To preserve or not to preserve, that is the question?

When it comes to preserving information, one may be faced with the decision of what should be preserved? This is a question that so many librarians are faced with everyday. Since libraries have many users, their library collections are becoming more and more used and abused. Not that it is a bad thing that patrons use the materials, its just that after years of wear and tear books and other materials become old and battered. So what do we do? Tell the patrons that they cannot use the materials anymore? The answer is no. We have to make the decision to preserve these materials so that they will be available for years to come. But now we need to get back to the question, "What needs to be reserved?"

I read an interesting article that talked about what types of materials needed to be preserved. The article: The Information ARK Selection Issues in the Preservation Process, discussed the various issues that librarians dealt with when it came to trying to decide what to preserve. The author was very passionate about what types of things he felt were the most important and should be preserved for the future users. Some of those things included subscription journals because over time they become ruined and to replace them is a great deal of money and early published materials.

SOUND OFF!!!!

*What do you think should be preserved and why?

References

Billings, H. (1994, April) The Information ARK Selection Issues in the Preservation Process. Wilson Library Bulletin, 68, 34-37.