Long-Range Plan

Long-range plans are important in that they help to steer the institution toward a specific set of goals. Priorities are set, timeframes and resources established. An end goal advances the preservation efforts of an institution.

The Northeast Document Conservation Center has a leaflet dealing with preservation planning, a long-range preservation plan, and a needs- assessment survey.

The Society of American Archivists has a website that offers selected readings in preservation management and planning, some of which are available on the World Wide Web.

Another site, maintained by the Massachusetts Library and Information Network, provides a minimal outline for long-range planning as well as planning component definitions.

The Boston Public Library has an 11-page 2002 action plan (pdf) with dates for specific projects, some of which have been completed. By October 2002, a long-range plan will be implemented.

The U.S. National Library of Medicine's long-range plan for 2000-2005 includes a number of plans dealing with the organization of and access to electronic resources. After a brief goal statement ("Organizing health- related information and providing access to it"), the main objective ("Acquiring, organizing, and preserving biomedical information") is broken down into findings and program plans. While most of the plans are technology related, the last one listed deals with expanding and improving the collection's physical housing. The program includes the identification of historically significant records in the collections of other institutions and the development of a national strategy to enhance access and preservation.

The National Library of Australia's long-range preservation plan is described as "preserving those Australian electronic information resources that meet the criteria for collection and preservation as part of Australia's documentary heritage and assisting other collecting organizations in preserving those electronic resources for which they take responsibility." This plan, like many of the others mentioned here, emphasizes technology as a valuable tool in preserving materials.