The Northeast Document Conservation Center, founded in 1973 as a non-profit conservation center devoted to the conservation and preservation of paper based materials, has as its mission: to improve the conservation efforts of libraries, archives, historical organizations, museums, and other repositories; to provide the highest quality services to institutions without in-house conservation facilities or those that seek specialized expertise; and to provide leadership in the preservation and conservation fields.
NEDCC fulfills its mission by:
- making available laboratory services for paper and book conservation as well as digital services;
- making available expertise for surveys, workshops, educational programs, consultation, publications, and Web tools on preservation in order to help institutions improve their collections care programs;
- providing disaster response, emergency assistance, and help with disaster planning and mitigation;
- playing a role in the training of conservators by providing advanced internships and supporting continuing education opportunities for its own conservation staff;
- serving as an advocate for preservation by raising public awareness of preservation issues and making preservation a higher priority for collection-holding institutions and for funding agencies;
- developing model programs and preservation strategies with potential for application to other parts of the country.