Background to Conservation Survey 2006 and the Showcase

This page lists definitions and key points behind the Conservation / Preservation Showcase, and its origin in a national survey of conservation and preservation education, training and employment conducted by the Collections Council of Australia in 2006, entitled Conservation Survey 2006.

The Collections Council recognises the following definitions of conservation and preservation:  

Conservation is all actions aimed at safeguarding cultural material for the future. Its purpose is to study, record, retain and restore the culturally significant qualities of an object with the least possible intervention.

Preservation is all actions taken to slow deterioration of, or prevent damage to, cultural material. Preservation involves controlling the environment and conditions of use, and may include treatment in order to, as nearly as possible, maintain an object in an unchanging state. In the case of archival material, moving image and sound, this may include transfer to another medium … Preservation includes activities carried out to repair or treat damaged materials and activities taken to prevent or delay material becoming damaged. Preservation is a broader term than conservation: conservation activities form part of a total preservation program.

Conservation Survey 2006 was developed by the Collections Council to:

1. characterise conservation and preservation employment and qualifications in each of the major collecting domains in the last three years;
2. characterise anticipated conservation and preservation employment and qualifications in each of the major collecting domains over the next three years;
3. draw conclusions and make recommendations about the conservation and preservation employment and qualification needs of the Australian collections sector in 2006.

Conservation Survey 2006 is the first fully cross-domain assessment of conservation and preservation employment and qualifications in Australia.

Where feasible, information is presented according to the identified domains – archives, galleries, libraries, museums, hybrids, collections advisory organisations, and businesses.

Please see the Introduction to the full report for detail about the earlier lack of documentation in this area by clicking here:  http://www.collectionscouncil.com.au/conservation+survey+2006+report.aspx
Navigate to Part A in the large box.

Summary findings of the survey include the following:

• There is a shortage of available and suitable conservation / preservation workers in Australia
• There is a lack of funds to achieve reasonable conservation / preservation goals for collections across Australia
• Only 11% of the current conservation / preservation workforce is under 30 years of age
• There are calls for more conservation businesses to be established
• Employer expectations for qualifications, specializations / skills, and terms of employment are changing
• There is clear current and future demand for both professional and paraprofessional training for workers in traditional and emerging specialisation and skills areas:
• Most workers are required in areas where the item type is a ‘carrier of information’ (e.g. publications / manuscripts, film, audio and sound recordings, paper-based flat works / records), and also in such areas as collection maintenance, reformatting / copying, archival materials, paper – nonarchival, electronic media, audiovisual, books and photographs.
• Significant numbers of workers are required in the still growing areas of preventive conservation and of educating colleagues and clients about conservation / preservation.
• Small to moderate numbers of highly specialised workers are required in each of the following areas: objects (general), paintings, buildings / architecture (including interiors), technological collections, textiles, furniture, ship models, natural history, metals, conservation science, conservation framing, large technology, archaeological objects and organic materials

The Collections Council proposed six recommendations to address the findings of Conservation Survey 2006:

1. Develop an integrated system of education and training in conservation / preservation.
2. Develop an integrated system of workforce planning in conservation / preservation.
3. Promote Conservation Survey 2006 to educators with interests in the collections sector, employers in the collections sector and collections sector practitioners.
4. Encourage discussion about Conservation Survey 2006.
5. Promote conservation / preservation to potential entrants to the field.
6. Undertake further research into the drivers for change in conservation / preservation    employment.

Implementing the recommendations

Each recommendation includes at least one Action that the Collections Council can achieve to contribute to the proposed integrated outcomes and promotion. The Conservation / Preservation Showcase is Action 7 of 8 Actions.

Some other Actions encourage named organisations inside and outside the Australian collections sector to consider the findings of the survey and to communicate with each other to discuss how the recommendations can be implemented.

A role for the Collections Council during 2007 is to facilitate contact between organisations involved in education, training and employment with relevance to conservation / preservation.