We offer introductions to the department, in-person tours, and information sharing sessions for Library staff. You can check our current schedule and register for events at https://schedule.yale.edu/calendar/preservation

Here are a few examples of events and information sharing sessions:

 Care and Handling of Special Collections in Reading Rooms and Classrooms

Preservation is a universal field with many facets: it reaches local communities and international entities; it employs skills and expertise across many disciplines; it utilizes low tech and high tech solutions.  Preservation is carried out by conservators, historic preservationists, librarians, policy makes, scientist, historians, teachers, activists, and many others. Preservation is generally organized around three major goals: preventing damage and managing risk, conserving physical artifacts and objects, and reformatting and managing at-risk content and new media formats.

Our Mission

The Yale University Library's Preservation and Conservation Services Department supports the Library's mission by ensuring continued access to collections, through a program of specialized expertise, proactive stewardship and collaboration.

What is Preservation?

In libraries and archives, the term preservation is usually used to refer to any and all activities that prolong the useable life of collections and objects. Preservation can include a variety of preventative and remedial measures, like environmental control, reformatting, conservation and digital content migration, that address deterioration, damage and mitigate the effects of time and continued use.  In museums, many preservation actions, like monitoring environments, disaster planning, handling instruction and protective housing, are called preventative conservation.

At the the Yale University Library, we often use "preservation" to characterize activities, strategies and programs that involve significant format change, migration to a new medium, or emulation of an experience to prolong the use and life of collection. We use "conservation" to describe our work and programs of preventative care for physical objects with the objective of maintaining the original format, feel, and use with only as much alteration as is needed.

Contact Us:

Director, Preservation & Conservation Services

Christine McCarthy

203-432-1710

Senior Administrative Assistant

Rebecca Haep

203-432-1803

Conservation and Exhibition Strategies - Christine McCarthy, interim 

• Rare Book and Manuscripts Conservation - Paula Zyats, Head
• Paper and Photograph Conservation - Marie-France Lemay, Head
• Preventive Conservation - Tara Kennedy, Head
• Exhibition Production - Kerri Sancomb, Program Manager

Preservation Digital Strategies - Shira Peltzman, Associate Director

• Digital Preservation Services
• Digital Reformatting and Microfilming Services