Overview

In the fall of 1984, SOLINET received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to establish a Preservation Field Services program for the Southeast. Through Field Services, SOLINET helped to educate staff in libraries and archives about preservation as a cost-effective collection management tool. Created in April 2009 by the merger of PALINET and SOLINET and joined shortly thereafter by NELINET, LYRASIS is the nation’s largest regional membership organization serving libraries and information professionals. LYRASIS Preservation Services continues and expands upon the work of the original program. Each of the original organizations offered preservation services to members, with a history of engaging and assisting members for over 25 years and those principles remain in place today in LYRASIS. Since its inception, the Preservation Services staff have been working with individual institutions to address analog and digital preservation concerns as well as emergency planning and response efforts of libraries, archives, and other cultural institutions.

The mission of Preservation Services is to improve institutions' abilities to maintain long-term, cost-effective access to information resources in both traditional and networked collections. This program is supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Division of Preservation and Access.