The objective of the meeting is to develop a National Plan for the Preservation of Astronomical Photographic Data.  Details of the plan itself will be published in the AAS Newsletter, American Institute of Physics publications, and posted on the websites of PARI, the PDPP, and appropriate IAU channels.

The three-day workshop is devoted to developing a national plan for the preservation and future use of astronomy's heritage of historic photographic observations.  For the past 140 years astronomers have made photographic observations. These unique and irreproducible observational data include direct images and objective-prism and slit spectra. These total an estimated 3 million photographs worldwide, most of which are negative glass plates. Well over half of the images and a large fraction of the spectra were exposed at North American observatories. Unfortunately, the future of this heritage is presently unresolved, and the material in increasing danger of being lost for ever. A plan must be developed if this irreplaceable material is to be preserved.

The principal objective of our workshop is to bring together those interested, influential and experienced in matters of plate archiving, preservation and digitization, in order to debate thoroughly the central issues of a national plan for astronomical plate preservation. These include:

• assessing the current state of photographic collections;
• establishing protocols and guidelines for the astronomical community in order to ensure the preservation of this material;
• evaluating the processes at the national repository now located at PARI;
• planning for the conversion of images to a digital format accessible via the web;
• and identifying a core team authorized to execute the plan.

Such fundamental decisions can only reasonably be made by a representative body of interested parties.

The proposed workshop will bring together those with the requisite expertise for developing a required national plan. The principal topics to be addressed at the workshop include:

• Current state and future of individual plate collections
• Rationale for and priorities in preserving these photographic records
• Components of a national plan for plate and data preservation
• The potential role of PARI in a national plan
• Preparing catalogues of the photographic material and their dissemination
• Digitizing the plates and making available the scientifically-useable information.

By publicizing the recommendations resulting from the discussions we will also increase awareness of the existence and potential scientific importance of preserving astronomy's valuable historic material.