This publication and the planning process which preceded it were supported in part through a grant of federal Library Services and Construction Act (LSCA), Title III funds administered in California by the California State Library
Our collective history, as it is embodied in the rich documentary records held in our archival and library collections, explains why California is California and how it became that way. Yet every day information materials are disappearing and disintegrating beyond repair throughout California in a quiet crisis that sweeps across jurisdictional boundaries and threatens the intellectual, cultural, and historic tapestry of our society. Its impact will be felt by us and by the generations to come, who will be deprived of a major portion of their heritage.
In recent years the crisis has manifested itself in the thousands of items burned in the premier Los Angeles Public Library research library by the 1986 fire.. .in the damage and destruction to the collections of hundreds of educational institutions caused by the Loma Prieta and Northridge earthquakes... in the waterlogged materials salvaged from the California State Library after the Great Flood of 1995.. in the routine crumbling of paper documents in each and every California institution due to heat, paper composition, and environmental conditions. The deterioration of our documentary heritage is already far too apparent to California students, historians, librarians, teachers, researchers, archivists, and others who daily confront brittle, crumbled paper resources and who find their searches for information short-circuited by the disappearance of the materials they need.
While some formal and informal initiatives have begun to address the preservation needs of California, decisive action must be undertaken on a statewide basis to confront the epidemic. Literally hundreds of librarians, citizens, and archivists developed the California Preservation Program in response to this need, in a call to action to the State. The program reaches out beyond the library community to historical societies, archives, and other public agencies collecting information resources in all formats, from paper to artifact, and ensures that each can be appropriately equipped to deal with the preservation crisis. The program will provide a central focus for the statewide preservation agenda while identifying and preserving the materials that are both at risk and of great importance to California. Operating at a multitude of levels, the California Preservation Program will be capable of responding to the individual and diverse needs of a complex State. Only by working together—as librarians and archivists, as policymakers, as educators, and as citizens—can we assure that the great documentary resources of California will be preserved for all time.
State Librarian of
California
January 1995