Quick links to courses in Preservation Administration and Conservation

Through program planning and implementation, study, and research, Preservation Administrators and Conservators work together to achieve the goals of collections care. Students begin this collaboration during their academic careers at PCS. Together they study the factors that contribute to the preservation of library collections and archival holdings, such as environmental storage conditions and building design. Other important topics include: pest management, use and exhibition policies, disaster planning and recovery, repair and reformatting decisions, and the development and implementation of institutional policies and international standards.

Because of the scale and character of the national preservation need, the PCS program places a distinct emphasis on the care of academic and research collections as a whole. Library collections and archival holdings include a wide variety of materials in addition to books and manuscripts made of paper, vellum, papyrus and leather. Collections also include textiles, photographic still and moving image materials, sound recordings, and electronic media. PCS students study the history and structure of different media and the processes and technologies by which collections materials are produced in order to understand their vulnerabilities, to curtail their rates of deterioration, and to protect against the loss of information about history and culture.

A student prepares a display for the school's booth at the Texas Book Festival

Degree Program Offerings
The preservation administration program focuses on the organization and management of preservation activities, while the conservation program emphasizes the technical aspects of applied conservation science and treatment procedures. Students receive a Master of Science in Information Studies (M.S.I.S.) degree with an Endorsement of Specialization for Preservation Administration and a Certificate of Advanced Studies for Conservation Studies.

Preservation Administration
The preservation administration degree program consists of 7 required PCS classes in addition to 6 School of Information requirements; students may take at least 5 electives. A total of 52 hours of coursework is required for graduation, which most students complete in 2-3 years. Click here for the preservation administration course matrix. (This matrix is for students starting in Fall 2002.)

The preservation practicum—a 120-hour field experience in a library or archives setting supervised by PCS faculty in cooperation with practicum site staff—forms the culminating experience for each preservation student. A variety of activities can be approved for a practicum, but the goal of the course is to provide practical experience in evaluating preservation needs, identifying solutions in the context of the site institution's collections and resources, and recommending actions to site staff in the form of a detailed report. Recent practica have included a pest management survey for UT-Austin libraries; an environmental survey of the Flawn Academic Center (which houses collections of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center); a general preservation planning survey of the Sophienburg Archives in New Braunfels, Texas; and a condition survey of magnetic tape recordings of extinct frog species at a Texas museum.

The Certificate of Advanced Study in Preservation Program is designed for professionals with a degree in library and information science who wish to acquire additional training in the field of preservation. For more detailed information on this program, please contact PCS.

Conservation
The conservation degree program consists of 14 required PCS classes and 6 School of Information requirements; students may take at least 4 electives. A total of 70 hours of coursework is required for graduation which students complete in 3 years. Click here for the conservation studies course matrix. (This matrix is for students starting in Fall 2002.)

During the second summer, conservation students carry out fieldwork in a research or rare book library, an archives, or historical society in order to develop their capability for planning and executing broad collections care. Recent fieldwork experiences have been conducted at Taliesin West, the Southwest Collection at Texas Tech University, the Austin History Center, and the Villasar de Dalt Archives near Barcelona, Spain.

A 7-month internship forms the culminating experience for conservation students. The goal is continuing development of binding or other treatment skills under professional supervision in the working environment of a recognized book or document conservation laboratory. This crucial opportunity allows conservator students to expand and consolidate their experience and polish their skills. Students have held internships at the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the Northeast Document Conservation Center, the New York Botanical Garden, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of California at Berkeley and the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia.

For detailed course descriptions, consult the School of Information Course Descriptions.