In 1990 the California library and archival community, with the guidance and support of the California State Library, began strategic planning for a statewide preservation program. A series of regional conferences was held to identify the preservation needs of libraries, archives and historical societies, at which more than 150 participants attended. From those freewheeling discussions came the initiative to conduct a statewide preservation needs assessment, in order to quantify and document the state's preservation problems.
Then in 1991 the State Library, with funding from the federal Library Services and Construction Act, contracted with the Conservation Department of the University of California, Berkeley to prepare a simple survey instrument that would be usable equally in major research institutions and small local libraries, and to train librarians and archivists to use the tool. A unique feature of the resultant Calipr survey instrument was its ability to prioritize preservation needs based on the interaction of several relevant factors of historical documents: condition, use, and value to the collection. Representatives of forty-two institutions were trained and undertook needs assessments for their institutions that summer. The results of this needs assessment were published in 1992 as an appendix to the Calipr preservation needs assessment software and manual;1 they may be found in this report as Appendix 1.
With reliable statistical information and, perhaps more important, with statistically valid priorities for preservation in hand, a representative task force was convened in 1992 to develop goals and objectives for the statewide preservation plan. The Calipr survey results pointed the group toward an emphasis on actions that would benefit the greatest number of institutions in the state, and the greatest percentage of the state's historical collections. The self-described "Temecula group" drafted a concise list of goals that became the foundation for the following California Preservation Program.
The draft plan was reviewed by preservation specialists and a large sampling of other appropriate individuals around the state. At the second Temecula retreat, revisions were made based on the comments received, and an implementation strategy was outlined. That strategy was extensively reviewed prior to the finalization of the plan in 1994 and its adoption and publication in this report.
1. Calipr software and manual are available from the California State Library Foundation PO Box 942837, Sacramento, CA 94237.