ALA Preservation Week 2013 Survey

The American Library Association (ALA) celebrates Preservation Week , next Spring  April 21^st through April 27^th, 2013.  Libraries and other institutions can use Preservation Week to connect and reach out to their local communities through events, activities, and resources.  It's a great opportunity for the general public to learn how library collections are preserved, and how libraries can help the public preserve their personal collections. For more information please visit us at http://www.ala.org/alcts/confevents/preswk.

This year, Preservation Week is focusing its outreach efforts on military families and the challenges these families face preserving their keepsakes, whether it's the more traditional items like medals, uniforms, and letters home, or digital correspondence and photos.

In order to get a better idea of the preservation issues military personnel, their families, and their friends encounter when they want to save, document or record their family's military experience, we're asking librarians on this list for information and suggestions based on your interaction with your military patrons.  Are they asking you how they can save letters or emails with their spouse or friend who is away from home?  Photos? Journals or diaries? Newspaper articles?  Social media (Facebook/Twitter) posts?  Uniforms or medals?  What are the primary ways that families communicate with military personnel away from home?  In what areas do you think we could be most helpful?  What are your own observations or thoughts about what military families are keeping or not keeping and why?  

Finally, if you have any personal stories to share that illustrate the importance of keeping and preserving such meaningful keepsakes for future family members, whether they are tangible or ephemeral, please let us know.  We'd like to use examples from your stories to encourage military families to take the time to preserve these memories. Please contact Miriam Centeno, Chair of the Preservation Week Working Group (PWWG) at mcenteno@jhu.edu.  PWWG is part of the Preservation and Reformatting Section (PARS) of the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS).