The NALIS Preservation and Conservation (PAC) Laboratory, situated at the National Library Building, Port of Spain, will be officially commissioned on July 8 at 10:00 a.m. Dr the Honourable Tim Gopeesingh, Minister Education will deliver the feature address at this event.

The establishment of the PAC Laboratory enables NALIS to serve the preservation and conservation needs of its libraries as well as national archives, museums, universities and other institutions and repositories in Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean.
In 2004, NALIS was assigned the IFLA-PAC Regional Centre for the English-Speaking Caribbean. The laboratory has been serving the preservation and conservation needs of clients through fumigation/freeze-drying, conservation treatments, collection repair/bindery, disaster recovery, technical assistance and preservation training.

To mark the commissioning of the laboratory, NALIS will host the workshop, “Preservation for Caribbean Libraries and Archives: Exploration of Issues, Solution and Resources” from July 8 to 10, 2013. The workshop targets regional and local librarians, archivists and staff from cultural institutions and other repositories.

Workshop facilitator, Randy Silverman, a Preservation Librarian at the University of Utah’s Marriot Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, will provide participants with a basic understanding of library and archival preservation. The workshop will explore preservation principles and procedures as well as foster a preservation alliance or consortium among libraries and repositories in the region.Following the three-day workshop, on July 11, the public will be invited to participate in a Family Heirloom Preservation Clinic at which their possessions can be evaluated for authenticity. Pre-registration is required for participation at the workshop and the clinic.