The Universal Procedure for Library Assessment: A Statistical Model for Condition Surveys of Special Collections in Libraries

To project the needs for conserving and preserving special collections in libraries, the Flanders Heritage Library foundation developed the Universal Procedure for Library Assessment (UPLA), a model for damage assessment. This tool allows libraries to independently survey the physical condition of their collections. It also provides Flanders Heritage Library with the opportunity to collect much-needed statistics for policy making. UPLA describes the condition of the collection as a whole, based on a random sample of 300 items. Each of these items is assessed on 22 types of damage. Because of the systematic approach of the method, the results can be used for benchmarking: both over time and between libraries.