The Department of Preservation & Conservation coordinates services for the care and maintenance of the University Library's collections: to prevent damage, to extend useable life, or to repair damage. Operations include first-time hard-cover binding of serials and paperbacks, rebinding, deacidification, and repair of materials in the general collections as well as comprehensive conservation treatment of rare and special collections materials.

Preservation & Conservation staff routinely prepare and send selected materials out to contract vendors for binding or deacidification. Highly skilled specialists care for other materials in a well-equipped conservation laboratory located in the Buhr Building. Staff also act as technical advisors to the Library on such issues as storage and storage environments for collections, display, and disaster recovery.

Preservation & Conservation is divided into four functional units:
* Bindery Preparations
* Book Repair
* Conservation
* Mass Deacidification

If you are trying to contact Preservation Reformatting Services, they have moved to the Digital Library and are now referred to as the Digital Conversion Unit.

For information how to locate a book listed on MIRLYN as located in one of the Preservation & Conservation units, or to find out whom to contact for specific problems, go to the FAQ page.