Care and Maintenance                                                                               1 2 3 4 Next


Preservation - activities associated with maintaining library and archival materials for use either in their original physical form or in some other usable ways. It includes:

• Conservation. The reactive or proactive treatment of library materials to strengthen them physically or to stabilize them chemically, thus sustaining their survival as long as they are needed in the original form.
• Reformatting. The recording of information in one medium to another. The most common reformatting method is microfilming, where printed information on paper material is converted to film. Recent conversion capabilities onto CD-ROM format have allowed transfer to a medium that is more easily searched.
• Collection Development Activities. This term encompasses a number of activities, preservation being one of them. It includes the determination and coordination of the selection policy, assessment of the current needs of users and potential users, collection evaluation, selection and acquisition of materials, and planning for resource sharing.
• Disaster Prevention. The Benavides Library has a disaster team and disaster plan in place in case of fire, earthquake or other hazards that could cause damage to the collections.

Binding - represents a major investment on the part of the University toward preserving and making accessible printed library materials. The goal of library binding is to make materials available in original format for as long as needed at the lowest possible cost.

There is an annual budget allotted for bindery. Journal subscriptions for the whole year are sent for permanent binding. Books on paperback edition that are used regularly are also sent to the bindery for longer use by the library clientele.

Replacement - an item is considered for replacement if it is either the last copy in the Library’s collection or if demand warrants maintaining the number of copies in the collection.

If a borrower lost a book while on loan, the borrower is asked to replace the book with the same title and edition if possible. If the book is not available anymore, the borrower will be asked to look for a substitute title with the same subject, with copyright not less than 3 years, on its original paper and on hardbound edition. A minimal charged will be collected for the processing of the lost material.