BS 4971:2017 pdf download

BS 4971:2017 pdf download.Conservation and care of archive and library collections
Managing archive and library collections to ensure their long-term availability involves a specific range of activities known as conservation or collection care. This British Standard has been revised to reflect the current needs of the sector and is aimed at custodians and conservation specialists alike. It sets out a structured approach to defining conservation policy, identifying the needs of collections and prioritizing actions that will ensure their protection. One of the challenges for modern archive and library management is the need to address a growing range of collection materials. Some materials exist in traditional, often stable forms, others are inherently unstable and short-lived. These latter include electronic formats that present new and complex challenges. This British Standard gives recommendations for the conservation of traditional media, more recent non-traditional media (such as photographic and analogue audio-visual media) and for the carriers of digital media. It does not include the preservation of digital information and associated metadata. This British Standard has been developed with the acknowledgment that conservation is an overarching function, required to ensure that risks to collections are addressed, removed, mitigated or accepted. The deterioration rate of archive and library materials can be managed and to a certain extent controlled by the actions of custodians and conservators. In order to preserve a varied and challenging group of materials, a comprehensive knowledge of their composition and structural qualities is required.
1 Scope
This British Standard gives recommendations for the long term conservation of archive and library collections. It gives recommendations for managing conservation of collections, starting with organizational policy, strategy and planning, which in turn lead to the identification of prioritized actions and on-going processes that protect collections, such as environmental qualities, repository management and preventive and remedial treatment projects. It is applicable to traditional archive and library collections, e.g. documents, books, maps, drawings, prints, photographic materials and the carriers of machine readable records in both analogue and digital format such as video cassettes and CDs. It does not include the preservation of digital information and associated metadata.
The collecting body should develop and maintain a conservation strategy for the collections it holds.
The conservation strategy should cover the following as a minimum:
a) an assessment of collections and specific materials within them, that defines their scale, nature,physical vulnerability and general condition;
b) an analysis of the environmental needs of material types in the collection and provision for the development of appropriate and sustainable storage and handling environments;
c) identification and evaluation of risks to the collections, defining hazards, their impact and likelihood and any measures that can be taken to remove or reduce these hazards;
d) definition and prioritization of the actions and measures necessary to protect and preserve collections and items in storage and in use; and
e) development of a set of procedures for storage, handling and use of collections.