Connecting to the World's Collections: Making the Case for the Conservation and Preservation of Our Cultural Heritage

Abstract

Sixty cultural heritage leaders from 32 countries, including representatives from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, South America, Australia, Europe, and North America, gathered in October 2009 in Salzburg, Austria, to develop a series of practical recommendations to ensure optimal collections conservation worldwide. Convened at Schloss Leopoldskron, the gathering was conducted in partnership by the Salzburg Global Seminar (SGS) and the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The participants were conservation specialists from libraries and museums, as well as leaders of major conservation centers and cultural heritage programs from around the world. As cochair Vinod Daniel noted, no previous meeting of conservation professionals has been “as diverse as this, with people from as many parts of the world, as cross-disciplinary as this.” The group addressed central issues in the care and preservation of the world's cultural heritage, including moveable objects (library materials, books, archives, paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, photographic collections, art on paper, and archaeological and ethnographic objects) and immoveable heritage (buildings and archaeological sites).

Challenges to Coordination: Understanding Intergovernmental Friction During Disasters

“…Many industries struggle with the attempt to balance inflexible rule frameworks with local needs. In attempts to preserve critical aspects of heritage and culture, for example, conservators in museums and cultural institutions must navigate top-down initiatives from executives with bottom-up mandates from public stakeholders (Stoner 2009).…”

Hierarchy, complicity and culture in the library and information science preservation agenda: Observations from Romania

“…However, this led to good intentions appearing more like cultural hegemony – the elites dictating what the heritage representation should be. One recent IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services) publication shows some understanding of the problem of the elite voice in preservation by noting that: ‘A paradigm shift away from traditional perceptions of culture as “elitist” was emphasized throughout the [IMLS-sponsored Connecting to the World’s Collections] seminar’ (Stoner, 2011: 3) However, it is not enough for the elites to decide that culture is no longer elitist – such an ideological shift or acknowledgement may in itself be an act of mystification.…”