The New York State Program for the Conservation and Preservation of Library Research Materials has awarded $31,734 to seven of the state's eleven comprehensive research libraries to participate in a cooperative needs assessment project entitled the "New York State Architectural Records Needs Assessment Project: a Blueprint for Action" (ARNAP). Project participants include the Syracuse University Library (project sponsor) and the libraries of Columbia University, Cornell University, State University of New York (SUNY) Albany, SUNY-Buffalo, University of Rochester and the New York Public Library. In addition, the New York State Archives recently joined the project, bringing the total number of participants to eight.

ARNAP consists of four phases, to be carried out from October 1992-March 1993, under the guidance of project consultant Lois Olcott Price, Senior Conservator, Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts. Based on the Research Libraries Group (RLG) Needs Assessment Instrument, as well as CALIPR (developed at the University of California-Berkeley), the intent of the project is to estimate the needs of architectural records collections by making inferences from a random sample.

Phase I of ARNAP consisted of a two-day seminar entitled "On the Care and Management of Architectural Records," held at the Oneida Community Mansion House on October 27-28, 1992. Seminar participants included two individuals from each participating institution (the preservation program representative, or designee, and the person to whom the institution has given primary responsibility for the care and maintenance of its architectural records), eleven distinguished speakers, and a small group of invited guests. The purpose of the seminar was yto acquaint the project participants (many of whom have had little or no prior knowledge about architectural records) with the variety of issues associated with the care and management of these materials.

Phase II (in progress, spanning November 1992-January 1993) involves each of the eight institutions conducting a needs assesssment survey of 400 items randomly drawn from their respective target collections. Prior to the survey, the participants attended a one-day needs assessment training workshop on November 20, 1992, at Syracuse University, which was conducted by Lois Olcott Price (Project Consultant), Martha Hanson (Project Manager/Preservation Administrator, Syracuse University Library), and Mark F. Weimer, Curator of Special Collections, Syracuse University Library.

Phase III (February 1993-March 1993) will involve the development of eight institutional architectural records preservation plans. In February 1993, participants will attend a one-day meeting at Syracuse, the goal of which will be to outline the processes involved in developing implementable preservation plans. Each plan will be based on the preservation needs and priorities identified by an institution as a result of its needs assessment survey. A crucial aspect of this phase will be the incorporation of the factor of feasibility into the planning process -- e.g., introducing information about an institution's resource capability to support potential preservation program activities.

Phase IV (March 1993) will involve a one-day meeting at Syracuse, during which the participants will share the results of their institutional plans, as well as identify collective preservation priorities. Based on these priorities, the group will a cooperative proposal (or proposals) for seeking preservation plans. In addition, the participants will evaluate the NYS/ARNAP.

Anticipated outcomes of the NYS/ARNAP include:

The development of an architectural preservation/access plan for each participating institution, which will be tailored to the specific needs, priorities, and resource capabilities identified for each institution during the course of the project.

The emergence of state-wide priorities for handling the preservation and access needs of architectural records collections.

The creation of a resource group to which other institutions of all types, located within New York state and beyond, can turn for assistance in the care and management of their collections of architectural records.

An articulation of the broad array of issues surrounding the care and management of architectural records collections. The proceedings of the two-day seminar and the completed institutional preservation plans will be compiled in a publication which will be disseminated widely throughout New York state and beyond.

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