YES WE CAN DO IT: The Implementation of a Preservation Strategy – Chamber of Deputies' Brazil

Abstract

The Chamber of Deputies boasts a huge and significant collection related to the legislative history and memory of Brazil, which comprises library books, manuscripts, rare books, audiovisual materials, museum items and oversized panels from Athos Bulcão, Oscar Niemeyer and Di Cavalcanti.

Since its beginning, the preservation service faced many problems most of them related to lack of credibility, reliable knowledge of Institution’s collections and resources.

Aiming to change this scenario a broad preservation strategy was adopted, including the implementation of preventive conservation measures, the development of a learning heritage program, the employment of the risk management tool and the assessment of the collections’ significance.

This paper will describe each action taken during the last five years, showing how vital it was the implementation of an inclusive and coordinated plan to achieve long-term preservation of collections in a traditional political institution.