Preliminary Analysis of the Massachusetts Preservation Needs Assessment Survey.

As a result of a lack of information about the preservation of library and archives materials in Massachusetts libraries and records repositories, a survey was conducted to determine the preservation needs of public, academic and special libraries (including museums), manuscript repositories, historical societies and town clerks' offices. The questionnaire was mailed in January 1990 to 1,102 institutions, of which 958 returned completed surveys (87%). This report presents a description of the survey instrument and provides an analysis of the survey results in eight categories of information: (1) facility information; (2) environmental controls; (3) fire protection; (4) preservation issues; (5) library binding (non-rare books); (6) special collections/local history collections/archives; (7) disaster preparedness; and (8) institutional data. Concluding the report are eight tables that display the survey data by type of library. (MAB)