Screening of collections.

Screening of archival or library collections is a tool for the assessment of the physical condition of these collections. It covers different types of deterioration:

The information is being completed on screening forms which are specifically designed for the targeted collections. They contain following information about the assessed item:

Screenings can be done for:

The screening can take in account:

If the screening takes into account all the items of the collection, an exact assessment can be done of the collection. If the screening is done by randomly chosing samples to screen, an extrapolation is done for the whole collection, based on the analysis of the screened items.

The results of the screening are written down in a report which contains:

The screening can be part of a Global Survey or can be used as a stand alone tool for implementing a preservation management scheme or applied conservation and restoration work. In both cases it is an adequate tool which allows to attribute funds and means in the most efficient way.

Conform to our policy we try to involve institution personnel as much as possible to perform certain tasks involved with the screening.