Pass It On

Photographs, books, family records, newspapers… how do you keep your memories?  It's Preservation Week @ your library, a time to make sure your treasures will last to tell your or your family's personal history. 

Libraries, museums, archives and other organizations work every day to preserve cultural history.  Over 4.8 billion artifacts are held in public trust by more than 30,000 archives, historical societies, libraries, museums, scientific research collections and archaeological repositories in the United States.

Why is preservation important?  Some 2.6 billion items are not protected by an emergency plan such as natural disasters, and 1.3 billion of these items are at risk of being lost. If billions of items are at risk at our heritage institutions, than plausibly trillions of items held by the general public are at risk.

To help combat that risk, we've compiled some resources to help you protect your family treasures.

Preserving Your Treasures
Resources to help preserve a wide variety of materials.

Disaster Recovery
What to do to prevent damage to personal artifacts…and what to do when disaster strikes.

Stories
Read about the ways that preservation has touched the lives of families and communities.

Activities
Fun for families and children.

Librarians - Looking for ways to promote preservation @ your library?  Visit ala.org/preservationweek/.