Describes Louisiana State University Libraries' Electronic Imaging Laboratory for preservation. The project uses digital imaging technology to reformat rare book materials for access. This technology can exist with traditional conservation procedures. (JLB)

Although preservation is typically considered a concern of academic and special libraries only, many inexpensive and cost-effective preservation methods exist that public librarians should implement. Discusses why and how public libraries should preserve and outlines preservation and disaster mitigation tips. Lists supplies for disaster…

The challenge in protecting the collections of the Library of Congress is to sustain and preserve these collections while making them maximally available to Congress and the American people. This article discusses types of materials in the collection; how the collections are made accessible; protection controls; and the framework of the Library of…

This report is intended to inform and stimulate discussion on digital library programs as well as the potential usefulness, scope, and desired features of future inventories of online digital collections. It describes a joint project by the Commission on Preservation and Access and the Council on Library Resources to determine the extent to which…

Provides a review of 20 digital libraries from around the world. Examines library objectives; funding, including the role of government and private sector organizations; subject coverage; collections; information storage and retrieval; search features; access to the collections; output formats; and sorting search output. (LRW)

The Commission on Preservation and Access has published a number of reports on the preservation and access implications of scanning text and microfilm. This report focuses on what sets the digitization of visual collections apart from other scanning projects. Projects to digitize visual collections present their own unique set of questions and…

Noting that there has been a dramatic increase in the use of videotape in recent years, this paper explores videotape's potential as an archival medium. It is suggested that the nation's current videotape holdings should be surveyed to better define the relative importance of the records already documented, to identify records not previously known…

Examines the increasing trend of universities to pursue electronic thesis and dissertation (ETD) programs. Although the goal of most programs is similar, procedural variations impact a program's long-term success. As primary research generators, responsibility for providing long-term access to unique materials must be borne by universities.…

The Interim Study Committee on Library Issues was directed to study all aspects of public libraries, and review the space and document security problems of the state archives. The "Introduction and Reasons for Study" section highlights the Committee's 1993 findings and recommendation; 1994 goals; and conditions at the state archives. The…

This paper reports on a project that involved the digitization of manuscripts from the Boswell Collection (i.e., personal papers of James Boswell) by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University (Connecticut). In this case, the digitization process was designed to serve a group of scholars already at work on a publication…

This study examines a random sample of academic health sciences libraries across the United States to determine if these institutions have three-dimensional medical artifacts in their collections and how they organize and catalog these materials to provide access to them. A questionnaire was sent to heads of cataloging at 30 academic health…

This document presents an overview of the Canadian national preservation program. It is divided into three sections: (1) Federal Initiatives, which explores activities at the National Library of Canada, the National Archives of Canada, the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions (CIHM), and the Canadian Conservation Institute; (2)…

This guide argues that cataloging rules for all materials, both book and nonbook, should be based on the same principles so that all catalog records can be in one file. The guidance in this book applies to collections that are directly accessible to the public where archival conservation plays little role. It is written for libraries that…

This paper discusses the indexing, collection, and maintenance processes, as well as the retrieval interface, to public digital libraries. The paper begins by briefly surveying both Internet technical report collections and World Wide Web search engines. It goes on to describe a prototype digital library, the New Zealand Digital Library for…