Explores the meanings that have been attached to the term "archival" and concludes that librarians participating in the national preservation effort use this term to mean permanent. Permanence is practically defined as storage for upwards of 100 years. Given this definition, the merits of microforms and optical disks as archival storage materials…

Provides an overview of articles addressing the reproduction of library materials. Topics covered in the review include the use of microforms in libraries; bibliographic control of microforms; copyrights issues; micropublishing; preservation microfilming; technical production of microforms; and newer technologies, including optical data disks and…

Examines preservation literature from 1992 that focused on the integration of preservation strategies within the organization. Highlights include foreign preservation programs; collection development and preservation; government programs; deacidification; paper requirements; disaster recovery techniques; mutilation; microform issues; nonbook…

University Microfilms International (UMI) collects, creates, and preserves information from the fields of business, education, engineering, social science, and the popular media and makes it available in print and microform, as well as online, on CD-ROM, and on magnetic tape. The company also develops integrated information delivery systems. (KRN)

Considers the future of microforms by surveying the history of their use in libraries; reviewing the literature about them; and comparing them with electronic databases, full text delivery, and laser disks. It is concluded that microforms will continue to be the primary providers of significant but rarely used retrospective materials. (EM)

This bibliography lists 64 items on the topic of preservation of library materials that are held by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Library (NAL). The items include books, reports, periodicals, and audiovisual media. The bibliography was presented for NAL staff, who are responsible for the 2 million volumes of books,…

The rapid growth and distribution of scholarly research in the middle and late twentieth century, the limited supply of old books and other paper-based materials, and the deterioration of items printed on acidic paper since the mid-1800s have meant that many libraries lack suitable copies of printed sources that their users would like to read. For…

Explores the trends and current status of library use of microforms for the preservation and dissemination of research materials. A sampling of topics available on microform is provided, and a directory of the publishers mentioned is included. (CLB)