The Preservation Statistics Survey is an effort coordinated by the Preservation and Reformatting Section (PARS) of the American Library Association (ALA) and the Association of Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS).
Any cultural heritage institution in the United States conducting preservation activities was invited to complete this survey, which was open from January 20 through March 20, 2015. Questions focused on production-based preservation activities for fiscal year 2014 and document conservation treatment, general preservation activities, preservation reformatting and digitization, and digital preservation and digital asset management activities.
This survey is based on the Preservation Statistics program conducted by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) from 1984 to 2008. When the ARL Preservation Statistics program was discontinued in 2008, the Preservation and Reformatting Section (PARS) of ALA / ALCTS, realizing the value of national preservation metrics, worked towards developing an improved and sustainable preservation statistics survey.
An initial pilot survey was issued in 2012, and a second survey in 2013. The FY2012 and 2013 Preservation Statistics Survey data sets and reports are available here.
In 2014, the Preservation Statistics project received an ALCTS Presidential Citation in recognition for its contribution to the technical services profession.
The goal of this survey is to document the state of preservation activities in this digital era via quantitative data that facilitates peer comparison and a better understanding of trends in the preservation and conservation fields over time.
For more information on the Preservation Statistics Survey project, visit: http://www.ala.org/alcts/resources/preservation/presstats