Updating Preservation Policy in Facing New Potential Disasters in Indonesia

Abstract

The preservation policy guides higher education libraries in preserving library collections so that they can still be accessed by the academic community in any situation and at any time. For this reason, the preservation policy must be reviewed periodically referring to the risk analysis of new potential disasters that can occur at any time. The purpose of this study is to describe how the preservation policy of Islamic higher education libraries in Indonesia in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The research method was carried out with a survey approach with a questionnaire instrument. The sampling technique was carried out with saturated samples at 17 Islamic university libraries in Indonesia. The results showed that Islamic college libraries in Indonesia have made efforts to prepare for the COVID-19 pandemic according to IFLA standards with very good results, however, the library has not fully reviewed and updated the preservation policy regularly. Conclusion. The preservation policy needs to be reviewed and updated at least once a year to adopt preparations for potential new disasters. Recommendations: Improving the quality of digital libraries, applying ozone technology to sterilize library collections without leaving residues, forming disaster response teams and updating the roles of members every three months, mapping preservation activities that have been carried out according to current best practices and comparative studies to similar organizations, and cooperation with other units on campus and off campus to improve library services.