Abstract

Condition assessment of analog records is enforced to establish a preservation strategy and identify the damaged records by the Public Records Management Act and the public standard in Korea. However, the number of record management organizations where the condition assessment according to the act and the standard are actually conducted is limited in Korea. To find out what to change in the system and the practice of the condition assessment, the system and situation on the condition assessment of the paper-based records in Korea and other countries were investigated through literature research and a survey. Whereas Korean archives try to assess entire individual records, archives and libraries overseas apply condition assessment selectively depending on not only historical and cultural values of the records but also the vulnerability of compositional materials and severity of the damage of the records. It seems that archives and libraries overseas have a specific reason to conduct the assessment. Most of them take advantage of a sampling method not assessing every single item. Moreover, the periodical assessment is carried out in only about 50% of the responses. Therefore, we have to consider changing our condition assessment system to a more efficient and flexible way, adopting a sampling method and applying the assessment for selective collections with more specific purposes.