College and Research Libraries Conservation, Preservation, and Digitization Clifford A. Lynch and Edwin B. Brownrigg Considerable attention has been focused recently on the problems of conservation and preserva- tion of library materials. Particularly daunting are the scale of the problems and the enormous ongoing investment that will be required to address them. Currently proposed approaches in- clude extensive microfilming of material, deacidification, and other repair measures. It is pro- posed that digital technologies be used to accomplish simultaneously the aims of conservation and improved access to materials. Various technologies are reviewed. Such an approach to con- servation would form a natural extension to the current growth of electronic publishing, online catalogs, and online databases of journal abstracts. Furthermore, it would provide the greatest return for the massive investment that will be needed to save our deteriorating collections. onservation and preservation present serious problems for the library community today. However, these problems are generally considered in isolation, without much reference to major trends in the de- velopment of library service or to the im- pact of library automation, widespread ac- cess to computers, and telecommunnica- tions on both the nature and delivery of li- brary service. In fact, conservation and preservation issues are often the province of people in the library who have been least affected by developments in technol- ogy and library automation: archivists, collection management specialists, etc. These people have always dealt with books as artifacts, and historically their concern has been the preservation and management of the printed word. This orientation is clearly reflected in classic works on conservation and preservation, such as the book by Cunha and Cunha en- titled Conservation of Library Materials. 1 Thus, the approach to conservation and preservation has been to try to save what exists-where possible, to save the physi- cal artifacts themselves, and where this is not possible, to create and save surrogates for the physical artifacts in the tangible form of microfiche. Up to a point these ef- forts obviously have been worthwhile: a beautifully produced book is a thing worth saving in its own right, and books as artifacts have considerable historical in- terest. However, the nature of library services is changing. In times past, the library has been a repository for artifacts of the printed word. Today, it is taking on a more dynamic role as both a repository . and a distributor of information (as distinct from artifacts). 2 This transformation raises some difficult questions about the wisdom of current approaches to conservation and preservation. THE ACCESS REVOLUTION The advent of the online catalog has made it possible to provide remote access to the bibliographic holdings of libraries from computer terminals. This permits the identification of materials of interest Clifford A. Lynch and Edwin B. Brownrigg are at the Division of Library Automation, University of California, Office of the President and Universitywide Services, Berkeley, California 94720. The authors would like to thank Mary Jean Moore for editorial assistance. This paper was presented at the ACRL Fourth National Conference in Baltimore, April 9-12, 1986. ©Clifford A. Lynch and Edwin B. Brownrigg, 1986. 379 380 College & Research Libraries from. a patron's home or office and pro- vides a superior means of searching the li- brary's holdings. In spite of their advantages, however, online catalogs still have limitations. In general, they contain only monographs, providing little access to journal literature, which is critical, for example, in scientific research. Automated access to the latter is offered today by systems such as DIA- LOG and BRS, although the user inter- faces for these systems are so complicated that use is largely limited to trained searchers or inveterate computer users. Fortunately these two sources of informa- tion should converge over the next few years, providing the end user with the ability to readily identify journal literature of interest. From the user's point of view, an even more serious limitation is that online cata- logs can only provide references to infor- mation, not the information itself. Thus, online catalogs simply form the backbone for far more extensive electronic publish- ing and document delivery systems to come. They deal with identification of ma- terial; the next challenge is to deliver the material electronically to the end user. Meeting this challenge requires complex technologies in the areas of telecommuni- cations, computing, and electronic imag- ing. 3.4 For any activity that affects a li- brary's collections, such as conversion to microfilm to save space, acquisition of new materials, preservation and conser- vation, or migration of little-used material to dense storage, the library must look ahead to the new world of information de- livery and begin the lengthy and costly conversion of collections to a form amena- ble to such delivery. CURRENT APPROACHES TO CONSERVATION AND PRESERVATION The current strategies for conservation and preservation of library materials in- clude restoration, bulk deacidification, re- pair, and microfilming. 5 For rare and valuable works of great sig- nificance, elaborate restoration and repair techniques have been developed. These July 1986 techniques have been used to wonderful effect on illuminated manuscripts, early books, and the like. Only a relatively small number of threatened works justify such treatment, as is consistent with the han- dling of works of art in museums. For books that are rotting because of the use of acid paper, various mass· deacidifi- cation schemes have been proposed. Ex- perience with these techniques is limited, however. If they work and if they prove to be cost-effective, they will preserve the _ status quo for the books that are treated. Many books are in disrepair due to hard use or deterioration of their bindings. In some such cases, rebinding the work gives it a new lease on life, and, when this is cost-effective, it also preserves the status quo. Books that are extremely fragile are be- ing microfilmed page by page. These mi- crofilms are then copied, and the master copies are stored in central, environmen- tally controlled repositories while copies replace the damaged book on the shelf. Although the contents of such books are preserved, access is greatly reduced. In general, it is impractical to circulate micro- film, and microfilm is almost universally loathed by library patrons, who have demonstrated that they will go to almost any lengths to avoid using it. Finally, mi- crofilm is expensive to copy, which in- hibits resource sharing, and it does not hold up well under heavy use. In no case is the end product of these strategies converted to a form more hospi- table to delivery over telecommunications media. Leaving aside rare works (the works of art), deacidification and rebind- ing leave the patron neither better nor worse off. However, microfilming greatly reduces access to the microfilmed mate- rial, and the patron is far worse off. DIGITIZATION FOR CONSERVATION AND PRESERVATION Capture of a work in digital images is an attractive alternative to microfilming. Since in both cases .a book has to be scanned page by page, the predominant cost will be labor. Any extra expense of Conservation, Preservation, and Digitization 381 digitizing is marginal and is far out- weighed by the value of the end product. Moreover, digital scanners and image storage devices are dropping rapidly in price. Depending on how the economics and effectiveness of rebinding and deacidifica- tion turn out, digitization may prove to be an alternative to these strategies as well. In the next section, in fact, we argue that even if digitization costs more than de- acidification it is still worth considering since it represents an investment in the fu- ture and prospectively protects the work. In the case of works of art, where the cost of preservation is a secondary issue, digiti- zation may provide an attractive supple- mentary activity since access to the work can then be provided through the digital copy without any further threat to the original artifact. Thus, digitization could provide wide access to rare books that to- day are protected from use by any but the most serious and trustworthy scholars. Consider the following attributes of dig- ital images: • They do not deteriorate with use. In fact, each use of a stored digital image causes the data to be read, validated, and corrected via error-correcting codes, thus permitting early detection and automatic correction of any deterio- ration in the storage media. • They can be copied quickly and at virtu- ally no cost. Any kind of digital infor- mation can be duplicated endlessly with no loss in quality, without human intervention, and at high speed and low cost. Although legal questions in re- gards to copyright must also be consid- ered, 6 they are often irrelevant for older works that are being preserved since the copyright has expired. • Copies can be transmitted over a net- work at high speed and low cost. This attribute makes archives of digitized works possible; they can be duplicated and sent across the country to the re- quester via automated systems in a mat- ter of minutes, or perhaps a few hours if the system is busy. Consequently, re- source sharing becomes more practical, and it is not necessary for each library to retain copies of the microfilm for each work or to call for copies of these to be shipped (perhaps weeks later) from a central clearinghouse. • Digital data are much less vulnerable to disaster and environmental threats. Digital information, especially on opti- cal disks, does not deteriorate rapidly. When deterioriation occurs, the infor- mation can be copied easily. Since digi- tal information is easy to copy, it is feasi- ble to store copies at several geographi- cally diverse repositories, removing the threat that a natural disaster will de- stroy the only available copy. Thus, digital images solve not only the immediate conservation and preservation problem but also the problem in the long- term. In addition, they are easier to use, deliver, and share. ECONOMIC AND POLICY QUESTIONS Given then, that digitization is a desir- able objective, the following economic and policy questions have to be ad- dressed. • What books are valuable as artifacts and thus require the kind of treatment ac- corded works of art? We would argue that the answer to this question is to preserve liberally. Books as artifacts have considerable value, and wholesale elimination of examples of publishing from certain presses, coun- tries, or historical periods would be a tragic loss. • How should material from a collec- tion be selected for digitization? We might decide to digitize a book for one of three reasons: (1) Because it is disintegrating and needs to be copied. In this case we must act to preserve the work, and, if the cost of digitization is competitive with other techniques (such as microfilming), it should be used. In cases in which digitization is more costly than other approaches, such as deacidification or rebinding, we must decide if the extra benefits of di- gitization justify the extra costs; (2) be- cause it is rare or delicate and, although not in immediate danger, we want to 382 College & Research Libraries protect the book prospectively and per- mit its contents to be widely used; and (3) because it is often requested and we want it in a form appropriate for digital delivery via a network. Note that this has nothing to do with conservation and preservation. In fact, the parts of a collection that are most endangered to- day probably receive relatively light use overall. Balancing the importance of these three criteria for digitization, particu- larly in the face of widespread deteriora- tion of the collection and insufficient funding, is difficult. To a certain extent, this amounts to finding a balance be- tween funding priorities for preserva- tion and access. In addition to these policy questions, there are a variety of more technical and operational issues that must be ad- dressed. One such issue is the develop- ment of appropriate standards for the storage and transfer of images. Some of the standards under development for Group IV digital facsimile devices will be applicable here, as will some of the stan- dards being developed for optical disk storage (particularly since optical disks are the natural storage medium for digital im- ages). Other issues that must be ad- dressed include the creation of links be- tween bibliographic records and digital images of a book, research in appropriate technology for displays and user inter- July.1986 faces to integrate the online catalog with document delivery, and the development of a repository system for digitized mate- rial to encourage resource sharing and eliminate duplication of effort on a na- tional basis. In addition, effective use of digital images will require the installation of low-cost, broad-band telecommunica- tions networks. Packet switching and sat- ellite technology are ideal for these pur- poses. CONCLUSIONS Conservation and preservation will de- mand substantial sums of money during the remainder of the century if library col- lections in America are to be saved. At the same time, the library in the year 2000 will be radically different than the library of 1960. This transformation, which is well under way, has been costly since it has re- quired the introduction of a massive amount of computer and telecommunica- tions technology into the library-and the change is far from complete. Saving the collections and revolutioniz- ing access to them can be treated as inde- pendent problems competing for funds. In our view, this would be a major error since these two apparently disparate problems are in fact closely related. Con- servation and preservation can become an investment in an increasingly obsolete sta- tus quo or it can become an investment to- ward the future. REFERENCES 1. George M. Cunha and Dorothy G. Cunha, Conservation of Library Materials: A Manual and Bibliogra- phy of the Care, Repair and Restoration of Library Materials, 2v. (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1971). 2. Edwin B. Brownrigg and Clifford A. Lynch, "Online Catalogs : Through a Glass Darkly," Informa- tion Technology and Libraries 2:104-15 (Mar. 1983). 3. Clifford A. Lynch and Edwin B. Brownrigg, "Library Applications of Electronic Imaging Technol- ogy" Information Technology and Libraries (in press). 4. Clifford A. Lynch and Edwin B. Brownrigg, "Document Delivery and Packet Facsimile," Proceed- ings of the 48th ASIS Annual Meeting 22:11-14 (1985) . 5. University of California, Office of the Executive Director of Universitywide Library Planning, Con- servation of the Collections: A Supplement to the University of California Libraries: A Plan for Development, 1978-88, (Berkeley, Calif.: Univ. of California Pr., 1983). · 6. Edwin B. Brownrigg and Clifford A. Lynch, "Electrons, Electronic Publishing, and Electronic Dis- play," Information Technology and Libraries 4:201-7 (Sept. 1985). Your invitation to enter the 1987 JOHN COTTON DANA LIBRARY PUBLIC RELATIONS AWARDS CONTEST IF YOU'VE DONE an out-standing job of making your community more aware of your library, the John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Awards Contest can tell the world about . your efforts. Your entry will be considered among those from libraries of all types, sizes, and budgets. Entries are judged by a panel of your peers, and two types of awards are given. The John Cotton Dana Award This award is given for a library's total annual, coordinated public relations program, including publicity, programs, advertising, publications, exhibits, special events, promotions, and audio- visual presentations. The Special Award The Special Award is given in recognition of a part of your public relations program-a fund-raising campaign, a series of adult or children's programs, or any other special project. Contest Dates Entries for the 1987 John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Awards Contest may reflect any one of the following time frames: • Calendar year 1986 (January-December) • School Year 1985/6 (Fall-Spring) • Special project which ends in 1986. The deadline for entries is February 2, 1987. Awards Ceremony Official award citations will be presented to contest winners at the 1987 annual conference of the American Library Associa- tion, at a reception hosted by The H. W Wilson Company . 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