The Necessity and Priority of Preserving Cultural Documents as a National Collection for the Public

Abstract

A sustainable collection development in a national library requires long-term public trust. This article aims to clarify the necessity and priority of preserving conventional and unconventional types of documents as a national collection based on questionnaire surveys in Japan, focusing on public perceptions. The findings indicated that the public need conventional media such as books and journals with a high priority for preservation whereas the level of necessity and priority for archiving unconventional media, such as computer games and social media content, remains low. A logistic analysis suggests that time and exposure to unconventional media can gradually alter public attitude.