Strategy for the preservation of physical cultural heritage

Background

Royal Danish Library is Denmark's national library and we are responsible for the management of the library's cultural heritage. Today, the library's storage vaults house more than 100 kilometers of shelves worthy of preservation, which date back to the Middle Ages and up to the present day. This significant cultural heritage has been collected through legal deposits (1) , donations and purchases. The collections consist of manuscripts, printed books, magazines, small prints, newspapers, archives, sheet music, geographical maps, globes, postcards, posters, architectural drawings and models, graphics, photographs, audio and video recordings, and more. In addition to the national collections worthy of preservation, the library also manages other valuable collections, not least in the university libraries' older collections where there are works of great cultural significance.

In addition to preserving the collections, Royal Danish Library also allows for the collections worthy of preservation to be used. As a user, you can order works, which we then bring in from the storage vaults and give access to in the library's reading rooms. We also digitise the physical works and provide access to the content online, which also subsequently protects the original materials from wear and tear. Royal Danish Library also arranges exhibitions, like the Treasure Exhibition where you can experience some of the library's most significant items. We also lend works to external exhibitions. The cultural heritage collections are also disseminated through the library's school service and in connection with events such as Culture Night.

The overall goal of Royal Danish Library's work with the preservation of the physical cultural heritage is to ensure the collections' long life and to protect the works when they are in use (2). More specifically, the library's preservation staff supervise the collections and the storage environment in the storage facilities, and make sure to initiate preservation efforts when necessary. They regularly solve preservation, documentation, material analysis, assembly, binding and packaging tasks, also in connection with the collection of new works. They also contribute to the library's preventive and active preparedness. When the works are to be lent, exhibited, digitised or used for other dissemination purposes, the employees work to ensure that this is done in a responsible manner, so that the increased load as a result of transport, handling, lighting, and so on, has as little effect as possible on the physical materials. The preservation professionals also advise on preservation issues, analyse preservation conditions, examine the advantages and disadvantages of different preservation efforts, test preservation methods and develop new ones. They also conduct research in the field of cultural heritage and translate the research results into practice. Finally, they impart knowledge about the preservation of archive and library materials, as well as their historical production techniques.

The preservation work, which is anchored in the Preservation Department, takes place in close collaboration with the library's other employees and is based on an overall prioritisation of the efforts based on the importance of the collections and the individual works, the demand for them and their state of preservation. The preservation department is a knowledge and competence center for the preservation of library and archive materials. By virtue of its size, the department covers all essential preservation professional aspects of relevance to the cultural heritage collections and at a highly specialised level. The department also solves major preservation tasks for external institutions, including the National Archives.

Strategic objectives

In addition to carrying out the ongoing preservation work, Royal Danish Library has a number of overall strategic objectives in the period 2021-2023, which are described below (3).

Prioritisation and optimisation of preservation work

Royal Danish Library has grown significantly in recent years through a number of mergers. The scope of collections worthy of preservation and the number of storage facilities have increased, and more types of material have also been added. In addition, we are in the process of taking a new modern storage facility into use and relocating a number of outdated storage vaults. All these changes put pressure on our resources and due to that, there is a need to rethink and optimise the preservation work further.

In continuation of this, it is necessary to adapt the way the work is organised, as well as increase the focus on the library's efforts being directed towards the most worthy collections. There is also a need for a mapping and prioritisation of the preservation tasks, as well as an assessment of which preservation professional competencies the library needs in the future.

Sustainable preservation and use

During this strategy period, we will, in continuation of the library's Climate Strategy 2021-2025, also focus on sustainability in preservation work. Here, we will first and foremost work to reduce energy consumption in our storage vaults without compromising our goals for collection preservation. In addition, we will work systematically with sustainability in connection with purchasing, transport and logistics, as well as waste recycling.

We also want to think about sustainability in relation to the way we use the cultural heritage. We will strengthen our efforts to ensure that lending, exhibitions and other use of the collections happen as gently as possible, so that we not only meet the wishes of today's users, but also take into account the needs of future generations to experience the cultural heritage.

Collection, communication and visibility of preservation professional knowledge and research

We want to strengthen the collection and implementation of new knowledge in the field of preservation and disseminate this knowledge especially in relation to those of the library's employees who work with the management of the physical cultural heritage and to the library's users of the physical cultural heritage.

The fact that the institution has grown has increased the need to streamline professional advice in regards to preservation. We will ensure this by preparing more guides and FAQs (answers to frequently asked questions) and making them available online.

In continuation of the library's research strategy 2020-2023 (4), we will also strengthen the visibility of research in preservation in relation to the outside world.

Notes

1. Pursuant to the Danish Legal Deposit Act, Royal Danish Library collects and preserves the part of the cultural heritage that includes published material (except films that fall under the Danish Film Institute), and make it available to the public within the framework of other legislation.

2. Read more about our goals and principles for the preservation work and the types of preservation tasks we perform in the policy for the preservation of physical cultural heritage.

3. For internal use, an action plan has been prepared, in which the objectives are divided into a number of operational sub-objectives.

4. Read more about Royal Danish Library's research strategy.