A preservation framework for Chinese ancient books Mingjie Li School of Information Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China, and Jinfang Niu School of Information Sciences, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA Abstract Purpose – This paper aims to provide a theoretical guide for preserving ancient books in China. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the history of the damage and preservation of ancient books in China, and analyzes the value attributes of ancient books: archaeological value, historical value and artistic value. Findings – The paper proposes a preservation framework for Chinese ancient books. This framework is composed of three layers. The foundation layer is to preserve the physical entity of ancient books so that the archaeological values are preserved. The middle layer is to preserve the intellectual content of ancient books so that the values for historical research are preserved. The top layer is mainly about preserving the productions process of the artistic format of ancient books, so that not only the static artistic formats are preserved, the techniques and procedures to produce the artistic format are preserved as well. Originality/value – The paper presents a framework that connects the value attributes of ancient books and the strategies to preserve those values, systematizes them and presents them as a whole. The framework can be used to justify government policies and help identify pitfalls in the preservation strategies for ancient books. Keywords Books, China, Historical research, Collections management Paper type Conceptual paper 1. Introduction According to The Standard for the Restoration and Control of Ancient Books by China Ministry of Culture (2006), Chinese ancient books are defined as “books written or printed before 1912, with classical binding and layout forms” such as bamboo slips, silk manuscripts, paper transcripts and rubbings, woodblock print books, movable wooden-type books, stone lithograph books and so on. In China, the term “rare books” usually refers to ancient books with high quality of collating, old block-printed editions or hand-written manuscripts by famous people. It is a subjective concept, varying from person to person during different historical periods. In the Song Dynasty (960-1279), people identified rare books mainly based on the quality of the intellectual content. In the Ming Dynasty (1368-1661), people identified rare books mainly based on printing styles and formats. In the Tsing Dynasty (1636-1911), people decided rare books based on both content and style. In the early 1980s when compiling the Chinese Rare Books Bibliography, some scholars proposed another criterion for rare book identification: rare books need to The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm This study is funded by the National Social Science Foundation Project of P.R.China (Item No. 08CTQ005). A preservation framework for Chinese books 259 Received 4 December 2008 Revised 1 June 2009 Accepted 22 July 2009 Journal of Documentation Vol. 66 No. 2, 2010 pp. 259-278 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0022-0418 DOI 10.1108/00220411011023652