Towards a Preservation Policy for European Research Libraries

Abstract

At the LIBER Annual Conference in Berne in 1997 Professor John Feather presented the results of a survey of preservation policies in European Research Libraries. Following this, those libraries that indicated in the survey that they had a written preservation policy were approached with the request to send a copy of their policy. Of the twenty-two libraries with a written policy, five national libraries and seven university libraries sent their documents, while a number of libraries replied that their policy was purely for internal use and not for general circulation. The policies that were received were translated into English (where necessary) and were analysed3 in order to determine whether a common trend could be found and whether a model could be developed on which to base a preservation policy for European research libraries.