Our Mission

The William and Margaret Kilgarlin Center for Preservation of the Cultural Record advances the preservation of the record of human experience, creativity, and discovery through education, research, and outreach.

Our Challenge

Today the amount of information documenting human work, creativity, and thinking increases at a staggering rate, especially in the sea of digital records created daily. This growth means that, more than ever before, we must carefully select and preserve those critical records that constitute our documentary heritage. The record of human endeavor can be found in a wide range of media: in books, on magnetic tape and parchment, and in film and photographs, to name only a few. Increasingly, people record information digitally, a format that provides uniquely challenging preservation issues. How do we preserve for future generations the range of record materials, especially those concentrated in libraries and archives, that constitute our legal, social, scientific, artistic and personal endeavors?

With a $1m gift from former Supreme Court of Texas Justice William Wayne Kilgarlin the School of Information has established the William and Margaret Kilgarlin Center for Preservation of the Cultural Record. The Center builds on the iSchool's renowned graduate education program in preservation administration and conservation, actively focusing national and international attention on preservation issues by conducting research, sponsoring symposia, and convening expert thinking on broad, timely, interrelated topics that address the management of our documentary heritage.