Preservation Self-Assessment Program

The Preservation Self-Assessment Program (PSAP) is a free online tool that helps collection managers prioritize efforts to improve conditions of collections. Through guided evaluation of materials, storage/exhibit environments, and institutional policies, the PSAP produces reports on the factors that impact the health of cultural heritage materials, and defines the points from which to begin care.

The PSAP supports targeted preservation assessments of paper documents, books and bound items, photographic and image materials, audio visual material, and non-composite museum objects made of ceramic, glass, stone, or metal; performs item- and collection-level assessments; provides textual and image-based educational resources to aid in the identification of different types of materials and their preservation challenges; addresses factors of both storage and display, applicable from open exhibitions to closed archives.