Reviews programs sponsored by the Council on Library Resources, a private operating foundation, to combat deterioration of library materials. Research grants, assistance to conservation laboratories, and support for new equipment and tests are supplemented by efforts to establish cooperative programs and establish a national strategy for…

Traces developments in cooperative preservation in microfilming projects from 1930s to mid-1980s. Participation by the Library of Congress, American Library Association, Association of Research Libraries, Council on Library Resources, National Endowment for the Humanities, American Theological Library Association, Research Libraries Group, and…

Describes ways in which collection development at the Smithsonian Institution Libraries has been affected by the libraries' position within a museum context. The discussion covers the adoption by the libraries of a nomenclature that applies to management of museum objects collections and their capitalization on allied interests in such areas as…

Based on an 11-month investigation of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries (SIL), this report focuses on preservation problems in the general collections. Brittleness is pinpointed as the most serious problem, and the environmental conditions which exacerbate the deterioration of materials in the collection are discussed. SIL's earlier in this…