Holdings

Holdings or how do additional copies play a role in reducing risk?

This is one of the four Preservation Factors (Fragility; Longevity; Format Obsolesence; Holdings) that go to make up the concept of Urgency or Likelihood of Loss.

Each of these technical factors have been given a ranking of one to five: one being the most at risk to five the least at risk.

1 – Highest Risk: One copy only held
2 – High Risk: No purpose made or unblemished copies
3 – Medium Risk: Any purpose made or unblemished copies
4 – Low Risk: Any high quality purpose made or unblemished copies held
5 – Negligible Risk: Many high quality copies held

How do additional copies play a role in reducing risk?

If you have only one copy of material for example on a fragile lacquer disc that might be a unique recording there is a high risk of losing that content from your collection. If you have two copies on a fragile format, the risk may be reduced only a small amount, if you have a copy on a non preferred format such as cassette, again the risk is reduced but not by a large amount. To decrease the risk to low or negligible, you must create preservation copies to the highest archival standards.