ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C&RL News ■ July/August 2000 / 593 College & Research Libraries news Brown University Library meets the preservation challenge A challenge grant leads to a preservation endowment by Eric C. Shoaf L ibraries are finding it harder to budget for preservation of their collections. The im pact of ever-rising serials costs, el tronic products and other new media, as well as continued dem and for print have left library ad m in istrato rs s tra p p e d for funds to operate traditional, but still nec­ essary, preservation programs. Many of these program s began in the 1970s and 1980s w hen grant-funded mi­ crofilm projects w ere a main source of funds for reform atting brittle collections. Most libraries carved funds for their pres­ ervation departm ents out of acquisitions budgets as well, and many continued to receive soft m oney for project-based pres­ ervation treatm ent program s into the early 1990s. But m uch of that m oney is gone now, because of cutbacks in federal funding through the National Endow m ent for the H umanities (NEH), and because the fund­ ing m odels for microfilm w ere not trans­ f e r a b le to p ro je c ts fo r w h ic h d ig ita l archiving w as the prim ary preservation tool. Lack of consistent standards for image capture, storage, retrieval, search engines, and data refreshm ent m ade it difficult for ec libraries to use the digital model as a main preservation feature. ­ The NEH C h a lle n g e G ra n t Now, as every area of library expenditure comes under scrutiny, preservation depart­ ment m anagers are scrambling to find new sources of external funding. At Brown University, w e have a long tradition in preservation but w e w ere feel­ ing the funding pinch as microfilm projects w ound dow n and other library ex p en d i­ tures began to crow d the annual budget. In thinking about funding for preservation, it w as decided early on to create an e n ­ dow m ent for preservation activities rather than to create another multi-year project that w ould inevitably end. It was also decided not to apply to the NEH Preservation and Access program but to seek funding from NEH’s C hallenge Grant arm. A challenge grant is one w here funds are raised by the institution and m atched by NEH at either a 3:1 or 4:1 rate. To our know ledge, at that time no other institution sought funding for preservation activities from the Challenge Grant pro­ gram. Therefore, w e felt the need to p ro ­ pose a new approach to preservation of About the author Eric C Shoaf is head o f the preservation department a t Brown University, e-mail: eric_shoaf@brown.edu mailto:eric_shoaf@brown.edu 59 4 / C& RL N e w s ■ J u ly / A u g u s t 2 0 0 0 research collections, both to get the attention o f NEH and also the attention o f individuals and businesses w ho would b e interested in contributing to such an endeavor. Creating the proposal In 1995, a series o f discussions was held among library staff from Preservation, Spe­ cial Collections, and Technical Services to find a key idea for the proposal. W e looked at what Brown had done for library preserva­ tion and what w e w ere currently doing. W e looked at how other libraries structured their preservation programs. What w e saw was much similarity, and differences only in de­ gree. O u t o f t h e s e d is c u s s i o n s a n id e a em erg ed that was d ecep tively sim ple, yet surprisingly untested . B row n m akes treat­ ing existin g c o lle ctio n s a priority for p res­ ervation, as m ost o th er research libraries do. B ut w e id en tified new acq u isition s as a group o f m aterials that seld om receiv es preservation attention. Traditional preservation m odels assum e new acq u isition s to b e ready for use and basically sound in term s o f p ap er quality, bindings, and relative p erm an en ce o f c o n ­ tent. B ut our test surveys o f n ew acq u isi­ tio n s re v e a le d that as m any as 20% o f new ly acq u ired b o o k s w ere p rinted on acidic paper. Further, the p ercen tage o f gift c o lle ctio n s p ro cessed into library holdings at B row n was high er than ex p ected . T h ese gift b o o k s are added to the c o lle ctio n in “u sed ” con d itio n and o ften n e e d su bstan ­ tial care. We proposed a new model for providing preservation treatments at Brown and cre­ ated a dual action plan with these com po­ nents: a) Surveying and treating important Hu­ manities collections already ow ned by the library. T hese account for nearly 1 million items including a wide array o f formats, such as monographs, journals, broadsides, manu­ scripts, sheet music, sound recordings, and leaflets. This is the traditional preservation com ponent. b) Surveying and treating all new acquisi­ tions for the Humanities collections, which amount to more than 4,500 items annually. Each new purchase or gift in these subject areas is scrutinized, tested, and treated as necessary. In this way, preservation o f newly acquired research materials is sim ultaneous w ith retrosp ectiv e preservation w ork on c o lle ctio n s already ow n ed by the library. This form ed the b asis o f B ro w n ’s new a p p roach to preservation o f library m ate­ rials: to survey and treat all new acq u isi­ tion s for preserv ation need s, and to sur­ vey and .treat existing collectio n s as w e are ab le ov er tim e. Treatm ents proposed Another important feature o f Brow n’s pro­ posal is a provision for full use o f advanced preservation treatments, such as digitizing and paper deacidification, and also for the future use o f preservation technologies not yet fully developed. W e w ere careful to insert lan­ guage into the proposal to allow for uses o f new preservation technologies, since the en­ dowment will fund preservation activities in perpetuity. In addition, th e B ro w n plan fo cu ses on all form ats in Hum anities su b ject areas. Not only will b o o k s and other p aper-based m a­ terials re c e iv e treatm en t, but also rec o rd ­ ings on audiotape, vinyl, com pact disk, vid­ e o ta p e , and c o m p u te r d isks. T h e tre a t­ m ents w e p ro p o sed to perform in o u r dual action plan: 1 D e a c id i f i c a t i o n . B ro w n has b e e n w o r k in g w ith P r e s e r v a t i o n T e c h n o lo g ies In c. o f Pittsburgh, P en n syl­ vania, w h ich d ev elo p ed the B o o k k e e p e r p ap er d eacid ificatio n system . R ecen t c o n ­ dition surveys have ind icated that nearly 50% o f Brow n ’s paper-based collections are printed on acid ic paper, but are not yet brittle. This figure is sim ilar to that obtain ed from surveys at other research libraries and represents m aterials for w hich an interven­ ing p ro cess, such as d eacid ificatio n , can greatly len g th en useful life and a c ce s sib il­ ity to scholars. New print acquisitions w ere also surveyed and som e 20% w ere found to have acidic paper that was not yet brittle. 2R e p a ir o f c o l l e c t i o n s . The Brow n Library has ex ten siv e b o o k and p a­p er treatm en t facilities, in clu ding a con serv atio n lab, fin e bind in g studio, and rep air unit. Staff ex p ertise has b e e n devel- C&RL News ■ July/August 2000 / 595 oped following years o f training and hands- on experience. As part of the intensive test­ ing and selection procedure, both materials in existing collections and newly acquired items needing repair will receive any con­ servation procedures deemed necessary. t 3 R e -h o u s in g . Much o f the nonbook material is poorly stored and in need o f re -h o u s in g . M aps, b ro a d s id e s , manuscripts, sound recordings, and m ion pictures are all represented within Hu­ manities collections. Our surveys show that more than 50% are im properly housed and in need o f attention. Archival quality b o xes and o th er m aterials are b ein g used and treatm ents to flatten, dismount, clean , and protect the m aterials are expanding. 4 R e f o r m a t t i n g . F o r th e la s t 15 y ears n early 2 0 ,0 0 0 v olu m es from Brow n Library c ollectio n s have been reform atted through m icrofilm ing. Brow n has m ore recently b e e n investigating digi­ tal imaging tech n olog y as a preservation tool and exp ects a hybrid system o f digital access/m icrofilm surrogate to shortly b e ­ com e the standard in this area. A significant number o f Humanities col­ lection volumes were printed on paper that has becom e brittle and is in need o f refor­ matting. Surveys conducted in 1992 show that as much as 15% o f the collection is already brittle and at risk o f loss. A significant num­ ber o f the items that form Brown’s core hu­ manities collections have inherent artifactual value that must be maintained. Providing sur­ rogates for content and use provides a means to keep original materials protected for fu­ ture generations o f scholars. As part o f the intensive testing and selec­ tion procedure, items needing reformatting are being microfilmed or photocopied onto acid-free paper. Brown hopes to begin using digital storage and retrieval systems and other new preservation technologies as they are developed. The Brown Library is committed to leadership in using new technologies as they are adapted for both librarianship and scholarly communication. 5 S taffin g . Tw o additional perm anent staff will b e hired and will condu ct surveys o f existing collections (w hich o account for som e 1 million individual items in humanities c ollectio n s) to identify those in need o f con servation, m ake d ecisions for treatm ent options, o versee repair, re­ housing, reformatting, and other treatments as n ec essa ry , and to c oo rd in ate record keep ing and statistics. Newly acquired ma­ terials will also b e surveyed and th ose in n eed o f preservation treated soo n after cataloging. ­ A little help from the Developm ent Office O n ce library staff d eveloped the p reser­ v atio n idea and p lan , w e w en t to the u n iv e r s it y ’s D e v e lo p m e n t O f f i c e fo r fundraising guidance. T he library had suc­ cessfu lly com p leted fundraising for two previous ch allen g e grants and w e w ere confident that a third was achievable. How­ ever, it was im portant to con su lt with D e­ v elopm ent O ffice staff, sin ce they would b e doing the bulk o f the fundraising work. They a ccep ted the ch allen g e and as­ sisted with writing parts o f the grant pro­ p osal. T h e p ro p o sa l w as c o m p le te d in April 1996 follow ing the printed guidelines provided by the NEH Challenge Grant pro­ gram. In D ecem b er 1996, w e received word that B ro w n ’s proposal had b e e n funded for $ 6 25,000. With B row n ’s portion o f the m atch, the Challenge Grant w ould create a $3-2 million endow m ent for preserving library m aterials in the hum anities. The fundraising period was four years. But due to e x c e lle n t planning and hard w ork by the D evelopm ent O ffice, Brow n raised do­ nations totaling $2.5 million for the p res­ ervation endow m ent in only three years, w h ich c o m p le te d th e C h a lle n g e G rant match. With the endow m ent establish ed, the library beg an receiving incom e for p res­ ervation treatm ents in 1999 and the first o f two new perm anent staff m em bers was hired early in 2000. We feel that B row n ’s new approach can serve as a model for preservation programs at other m ajor research institutions and we e x p ec t to report on progress im plem ent­ ing the dual action preservation plan in the p rofessional library literature as our e x p e rie n c e grows. ■