Dates

• Existence: 1994-

Biography

The Iowa Conservation and Preservation Consortium (ICPC) is a nonprofit organization that seeks to aid institutions and individuals to preserve and conserve items and collections in Iowa repositories and institutions. Their three main goals consist of increasing the awareness of preservation issues, to develop statewide preservation plans that will benefit the current and future generations, and to create an understanding and commitment to preservation activities.

Originally the organization was simply a cooperative venture that started in 1989. It was composed of academic librarians from all over Iowa meeting at a leadership retreat to identify and discuss mutual issues in their establishments. They realized preservation was one of their largest mutual problems and established a preservation working group, which in 1991, invited the State Historical Society of Iowa to help them transition from their current academic library based perspective to a multi-organizational group. In 1992 the working group disbanded to officially create the ICPC.

ICPC also created and maintains the Iowa Musuems, Archives, and Libraries Emergency Response Team (IMALERT) hotline. It was created to respond to cultural institutions during emergencies and disasters by coordinating with first responders, state and local agencies, vendors, and the wider public. Their goal is, after a disaster occurs, to access the damage to the collection materials, make recommendations for how to recover the collection, assist on making decisions about drying out buildings, to demonstrate and/or to start salvage operations.

Found in 1 Collection or Record: