Combines the results of two questionnaire surveys of preservation policies, conducted by Loughborough University, Department of Information and Library Studies, to compare the ways in which librarians perceive and carry out preservation management and how their perceptions and activities compare with those of archivists, for whom preservation plays a more central role in their working practices. The first project was based on a questionnaire survey of 682 UK academic, national, public and special libraries. The second project was based on a questionnaire survey of 290 archives and record offices and interviews with 25 librarians, archivists and conservators. Discusses appropriate issues including: attitudes to preservation; selection for preservation; resources available; external funding; increasing use of library and archive collections; photocopying demand; past neglect; and digital technology. Concludes that, although librarians and archivists may have different attitudes to preservation, preservation managers face similar problems regardless of profession. Digitization can offer researchers distant access to surrogates of important materials via networked systems but stresses the need for a coherent and comprehensive UK national preservation strategy.
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