are single courses taught by library school professors who lack practical experience. Moreover, such courses tend to be linked to traditional librarianship, which in most institutions is gradually being phased out in favor of information science. Some national library associations list graduate schools offering preservation as part of the curriculum.
There are also electronic list-serves that provide authoritative information on education and technical training. The Conservation Online (CoOL) listserv rovides a number of links for educational opportunities in museum, library, and archive preservation. This site also provides current news on workshops, seminars, and internship opportunities.
Apprenticeship programs
Apprenticeship programs offer hands-on training in high-quality preservation facilities. For hands-on conservators and technicians, this is probably the most effective way to hone skills. However, apprenticeship programs won’t succeed without a network of model preservation programs and a national system of accreditation.
Internship programs
These allow interns to work within an existing preservation program—preferably one that is comprehensive—developing skills and knowledge simultaneously. Ideally, programs provide the intern with a learning environment that continues beyond the period of internship through a mentoring setup. Graduate programs in conservation usually require a period of internship, generally six to ten months.