Preservation professionals should emphasize that preservation is one of the most important costs of doing business because it safeguards institutional assets. While grant funding plays an important role, institutions themselves need to support preservation.

Even within libraries themselves, there is often little understanding of the need for preservation and the strategic value that a coherent preservation program can bring. Although unique cultural artifacts are regarded with pride by institutions and nations, their preservation must often be secured through reliance on the generosity of strangers. Library administrators need to be informed about the value of preservation and must then convince institutional administrators and government officials that preventive action to save collections is significantly less expensive than trying to recover badly damaged research materials.

New technology has the capacity to vastly improve access to research materials, providing the materials are available for conversion at the right time. While the amount of digital information increases daily, and digital versions of research library materials ease the task of the scholar, only a very small fraction of research collections will ever be converted to digital format. In part, this is because of the sheer size of accumulated collections, but it is also because most electronic information is commercially produced and much of what scholars hold dear has little commercial value.

It is therefore important that the preservation professional, through careful planning, communicate the importance of his or her mission within the individual library, institution, region, and nation.