In establishing a planning process, it is necessary to have morale-boosting administrative support in the form of budgets and space, staff and peer support, and user support. The main elements in preservation program planning are as follows:

• Resource determination (what is available)
· Facilities and space
· Budgets
· Staff
· Evidence of support

• Needs determination (what is needed)
· Collections
· Facilities
· Practices and policies
· Budgets
· Facilities

• Priorities determination
· Long-term plan
· Ramping up

• Plan development
· Goals and objectives
· Strategies
· Statement of priorities
· Activities to attain objectives
· Resources necessary for activities
· Assignment of responsibility
· Schedule for goals, objectives, and activities

• Evaluation mechanisms
· Progress review of long-term plan
· Review of schedules

If a preservation professional is in place, the plan should be long-range, preferably a five-year plan. The most useful way to approach the process is to begin with an articulation of what the preservation program should be at the end of the five-year period. This should be followed by the design of each "ramp up" step, delineating what must be achieved every year in order to attain the end result. Clearly, a combination of the most pressing priorities and the most easily achievable aspects of the program would determine the order in which objectives are implemented. One strategy would be to analyze existing operations and their expenditures. This can often identify cost savings that can be used for further development, as well point to the possible re-deployment of staff.

The preservation professional should identify at least one task force of key staff from other areas of the library to help with developing the five-year plan. This will bring experienced professionals into the process and help to ensure that the overall plan has their support. The task force(s) should consider essential preservation program elements as necessary ingredients to the plan.

• Needs assessment
· Review of incoming materials
· Continuous review for collections/facilities

• Staff and user awareness training

• Care and stabilization of collections
· Environmental control and monitoring
· Security and emergency procedures
· Storage practices
· Exhibition monitoring

• Conservation treatment
· Stabilization of new acquisitions
· Repair of materials damaged by use
· Processing materials for commercial binding · Treatment of rare/semi-rare materials

• Reformatting
· Project reformatting of collections
· Use-driven reformatting of deteriorated items
· Reformatting for surrogate purposes
· Reformatting for access

•Cooperative opportunities and responsibilities

• Administrative initiatives
· Disaster and recovery planning
· Facilities planning