Why Preserve?
	A Repository for the Theological Community
	A History of ATLA's Preservation Department
	Staff
	Vault at Iron Mountain/NUS

Why Preserve?

Recognizing the rapid rate of deterioration of nineteenth and early twentieth century monographs and journals in religion, ATLA established its Serials Preservation Program in 1957. To date, ATLA has coordinated the filming of more than 1,600 journals. This work has been carried out with the support of individual libraries, library consortia, and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and other agencies. ATLA's Monograph Preservation Program has preserved more than 30,000 core titles in religion since 1985.

Paper materials are subject to decay due to the acid content of paper; this is especially true of serials and monographs printed after 1850. ATLA's adherence to the highest national standards of preservation insures the availability of materials on microfilm for up to 500 years.

In addition to solving the brittle paper problem, microfilm preservation also addresses the problem of physical loss of individual pages or serial issues. Librarians are well aware that materials occasionally disappear from their library shelves or are damaged in other ways. Some libraries may choose to keep a paper copy of journals for only a short period of time due to space constraints. Early preservation assures that the intellectual content of a title will remain intact and available for future use.

A Repository for the Theological Community

ATLA's preservation program is unique because we intentionally seek to preserve materials that will enable future scholarship in the areas of theology and religion. Through preservation grants, ATLA can insure the long-term security of microfilm masters in a central repository and facilitate the worldwide accessibility of preserved materials. When you preserve your library's print serials and monographs on microfilm through ATLA, you are also making these materials available to the wider theological community.

Preservation On-Demand Services

In February 2006, the Preservation Department closed down its On Demand microfilm program. The Preservation Department remains committed to the preservation of religious and theological materials and is currently exploring its transition into digital preservation initiatives. Following best practices for digital preservation, ATLA will continue to preserve religious and theological materials in formats that will make them more easily accessible than microfilm and will digitally preserve them for the long-term.

Staff

Vault at Iron Mountain/NUS

In 1996, ATLA acquired an underground vault at Iron Mountain/NUS in Western Pennsylvania for long-term storage of its camera masters. ATLA's current vault is 1,416 cubic feet. In February 2008, ATLA acquired a second vault with Iron Mountain of the same size, which is dedicated to the storage of our printing masters.