This year’s Preservation Week takes place from April 26 to May 2, 2020, with the theme of “Preserving Oral History.” Participating libraries will celebrate by offering special programs and services to connect library users with preservation tools, promote the importance of preservation and strive to enhance knowledge of preservation issues among the general public.
Roxane Gay. Photo credit: Jay Grabiec.
Bestselling author, educator and cultural critic Roxane Gay is teaming up with the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to share her years of experience as a writer, storyteller and social commentator during Preservation Week. A recurrent contributor to a variety of publications, including the New York Times, Gay writes about cultural, political and social issues.
“Preserving our cultural history is as important now as it has ever been,” Roxane states. “We are living in a time of great social turmoil, but this is not the first time the world has seen such upheaval, nor will it be the last. We know this because of preservation, because storytelling is such an integral part of social justice movements, and librarians have been committed to preserving those stories and other artifacts from these movements.”
Preservation Week is an opportunity to inspire action to preserve collections — in libraries, archives, and museums, of course, but especially the items held and loved by individuals, families, and communities. Preservation Week activities will also raise awareness of the role libraries and other cultural institutions play in providing sound preservation information.
Learn more at www.ala.org/alcts/preservationweek.