A Comparison of Standard Practice Treatments in Research Library Book Conservation, 2007 to 2017 (original) (raw)
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Identifying Standard Practices in Research Library Book Conservation
Library Resources & Technical Services, 2010
The field of research library conservation has emerged as a distinct discipline and undergone major refinements during the past fifty years. Professional organizations and training programs have been established, new treatment techniques have been developed and promoted, and increasingly, special and general collections practitioners have collaborated on treatment solutions. Despite such dramatic growth and definition within the field, no comprehensive assessment of the book treatment practices employed by research libraries for special and general collections has been conducted. In response to this need, the authors undertook a study to investigate and document the types of treatments employed by research libraries to conserve and maintain their book collections, and to compare the practices used for special collections with those used for general collections. This paper describes the evolution of the field over the past fifty years and identifies book conservation techniques the study found to be routinely, moderately, or rarely employed in research libraries. A comparison of special and general collections treatment practices suggests that while notable differences exist, many treatment practices are common in both contexts. Implications of the study's results and potential applications for this new information are stated.
The American Archivist, 1998
This article reports and interprets data collected from a 1995 survey of special collections repositories at Association of Research Libraries institutions. It covers part one of the survey—current practices in preservation management. One hundred thirteen institutions represented by 170 archives/manuscripts repositories were asked to participate, of which 143 institutions, or 84.1%, did so. This is the second largest sample of archives' preservation activities ever gathered in the United States. The goals of the study were, first, to create a base of data on the development of archival preservation programs in research institutions and interpret that data and, second, to understand the extent to which the archives and library preservation departments interact in their common mission to ensure the availability of research materials to present and future generations. The study is unique in its investigation of the interrelationships between the archival repository's and the l...
2016
He charged the task force to plan and conduct multiple surveys of the physical condition of the collections in the libraries on the Lawrence campus (except the Law Library and the Spencer Research Library). The condition surveys were conducted in two segments. One segment focused on materials returning from circulation, in which a random sample of 495 volumes was surveyed from returns to Watson and the branch libraries. The second segment focused on general collections materials from the stacks, in which 3,679 volumes, selected randomly, were surveyed in Watson and the branch libraries. All survey information was entered directly into a computer database. Following is a brief summary of findings from the condition surveys. Unless specified otherwise, percentages represent conditions for the Libraries' general collections stacks survey: • 65.8 percent of the volumes in the KU Libraries are printed on acidic paper.
Findings from the Condition Surveys Conducted by the University of Kansas Libraries
College Research Libraries, 1997
As part of establishing a strategic plan for preservation at the University of Kansas (KU) Libraries, a task force was organized to conduct two collection condition surveys. One survey focused on materials returning from circulation, and the other looked at the general collections. Materials returning from circulation were surveyed to determine their condition because most preservation efforts at KU are "use" driven. The survey of the entire collection shed light on the physical condition of KU's overall holdings. This information aided in long-term preservation planning. Survey data from the more than 4,000 volumes were entered directly into a computer database using laptop computers. This facilitated quick data entry, improved the accuracy of the information, and made data analysis easier. The results of the survey have had farreaching effects in determining library policy, from influencing a decision to switch to a paperback-preferred purchasing policy, to increasing awareness of space and facility concerns throughout the libraries, to heightening user awareness of preservation issues.
2013
Over the past decade, special collections and archives have become an increasingly important focus of academic and research libraries thanks to the pioneering ―Exploring Hidden Collections‖ survey conducted by Judith Panitch in 1998 and the subsequent formation of ARL‘s Special Collections Working Group. Special collections have responded by undertaking large-scale projects to process backlogs, digitize materials for scholarly access and enjoyment, and conduct more instructional outreach for students. Nevertheless, in the current climate in which ARL libraries are examining their value and impact with an eye toward defining their return on investment, special collections and archives are not well-prepared to define the value they contribute because they lack standardized performance measures and usage metrics. In this paper, we propose strategies for overcoming this impasse by shifting from collection-centric to user-centric approaches to defining metrics for special collections and archives, and by identifying appropriately precise measures that can be consistently and widely applied to facilitate cross-institutional comparisons. We explore, for example, the potential benefits of employing a ―reader-hour‖ in place of the commonly used ―reader-day‖ metric, and correlating it with item usage data in order to gauge the intensity of special collections reading room use. We also discuss attempts to assess the impact of instructional outreach through measures of student confidence in pursuing research projects that involve original documents as primary sources. Defining suitable metrics will enable special collections and archives to better assess and articulate their value propositions in the context of the rapidly evolving landscape of research libraries. For slides used during our conference presentation, see: http://independent.academia.edu/ChristianDupont/Talks/37213/\_Whats\_So\_Special\_About\_Special\_Collections\_Or\_Assessing\_the\_Value\_Special\_Collections\_Bring\_to\_Academic\_Libraries
THE NEED PRESERVATION OF BOOKS IN LIBRARIES: THE ENVIRONMENT
Books and other library materials should not be seen as physical items shelved on the stacks, they should be regarded more for the important information they contain, and how useful this information is for users seeking to satisfy their needs or passion for reading these materials. However, these materials should be regarded as objects governed by the same laws that affect all organic materials. This probably justifies why some preservation administrators request that library science education should have a compulsory course about preservation to help all librarians understand the value of the items they deal with on a daily basis. Deterioration is a change of original state of any material by interaction between the object and the factors of destruction. The different types of deterioration are reflected in wear and tear, shrinkage, cracks, brittleness, distortion, bio infestation, discoloration,abrasion, hole, dust and dirt accumulation, etc. Deterioration as a loss of quality in any library material that decreases its ability to carry out its intended function. Generally, deterioration results from a number of variant factors classified into two main categories; inherent and external. Such categories include environmental, human, biological, chemical and natural. For purposes of this study, concern will be addressed to environmental and human factors only.