Discusses methods of selection for library materials being preserved, questions reliance on the collection-based approach to preserve brittle books for a nationally preserved collection, and argues for the development of a user-based strategy for the long-term preservation of circulating materials. (Author/LRW)

Discussion of deteriorating library materials focuses on a study that investigated preservation activities at the Oberlin Group of college libraries of nineteenth-century American and British periodicals. Results from the study and from a review of the literature are used to help develop a model for preservation decision making. (12 references)…