ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 238 / C & R L News B rittle b o o k s in o u r n a tio n ’s lib ra ries By D avid C. W eber Director, University Libraries Stanford University The statement submitted by A R L and A L A before the Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education, Committee on Education and Labor, U.S. House of Representatives, March 3,1987. I am David C. Weber, director of the Stanford University Libraries, member of the Association of Research Libraries and chair of its Committee on Preservation of Research Library Materials, also a member of the American Library Association and past president of its Association of College and Re­ search Libraries. While you have heard of the frightful rate at which valuable cultural records are becoming em­ brittled, this “brittle books” challenge must be faced and corrections made over the next two to three decades or we all shall have lost a good deal of who and w hat we are. To pu t it in a local context, I shall describe the s itu a tio n in m y hom e to w n , P alo A lto, California—a city of some 60,000 people, includ­ ing many scientists, engineers, teachers, govern­ ment officials, students and writers. An individual interested in a current political is­ sue and concerned w ith its antecedents, causes, and past corrective attem pts has available the fol­ lowing: • A fine public library w ith over 230,000 vol­ umes. • The nearby Stanford University Libraries and the Hoover Institution, together having 5.5 million volumes, also nearly 3 million microtext sheets and large numbers of maps, motion picture films, pho­ tographs, prints, slides, sound recordings and data sets. • And within 20 miles there are a state university library, two private college libraries, four commu­ nity college libraries, and a dozen other public li­ braries linked by a State Library inter-system ser­ vice. A richness for th at individual pursuing a politi­ cal issue? Yes and no. The resources for study are, at 6 million volumes and upwards of 60 million manuscripts, far greater than in most communities for 60,000 people. The Hoover Institution alone has more archival records of social action than many entire states. However, over a quarter of these resources are now so fragile that use is perilous, and in little more than a decade any use will be problematic due to the rapid decay of paper. Most of those resources are housed in quarters where tem peratures bake the materials several months of the year, a situation gradually being corrected at Stanford and elsewhere. Resources in the West amount to only a fraction of w hat they are in the East and Northeast, even the Midwest. The hinterlands are in fact most of these United States. Requests for interlibrary loan increasingly result in no availability because the owning library indicates its book is too fragile to loan, and a microfilm does not exist, or by policy M ay 1987 / 239 original letters and archival documents do not cir­ culate outside the building, and again no film copy exists. How frustrating for the individual researcher! How lim iting if one does not live in W ashington, New York, Philadelphia, or Boston! How frighten­ ing to realize th a t the condition is nationwide, of awesome proportions, and getting worse every year! C oncerning in te rlib ra ry loan of m icrofilm s, there is a significant traffic of this type, though it is much less than of books or photocopies provided in lieu of the volume. An institution like Stanford University lends to all kinds of libraries—public and school libraries, county and state libraries, agencies of government, commercial and not-for- profit research organizations, as well as com m u­ nity colleges, four-year colleges and universities. In a recent year, Stanford has lent microfilms to insti­ tutions as far away as the State University of New York a t B u ffa lo , C o lu m b ia , F lo rid a , Johns Hopkins, Princeton, Rutgers, Virginia, and Yale. Libraries are experienced in lending this type of m aterial. All academic and most public libraries have reading machines available for 35mm film. Pre-filming activities, including collation and cre­ ation of film captions (targets), and technical speci­ fications for filming, including quality control pro­ cedures, have been well established by national and international professional and standards orga­ nizations, w ith m ajor contributions over the past 40 years by the Library of Congress. The production of preservation microfilms is, in fact, one of long standing. Starting in the early 1930s there have been programs in some university libraries, and other research libraries such as the New York Public Library, to make archival master film copies of brittle m aterial, copies from which public reading copies are m ade, thereby archivally assuring availability of the original text for future generations. This preservation film ing, sometimes the by­ product of an interlibrary loan request, is in the in­ terest of the nation as a whole. It is true th a t the institution making the negative film is protecting its own investment in the original. But it is every bit as im portant to readers, students and scholars else­ where throughout the country th at the content be archivally preserved. Otherw ise it m ay be lost ...perm anently. Let me use one example. In the early 1950s at the H arvard University Library, I was responsible for a foreign newspaper microfilm project th a t had been originated in 1938 w ith Rockefeller Founda­ tion funds. One of the challenges th a t was under­ taken was to prepare a complete master microfilm of every issue of Pravda and Izvestia. The first of these Russian newspapers began publishing March 18, 1917, and the second on February 28, 1917. The task was to complete the file for the first 20 years. This required obtaining negative film from copies of individual issues held at Columbia, the New York Public Library, the Hoover Institution, H arvard, the British Museum Library, the Bib- liothèque Nationale, the Bibliothèque de Docu­ m entation Internationale Contem poraine in Paris, and a few issues found only in Moscow itself. Even so, the m aster archival film still lacked 24 issues from 1917, nine in 1918, one in 1919, four in 1920, and one in 1921. One can reflect, however, on how im portant was th at preservation effort, as just one example of this ubiquitous “brittle books” problem. Copies of th a t film have now been sold to many libraries here and abroad. It is the only nearly complete record of these prim ary sources, regardless of where in the world an individual m ay be working. Brittle books reside in libraries of all sizes and types. How any one library addresses the brittle book problem depends on a num ber of factors in­ cluding but not limited to the num ber of brittle books to be treated , the film ing and processing equipm ent, trained staff, and financial support available to the library. There is general agreement w ithin the library com m unity th a t it is unrealistic for every library to develop in-house facilities capa­ ble of producing archival-quality microfilming of brittle books. Reform atting is an expensive under­ taking and in-house facilities are difficult to justify unless a library anticipates a significant volume and steady flow of b rittle books to be treated. W hile there are a few exceptions, only the larger li­ braries have developed in-house programs to treat brittle books. Such operations serve their own insti­ tutional needs as well as serving the needs of other libraries as a source of microfilm to replace brittle books. Libraries w ithout in-house preservation fa­ cilities, w ith just as serious a problem but w ith fewer numbers of brittle books, face an extra h u r­ dle of identifying a laboratory or service agency w here their unique m aterials m ay be treated. Smaller libraries facing this special problem m ight take a num ber of different approaches. In some cases, a nearby library th at has developed an in-house facility m ight provide preservation ser­ vices for other libraries. A few commercial firms can handle archival microfilming. In addition, re­ gional non-profit preservation laboratories have been established as cooperative and “m utual help” projects. One regional center is the Northeast Doc­ u m en t C onservation C en ter (N ED CC) in A n­ dover, Massachusetts; developed w ith funds from the Council on Library Resources, the National E n d o w m e n t for th e H u m a n itie s, an d p riv a te sources, the Center has evolved into a full-service treatm ent facility for preservation of research m a­ terials. Another center is the Mid–Atlantic Preser­ vation Service, based at Lehigh University. Each of these options has its limitations. Some commercial facilities th a t have tradition­ ally provided filming services mainly for business records have developed or are developing new ser­ vices to film brittle books for libraries to exacting archival standards. In this regard, considerable ef­ 240 / C & R L N ew s fort has been m ade from C alifornia to V irginia by need by establishing the Office of Preservation. I could hardly exaggerate how im p o rtan t this N EH Preservation Program will be to libraries, though the funding has yet been m uch too small. G rants available from the D ep artm en t of E ducation u n ­ der the H igher E ducation Act, Title I I –C, consti­ tu te another source of funding of extrem e im por­ tance to a national preservation effort. F ortunately foundations such as the A ndrew W . Mellon F oun­ dation have also provided significant support. The S tate of N ew York has budgeted an exem plary statew ide preservation program , and individual li­ braries have also built into their basic operating budgets a substantial com m itm ent of financial re­ sources. As examples, some college and a few university libraries have found th a t they could com m it 1 % to 3 % of their operating monies to their preservation effort. A substantial num ber of ARL libraries have m ade m ajor efforts to increase this and are now com m itting 3% to 5% of their budget. A few li­ braries, all too few, have been able to budget as m uch as 6% to 8% of their total expenditures for preservation activities. The very significant effort libraries have m ade to address this problem is clear w hen a com parison is m ade betw een the am ounts they have spent on preservation activities and the am ounts spent on acquisition of new m aterials for the collection. From 10% to 25% of their entire m aterials budget is spent for binding, m icrofilm ­ ing, or other preservation treatm en t. This can be regarded as a m easure of the problem , the urgency w ith w hich the need is viewed by the adm inistra­ tions of these libraries. O ne m ight ask how priorities can be set w hen li­ braries are able to spend lim ited sums on the pres­ ervation of m aterials and yet the problem is of aw e­ som e d im e n s io n . L e t m e c ite a h y p o th e tic a l example, based on a program designed for the As­ sociation of Research Libraries. ARL has used a docum entary conspectus to provide a descriptive m ap of the strength of existing collections and cu r­ re n t collecting efforts in specific subject fields. T h a t d a ta could provide th e basis for selecting w hich m em bers of ARL could best be asked to u n ­ dertake preservation responsibility in this or th a t subject. Since lib ra ry collections are not d u p li­ cates, tw o or even three libraries m ay need to pool their resources for adequate coverage of one sub­ ject. T h a t sum of archival m icrofilm w ill th en function as the representative collection of record for th a t subject field. T he Research Libraries G roup of institutions has followed the same strategy. (RLG is a C onnecticut corporation form ed and supported by about three dozen research universities and libraries, w ith ser­ vices used by m any libraries scattered from M ary­ land and F lorida to C olorado and C alifornia.) One of its long-standing program s is dedicated to the p re se rv a tio n of research lib ra ry m a te ria ls. Its m em bers, nearly all of w hom are also m em bers of the Am erican L ib rary Association and the Associa- individual librarians and library associations to ed­ ucate people operating such com m ercial facilities about the special requirem ents for the film ing of b rittle books, as well as educating librarians as po­ tential customers of such services to the inform a­ tion filmers need from them . By w ay of example, I w ould like to note th a t the Association of Research Libraries, in partnership w ith N E D C C and w ith funding from the A ndrew W . Mellon F oundation and the N ational Historical Publications and Records Commission, has devel­ oped a comprehensive instructional m anual to as­ sist in preservation m icrofilm ing. W e expect p u b li­ cation of th e m an u al by th e A m erican L ib ra ry Association this year. The m ajority of libraries will seek services ou t­ side their ow n organization to tre a t their brittle books. They will require m any of the same things as libraries w ith an in-house p ro g ra m : • Staff train ed to assess the extent of the “brittle book problem ” in a library collection, to develop a strategy for addressing the problem , and to coordi­ nate the work. • An internal process to identify, insure com ­ pleteness of and prioritize the m aterial needing treatm en t, w ith in the context of a national stra t­ egy. • M a n a g e m e n t s u p p o r t, e .g . o p e r a tio n a l models, guidelines, instructions, m anuals, public inform ation program s and staff workshops for con­ tinuing education. • Bibliographic inform ation w ithin a national netw ork to determ ine w h eth er the b rittle m aterials in library collections are unique, w hether the item has already been reform atted and the microfilm available, or w hether the item has been selected for film ing b u t not yet treated elsewhere. (As noted elsewhere in my statem ent, the availability of such bibliographic inform ation is absolutely essential for using our lim ited resources most effectively.) • Funding to support staff to identify b rittle m a ­ terials th a t require reform atting and to pay for a r­ chival preservation film ing, entering of the revised bibliographic d a ta into a national database, and storage locally or elsewhere of the archival m aster file under archival conditions. Libraries w ithout in–house preservation facili­ ties have one urgent need, however: m ore regional and cooperative centers. T he n u m b er is slowly growing bu t most of the country is still unserved in this regard. E ncouragem ent as well as financial support is necessary. A survey of scholars by the N ational H um anities Alliance revealed th a t their high priority in the area of hum anities scholarship was the preserva­ tion of research library m aterial. M embers of the American L ibrary Association and the Association of Research Libraries have been aw are of this cru ­ cial need. It was therefore most welcome news in 1985 w hen the N ational E ndow m ent for the H u ­ m anities expanded its response to this n atio n al IT WOULD TAKE YOU AROUND fo u r minutes to boil this egg IT WOULD TAKE YOU AROUND s ix ty seconds to access our million title database via o u r LIBTEL system So w hy m ake a m ea l o u t o f acquiring B ritish academic books? John Menzies has the perfect recipe. W e’re based in England and have a database of over 1,000,000 British titles. It takes just 60 seconds to access this database via our LIBTEL system which is available 24 hours a day for the cost of a local telephone call. LIBTEL provides: □ Enquiry and pre–order verification on over 1,000,000 British titles. □ On-line ordering. □ Hard copy order confirmation and reporting. We believe that we’re faster, more competitive and more reliable than whoever you’re currently dealing with and our complete range of Library Services includes: M E N Z IE S □ Comprehensive new title forms service. □ Subject listings – new and back list titles from our database. 24 Gamble Street □ Lully automated Periodicals and Continuations subscription service. Nottingham John Menzies have been active in book selling since 1833. Today we’re part NG7 4LJ of an international Library Supply Network. Our associates include Coutts England Library Services and Readmore in N orth America as well as Bennetts in PH: 602 708021 Australia. TWX: 37577 W e’re well established, efficient, fast and dependable. We don’t just deliver JMLSNG G the goods. We deliver the goods quickly. Check us out and see. PAX: 602 787718 To obtain your LIBTEL access code or more information get in touch with Electronic mail Mike Dyche or Jo Buxton in Nottingham now – by phone (collect), Telex, Pax OCLC DX: MNZ or Electronic Mail. W.L.N: MENZ 242 / C & R L N ew s tion of Research Libraries, have for four years been pursuing a focused and carefully worked out p ro ­ gram of preservation microfilming. A conspectus of com parative collection strengths has been as­ sembled. Libraries w ith special strength in a dis­ crete subject field have undertaken film ing of those item s, co ncentrating first on U.S. im prints b e­ tw een 1850 and 1920. A com puter database rec­ ords decisions to film and lists re su ltan t m aster films. Masters are stored archivally by a Pennsylva­ nian com m ercial firm . A broader cooperative a t­ tack on a similar prioritization basis, extended to foreign im prints and more recent publications, is now being fashioned by RLG. For an example, Chinese language m aterials of 1880-1949 are now being filmed. W hile national standards w ould be used for a n a tio n a l p ro g ra m of p re se rv atio n film ing, th e processes and priorities used to identify items for preservation w ould be left to the discretion of sub­ ject experts in the individual institution. In the in­ terest of cost-effectiveness, all variants of a popular history or text w ould not be film ed, though all vari­ ant editions of a literary w ork would be. Also ex­ cluded w ould be, e.g ., offprints and facsimiles. W ithin the subject designation assigned to a p artic­ ular library, funds w ould be used to concentrate on the m aterials identified as being in the most brittle or physically deteriorated state. Once preservation copies have been m ade of those th a t are most en­ dangered, one w ould then tu rn to those th a t will be in a sim ilar state in another five or ten years, and so on in a progressive conversion effort. The need to preserve representative rath er than exhaustive collections for all subject areas requires th at scholars and librarians plan w ithin a national context and use lim ited resources in a coordinated fashion. Thus a “national collection” consisting of individual collections of discrete subjects at differ­ ent institutions will be form ed w ith m inim al dupli­ cation and w ith future access assured for everyone. L ater there m ay be the chance to supplem ent th a t national collection w here other libraries can fill in significant gaps. But only in this systematic w ay can we guarantee th a t a balanced national collec­ tion of m aterials in all subject fields will be avail­ able in the next century. I do not m ean to suggest th a t all of the proce­ dures and m ethods have been agreed to; quite the c o n tra ry . Yet th e objective is univ ersally su p ­ ported. The standards are well understood. The dependability of preservation m icrofilm ing is well established. The longtim e value of this investm ent is assured by storage of the m aster negative in se­ cure vault-like quarters w ith suitable atm ospheric conditions. As the ARL testified in M arch 1986 before the House Subcom m ittee on A ppropriations for the In ­ terior D epartm ent and R elated Agencies (includ­ ing funding for the N ational E ndow m ent for the H um anities), libraries also recognize an absolute requirem ent for a national bibliographic record, or catalog, w hich records w hen the preservation copy has been m ade, w here it exists, and thereby p u b ­ licly records w here use copies m ay be purchased or borrow ed. “Given the enormous am ount of m ate­ rial to be preserved, the urgency to move ahead as quickly as possible, and the lim ited funding avail­ able, duplication m ust be avoided. Technology provides a reasonable solution: register local deci­ sions to preserve a book, new spaper or any research m aterial in a widely available database to alert others th a t the title need not be treated elsewhere and th a t the title is, or will be, available for use. Reasonable access to inform ation about w h at titles have already been preserved or identified for tre a t­ m ent is a basic elem ent of the infrastructure neces­ sary to move this national objective ahead in a co­ operative and expeditious m anner. In short, we require a basic bibliographic structure in place to m ake wise preservation decisions.” Since th a t hearing, I am very pleased to report t h a t th e M ello n F o u n d a tio n a n d N E H h a v e aw a rd ed th e Association of Research L ibraries $1,200,000 in funds to convert all m onographic records in the N ational Register of Microform Mas­ ters (located in the L ibrary of Congress) into a m a­ chine readable database, one th a t will be available tw o years from now in the RLG d atab ase, the O C LC database, the W estern L ibrary Network database and others. This project will be a grand achievem ent, providing a basic building block for the national bibliographic netw ork necessary for economical preservation of brittle books. Since we know the m agnitude of the problem and since we have a methodology for selecting how and w here to begin our attack, it is apparent th a t a solution to the problem is at hand if we act to­ gether. Let me add to its solution by providing the answers to three other key questions. 1. W h a t are the appropriate Federal, State and private sector roles in efforts to address this prob­ lem? E ach sector plays a key role, as I have sug­ gested in the picture described above. Essential co­ o p e r a tiv e p la n n in g is p ro v id e d by such organizations as ALA, ARL, RLG and the Council on L ibrary Resources. The new N ational Com mis­ sion on Preservation and Access can play a lead role. The L ibrary of Congress has for years done us all a great service w ith its research and develop­ m ent w ork and its publicizing and proselytizing of the state of the preservation a r t—including in ter­ national coordination work. The N ational Agricul­ tu ral L ibrary and the National L ibrary of M edi­ cine have also initiated preservation program s of value nationally and internationally. The G overn­ m ent P rinting Office should be encouraged to work w ith librarians, archivists and paper companies to establish and apply standards for acid-free paper and binding as appropriate for a good p a rt of gov­ ernm ent publications. The Higher E ducation Act Title I I –C program and the N ational Historical P ublications and Records Com mission program are modestly funded b u t m ake significant contri­ M ay 1987 / 243 butions to the national preservation strategies. The program of the Office of Preservation in the Na­ tional Endowm ent for the Humanities should be greatly strengthened. 2. W hat procedures are necessary to ensure pub­ lic access to preserved materials? Part of the answer is easy, since public, academic and independent re­ search libraries have a long-standing commitment to access. In addition, it requires that individual in­ stitutions, professional associations and funding agencies insist that bibliographic data be currently m aintained on w hat is in the queue for filming, w hat has been completed and by whom. It requires that reading copies of the master films be readily available and publicized, and that the interlibrary services staff and users consider films as routine rather than exceptional loans. There is a role here for ALA, ARL, and consortia such as RLG. 3. A nd w hat are the costs and who should bear them? The Council on Library Resources has made fair estimates of the total cost. The total effort we face is daunting, perhaps on the order of tens of millions of dollars. While each group might like some other to pay full costs, th at is patently unreal­ istic. A consensus exists among libraries that costs must be shared; some costs must be covered locally. Start up costs in particular need government and foundation help. Ongoing costs require local budg­ eting for at least a significant share, with endow­ m ent support for preservation programs in re­ search libraries to the extent possible. Yet one must recognize th at libraries generally are so meagerly financed th at there is little budget­ ary potential for dealing with problems of ten or fifty years hence when current book budgets and clientele services are severely beleaguered. The brittle books problem is a national concern, and in­ deed worldwide. Recognizing that, Federal sup­ port for a few decades is essential. A major share of start up costs should be a Federal responsibility, as should a strong portion of local operating costs. Just as the Federal highway system is financed as being in the nation’s interest, for both civilian and national defense purposes, exactly so should the “brittle books” system be financed as in the nation’s interest: Students, scholars, our defense structure, our very civilization demands no less protection against the now recognized seeds of cultural de­ struction. Thus it seems evident th at there must be a Fed­ eral role, sharing the effort w ith state, local and in­ stitutional authorities. Resolutions supporting a second W hite House Conference on Library and Information Services for 1989 have been introduced in the House and the Senate (H.J. Res. 90 and S.J. Res. 26). I call atten­ tion to this proposal on this occasion because we an­ ticipate such a forum could provide an opportunity to focus national attention on the catastrophic con­ sequences of the deterioration of printed material in the nation’s libraries. As this hearing demon­ strates, Congress is aware of the problem and is ac­ 244 / C & R L N ew s tively engaged in defining an appropriate federal role to contribute tow ard a solution. But we all ac­ knowledge th a t Congress cannot solve the problem alone—nor can any other single agent. The enor­ m ity of the problem and the costs associated w ith developing and im plem enting program s to p re ­ serve brittle books dictate a responsibility w ithin every sector of the nation. Therefore, while the proposed W hite House Conference on L ibrary and Inform ation Services will not “solve” the brittle book problem we consider here today, it would provide a forum to continue to raise the level of un­ derstanding about the scope and seriousness of the challenge we all face. W e appreciate the support members of the Subcommittee showed in the past for the Conference and hope we m ay count on th at support continuing again this year. To sum up: W e recognize the urgency and m ag­ nitude of the library m aterials preservation prob­ lem. W e have a plan whereby decisions can be m ade as to w hat m aterial needs preservation and in w h at priority. W e have a rough idea of the costs in­ volved. W e accept the concept of reasonable cost sharing. And we are rather well equipped—except for the lack of a federal policy of com m itm ent to help resolve the problem of brittle library m ateri­ als, and except for sufficient funding. To improve access to cultural resources and safe­ guard our own future, the Congress must act, p ro­ viding leadership and help w ith financial aid. On behalf of the Association of Research Libraries and the American Library Association, I request your support. ■ ■ S ta lk in g th e e lu siv e g r e y lite r a tu r e B y P e te r A llison Head, T am im ent Institute Library N ew York University A neglected category of materials w ith very special problems. We call it grey or fugitive literature because it eludes easy definition. I t ’s all around us, b u t it is seldom central to our concerns as librarians or in­ form ation professionals. You can’t buy it in book­ stores and most of it isn’t m arketed very actively to libraries. Although most grey literature is aim ed at a non-academ ic audience, there is an active strain of grey literature w ithin the scholarly com m unica­ tion process. Special libraries have always collected grey literature and used it effectively w ithin a me­ diated environm ent. Larger, centralized academic libraries have found it problem atic. Changes in the r e w a r d system w ith in h ig h e r e d u c a tio n a n d greater emphasis on the training of professionals and practitioners have increased interest in this sort of m aterial. At the same time, traditional solutions th a t have provided access and bibliographic con­ trol to large bodies of grey lite ratu re are being called into question. Most grey literature does not contribute to the growth of fundam ental knowledge. It applies exist­ ing knowledge to real w orld problems. It digests an d su m m arizes k n o w led g e for busy decision m akers. It advocates p a rtic u la r policy choices based on a com bination of knowledge and group interest. It advertises the accomplishments, collec­