Archives Collections Management and Preservation
Collections Department
Conservation log book with Polaroid photos of Conservation Institute scientist Michael Schilling at work in the tomb, his equipment, and his added notations. The Getty Research Institute, Institutional Records and Archives, IA30008
Archival institutions serve a critical role in the stewardship of cultural heritage by collecting, preserving, and facilitating access to an extensive array of analog and digital materials. These include rare books, manuscripts, art and artifacts, administrative records, social media content, websites, photographs, and audiovisual media, as well as essential contextual information such as descriptive and preservation metadata.
The management of this diverse corpus presents archivists with significant challenges, particularly in the realm of digital preservation for both born-digital and digitized materials, as well as the scaling of infrastructure and practices to accommodate the exponential growth of records.
This new area of work at the Getty Conservation Institute addresses pressing issues in collections management and preservation within archival contexts connecting archivists and conservators with a broader network of stakeholders. It endeavors to bridge the divide between art conservation and archival science—two historically distinct yet complementary disciplines—by fostering interdisciplinary collaboration that leverages the strengths of both fields for mutual enrichment and innovation.
By advancing research and disseminating educational resources to the international archives’ community, this work seeks to enhance professional practices and capacity on a global scale.