St. Louis Preservation Branch
The mission of the St. Louis Preservation Branch is to preserve the holdings of NARA’s regional archives to ensure timely and continued access to essential information. Our priority is to maximize the life expectancy of at-risk holdings by using sound conservation techniques, trusted reformatting technologies and preventative strategies. We adhere to the American Institute for Conservation’s (AIC) Code of Ethics and seek to further the understanding of these best practices.
In 1999, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) established a Preservation Program at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) to address the 6.5 million records saved from the disastrous 1973 fire at the NPRC. Preservation responsibilities expanded in 2004 when the National Archives at St. Louis opened and many of these records became permanent NARA holdings. At the same time, the Civilian Personnel records, also stored in St. Louis, were accessioned by NARA. In 2019 NARA’s revised Preservation Strategy included a proposed framework for St. Louis’ preservation services to support preservation and digitization of records held by NARA’s Regional Archives.
