Key Terms

Preservation refers to all of the activities that maintain collections in their original or some other format. Some of these activities include maintaining the proper environment, repairing books, shelving them properly, and digitizing books in order to preserve their content.

Conservation refers to treatments that stabilize or strengthen collections, thus sustaining the original. For instance, repairing a book’s binding is a conservation treatment since it fixes the original item. Conservation treatments are some of the activities that fall under the term Preservation.