As cultural heritage institutions, libraries and archives are responsible for managing
collections in order to ensure access for present and future generations,
and sustainable preservation. In pursuing these two goals, institutions face the
challenge of determining to what extent preservation actions are beneficial in
the context of their own collections. This project contributes to the complex
decision-making processes of collections management by developing a mathematical
model that shows, quantitatively, the effects of different preservation decisions
during a collection’s lifetime. The novelty of this research lies in its approach
to preservation management not as single, independent measures, but
as a process that is part of a complex system: preservation management is not
seen in isolation, but in relation to the other archival and library functions in the
broader context of collections management. To meet this aim, complex systems
modelling and simulation paradigms, such as system dynamics (SD) and agentbased
modelling (ABM), are applied. Applying simulation to model preservation
management decisions has the potential to develop into an integrated approach
for evaluating and comparing the potential benefits of different preservation
measures, which, so far, is lacking. This model will support collection keepers
in the complex decision-making process of collection management by comparing
different strategies, and therefore finding potential synergies as well as
counter-intuitive decision outcomes which otherwise might not have been identified.