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Preservation Week is an annual event sponsored by ALA which is focused on bringing attention to preservation issues. This year, April 26 – May 2 has been designated as the week to celebrate and bring attention to our preservation needs. In 2004, Heritage Preservation carried out the first national survey, called the Heritage Health Index. The HHI attempted to document preservation needs in libraries, museums, and archives. The 2004 survey showed that roughly 1.3 billion items needed treatment to reduce the risk and rate of damage.

Some of you may remember our assessment and box enclosure of the Philomathesian banner in our collection. Every collection has important and unique items like this that they cannot treat and conserve properly.

This week, ZSR has a Preservation Week exhibit near the library entrance which attempts to show some of the issues involved in preservation of library materials and the theme for the Society of American Archivists Preservation Section: Preservation Advocacy.