from Monthly Review
Demolishing the Palace of the Republic, A GDR Symbol
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An update, with more extensive background information, on an earlier news story on the impending demolition of an unfortunate architectural icon from the Cold War era. It is also highly ironic (or some might say retributory) that the Palace of the Republic was built on the grounds of a demolished older Prussian palace which suffered heavy damage in the Second World War.

The current decision on whether to demolish the building was put to a vote in parliament and unsurprising, perhaps, the result ran along party and faction lines. The loser in this instance is the collective heritage of the world at large. When politicians are given the final authority in deciding issues of heritage preservation, then it is inevitable that the final decision would suffer because of short-sighted (propagandistic) gains.

from Guardian
Good dramas need protection, just like historic buildings
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One interesting suggestion which seeks to list dramatic literature works according to their merit and rarity. The idea is to help theatre groups focus attention and resources on a range of possible productions based on artistic value rather than exclusively on market (or audience-size) value. As the "rare" dramas are being produced and staged with regular frequency, they are then "preserved", in the intangible sense.

from New York Times
Trying to Save Berlin Relic From the Dustbin
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Seldom do we think of preservation as politically motivated. However, in the case of East Berlin, and elsewhere, the weight of history confounds preservation decisions and priorities, which otherwise would be fairly academic :

"Their cause is broader than a single building: it is a revolt against historical censorship. ... they are fighting those who insist on pitting history against modernity, people who would seek to smooth over historical contradictions in favor of a more simplistic narrative."

Noticed a couple of weblogs with a focus on (heritage) preservation.

World Heritage Forum
From the weblog:

This website is made to exchange information on UNESCO World Heritage issues.

HangingTogether
From the weblog:

HangingTogether is a place where some of the staff at RLG, a membership organization of libraries, archives, and museums, can talk about the intersections we see happening between these three different types of institutions. We travel to our members a lot and go to conferences and wanted to be able to take note of the interesting things we see along the way. Stop in, stay awhile, and hang out.

from SB: Relaxing on the Bayou
Museum Podcasts
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As barriers to technology get lowered with each passing day, in terms of cost and ease of use for both content providers and users, we'll get to see greater flexibility and creativity in presenting museum content. Podcasting would be an easy way to distribute new content to an audience rather inexpensively. Using this technology to highlight conservation-related information based on the museum's collection on display would also be a real possibility! And this could be done by anyone whether working for the museum or otherwise (see earlier post here).