One of the most famous historical documents of English printing is Joseph Ames's "Typographical Antiquities," published in London in 1749. Although Ames referred to his work as a history of printing, the bulk of it is a list of the first printers in England and their works through 1600, with very full bibliographical descriptions for…

A preservation needs survey of children's literature collections at the University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries is analyzed. The genre, the subject of a growing body of scholarship, has enduring value and is collected in universities to support programs in literature, education, art, cultural history, and more. Even well known children's…

The books, photographs, letters and other ephemera of our past are for the first time becoming completely transformed into the digital bits and bytes of our computer-generated present. What happens to these products as they shift from the corporeal to the technological world? What essence might be lost when a book is scanned into a computer or is…

The 2009 database marketplace is bounded by two extremes: massive digitization projects to increase access, and retrenchment owing to budget worries. Picture medieval monks hunched over their desks in the scriptorium as they labor to copy manuscripts. A 21st-century version of this activity is being repeated daily in the world's libraries and…

This document explores the transition from an analog to a digital environment for knowledge access, preservation, and reconstitution, and the implications of this transition for managing research collections. The volume comprises three reports. The first, "Can a New Research Library be All-Digital?" by Lisa Spiro and Geneva Henry,…

Manuscripts, archives, and early printed books contain a documentary record of the foundations of human knowledge. Many elements restrict access to this corpus, from preservation concerns to censorship. On the assumption that the widespread availability of knowledge benefits the human condition more than the restriction of knowledge, elements…

This article provides an overview of some of the main areas surrounding the broad topic of "Digital Libraries". This includes the advantages and costs of digitisation; the traditional and digital library; the library community and digitisation; and an examination of various digital library projects. It is not exhaustive, but hopefully, it provides…

The forces of dust and dirt, combined with uncontrolled heat and humidity, are assaulting the Peabody Library's fine collection and the distinguished structure that houses it. Funds are being raised to control the climate and repair damaged materials. (LS)

Describes how books damaged during fire fighting operations are frozen to prevent mildew, then dried in a thermal vacuum chamber and restored to usable condition. (Author/EA)

Intended for bookbinders and conservators of library and archival material and for those working in related fields, such as bibliography and librarianship, this dictionary contains definitions for the nomenclature of bookbinding and the conservation of archival material, illustrations of bookbinding equipment and processes, and biographical…

What to do when the library is damaged by flooding. (LS)

Contains a glossary of 33 terms for book preservation intended for use with the text of the eighth edition of "Library Binding Institute Standard for Library Binding." It defines words not easily understood by laypersons that actually appear in the standards and should be used along with the illustrations. (EM)

Describes the restoration project for approximately 50,000 volumes damaged in a flood at the Stanford University Libraries: the freezing and vacuum drying of damaged books, their subsequent repair by a special project staff, and various tests conducted in the vacuum chamber on how best to dry the books. (Author)

Bookkeeper, a liquid-based mass deacidification technology, may help the Library of Congress win its war against acid damage in its paper collection. The process impregnates books with magnesium oxide particles that both neutralize the acid in paper and leave an alkaline buffer behind. Describes the problem of acidic degradation and the Bookkeeper…

Because of the serious and rapid deterioration of post-1850 books in the collections of major research libraries, it is vital for these libraries to add a conservation librarian to their staffs and to develop conservation departments. (Author)