Annual Report
July 1, 1992 – June 30, 1993

Acknowledgment
Special Report: From Preservation to Access–Paradigm for the Future
Organization, Support and Initiatives
The International Project
Technology Assessment
Scholarly Advisory Committees
The Brittle Books Program
Archives
Communication
Institutional and Education Initiatives
Publications and Reports, July 1, 1992 – June 30, 1993
Committees and Task Forces
Board of Directors and Staff
Financial Statements

Acknowledgment

The work of the Commission is made possible through the sponsorship of colleges, universities, and other organizations committed to a collaborative preservation and access agenda. The Commission gratefully acknowledges the support of its sponsors during 1992-93, as well as the generous foundation funding for programs.

FOUNDATIONS

The Charles E. Culpeper Foundation
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation

SPONSORS
As of June 30, 1993

Amherst College
Association of American Publishers
Boston Public Library
Brown University
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Davis
University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, San Diego
University of Chicago
Coalition for Networked Information
Columbia University
University of Connecticut
Cornell University
Emory University
University of Georgia
Grinnell College
Harvard University
University of Illinois at Urbana
Indiana University
The University of Iowa
Johns Hopkins University
University of Kansas
Lehigh University
Library of Congress
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of Miami
Michigan State University
University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
University of Minnesota
Mount Holyoke College
National Agricultural Library

National Library of Medicine
New York Public Library
New York State Library
New York State Archives & Records Administration
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Northwestern University
Pennsylvania State University
University of Pennsylvania
University of Pittsburgh
Princeton University
Reed College
Smith College
Smithsonian Institution Libraries
University of Southern California
Stanford University
Syracuse University
University of Tennessee
University of Texas at Austin
Trinity College
The University of Tulsa
Vassar College
Washington University
University of Washington
Wellesley College
Wesleyan University
Williams College
University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
Yale University

Special Report
From Preservation to Access – Paradigm for the Future

… through the power of digital and telecommunications technologies, libraries will be linked with one another so that consumers of information will have access to any information located anywhere in any format, quickly and at reasonable cost. This is the core concept of the virtual library…

Billy E. Frye, speech at symposium on Policies for
Preservation, April 1993, Southern Methodist University, Dallas.

Perhaps the most formidable characteristic of digital technology is its ability to destroy the comfortable traditional borders and boundaries outlining and shaping our institutions and professional pursuits. The history of preservation and the manner in which technology continues to change the way we think about both preservation of and access to information provides an illuminating example of the power of technology to change the culture, the organizations and the basic principles of our society. As we have explored the uses of digital technology to preserve the deteriorating printed documents of the past, the paradigm of the future virtual library has emerged: In the digital world, preservation is access, and access is preservation. The boundaries of the analog world have dissolved. What, then, is the future of preservation?

In the digital world, there are changes–and then there are transforming changes. The conventional pattern of change has been an evolutionary introduction of the use of technology with no unusual signs of strain in the organizational fabric, followed by the introduction of entirely new products and service concepts to meet needs that could not even be conceived of with older technology. Although these anticipated products and services, dramatic and significant as they may be, appear to be capable of integration into the existing organizational framework, it is only a matter of time before they force the transformation of the entire environment. Technological developments, which themselves are characterized by continuing change, combine to exert continuing direct and indirect impact on society. With digital technology, we have entered into a ceaseless spiral of change which represents, not so much an evolution from, but a formidable disjunction with the analog world. And as preservationists, we must straddle both worlds.

There are three major transforming changes influencing the future of preservation:

The real revolution is the capacity to generate, store, disseminate and use information in different formats and media. These functions are no longer defined by the strengths and limitations of print on paper.
Technology has created a new definition of our concept of preservation–the assurance of continuing access to recorded knowledge as far into the future as possible. Preservation is access, and access is preservation.
The preservation community will need to shift from a concentration on the permanence of the medium to a focus on managing permanence of access to recorded knowledge in the digital environment.

In the era of manuscripts and printed books, access to knowledge depended upon the health of the artifact. And the longer the life cycle of the artifact, the lower the access to the knowledge it contained. For example, stone, clay and papyrus were relatively stable media, but the labor-intensive quality of their creation plus their cumbersome nature militated against widespread access to the knowledge contained within the artifacts.

The scarcity of rags to make high quality paper inhibited the demand for broader access to knowledge as literacy grew in the population, so the technological marvel of mass-produced cheap acid paper increased the access to the intellectual content of the book while decreasing both the artistic value and stability of the artifactual carrier. The development of digital technology has hastened this process to the point where we are today–the capacity to produce unbelievable volumes of information, access to these volumes of information measured in nano seconds and life cycles of not much longer duration.

Despite the deterioration of the manuscript and printed book because of fading inks, disintegrating bindings, foxing, cockling, or crumbling paper, we could still preserve the artifact with a variety of proven conservation and preservation techniques. Not so in the high volume, high access, low stability world–it is not only that the medium will quite possibly die at an early age, but the pace of technological change brings with it a dizzying array of constant improvements in media, hardware and software. These changes will be ruled by the demands of commercial markets, largely multimedia entertainment, not the druthers of the scholarly community.

It is essential that we recognize the fundamental characteristics of the technological society. Digital information technologies will not replace our paper-based systems for a very long time. As librarians have said for years, electronic capacities are add-ons, not replacements. But information technologies are add-ons with a kick–they cannot be integrated into our paper-based systems, as we have tried to do for years. We must learn to manage hybrid systems in which the newcomer–information technology–will determine the nature and design of our systems for managing scholarly information. Those of us in higher education will live in a hybrid environment for the foreseeable future. Today, we are on the cusp of transformational change, staring it in the face and not quite knowing just what will happen.

What will the research library look like during the transition stage, which may well last far longer than we anticipate? For example, there is currently strong disagreement between those who claim that the future belongs solely to digital information and those who claim that microfilm is the best platform for conversion to future technologies as they develop. For the preservation community, access to knowledge in the hybrid environment brings a set of complex challenges:

We are responsible for restoring those artifacts that are considered to contain intrinsic value.
We are responsible for reformatting brittle books and documents to save their intellectual content. Traditionally, we have microfilmed deteriorating documents for three reasons: 1) to increase access to manuscripts, papyri and other unique items; 2) to protect the document against destruction from use; and 3) to salvage the century of knowledge printed on acid paper.
We are responsible for providing access to information originally generated in digital form. It is becoming increasingly important to work closely with the creators of knowledge to insure compatibility of formats, protocols, hardware, software and systems of access.
We must work closely with students and scholars as their use of technology changes their information requirements, so that we choose the appropriate alternatives for storage, dissemination and use.

If preservation means access to recorded knowledge, the changing face of access makes preservation the central function of librarianship. Digital information implies continuous change accompanied by ever diminishing life cycles of the medium and the systems of access to the point where the preservation function must be considered at the point of creation of the knowledge.

The librarian in the future will need to develop strategies for the entire range of knowledge media: stones, papyri, vellum, paper, video, audio and digital. For analog information, we must develop triage strategies for the past; for digital, prospective triage strategies at the point of acquisition or creation.

Preservation librarians must be involved in the development of new infrastructures for capture, access and use, new storage environments, selection of materials to be saved and scientific research as new products such as glues, bindings and plastics become available.

In addition to these substantial responsibilities, the future preservation manager will have to consider trade-offs among a range of alternatives: Refreshment and management of digital storage; microfilm storage and traditional library stacks; constantly changing technologies; the implications of continually changing uses of technology by information users; and the creation of new alliances with collection builders, technical specialists, disciplinary specialists, financial and space planners and knowledge creators.

The digital world is characterized by a sharp distinction between the carrier and the intellectual knowledge it contains. Digital media focus on enhanced access to information rather than treating the carrier as an integral component of the knowledge. Will scholarly work be shaped by these new formats as it has been in the past? What will stewardship require? How will we preserve signs of authenticity, or presentation as a reflection of the contemporary culture? What constitutes a dynamic document, and what does it mean to preserve access to hypertext rather than linear text? What is the intrinsic value of a bucket of bytes? Traditional multimedia–illustrated texts–have proved a major challenge in the past; what new strategies will preservation of the new multimedia require?

It is important that we explore these questions with our scholarly colleagues rather than simply transfer our analog mindsets to digital information. We need to know what their scholarship requires, not what we want to save. Rather than bemoan the inevitable loss of the distinctive characteristics of the print era, let us build on the extraordinary strengths of digital information to preserve the best of our heritage while at the same time taking care to enrich and enhance the scholarly work of the generations to come. As librarians, we have an enormous opportunity as well as an equally daunting challenge to leave a more responsible legacy for our successors than we have inherited. As responsible stewards, we must lay the groundwork for insuring continuing access to the recorded knowledge of the present for the future while at the same time pursuing our belated efforts to salvage the heritage of the past.

Organization, Support and Initiatives

The Commission on Preservation and Access was established in 1986 by the Council on Library Resources, Inc., in response to a unanimous request from members of the Association of Research Libraries. The Commission is a private, nonprofit corporation exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. It is funded by institutional sponsors and foundation grants. The Commission’s primary objective is to foster, develop and support collaboration among libraries and allied organizations to insure the preservation of the published and documentary record in all formats and to provide enhanced access to scholarly information.

Over the past seven years, the Commission has progressed from an initial emphasis on the preservation of information in books and journals to the exploration of approaches to preservation and access related to digital and other evolving electronic technologies. It advances a broad-based agenda by identifying salient problems, exploring issues and alternative solutions and stimulating institutional participation in cooperative activities. Rather than operate long-term programs, the Commission serves as a catalytic agent, a broker and convener of interested parties and an advocate for collaborative and visionary solutions. To accomplish its goals, the Commission contracts for research-and-development and demonstration projects; sponsors invitational meetings, conferences and workshops; and convenes task forces and committees.

For broad advocacy and education, the Commission publishes a newsletter, reports and publications and provides exhibits and information for meetings and conferences. In all its initiatives, the Commission approaches and defines preservation as “providing access to the human record as far into the future as possible.”

The Commission’s activities are governed by an elected board that meets three times each year, with its annual meeting in the fall. Members serve three-year terms with a three-term maximum. In 1992-93, the size of the board was increased by one member. Betty G. Bengtson, Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, Cornelius J. Pings, Winston Tabb and Nicholas A. Veliotes were elected as new members, and Millicent D. Abell was reelected for a second term. Retiring members were Henriette D. Avram and James F. Govan. Resigning members were Kenneth R.R. Gros Louis and Donald S. Lamm.

The Commission maintains a small staff of the president, a program officer who manages communications, a financial officer, an executive assistant and a communications assistant. William J. Koerner II accepted the latter position in late 1992. Most programs are conducted using part-time consultants, providing the flexibility to respond to the changing nature of contemporary librarianship and higher education.

The board has sought to enlarge the number of sponsors to help support operating expenses and the executive capacity necessary to administer the broad range of foundation-funded programs. When founded in 1986, the Commission was supported by nine institutions. In the three-year period ending June 30, 1992, the number of sponsors was 34, and during 1992-93, this number rose to 60 institutions, which pledged support for the coming three years. Sponsors are acknowledged in the newsletter and annual report and provided with multiple copies of all publications.

Program grants during the year were provided by The Charles E. Culpeper Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation. In late 1992, the Mellon Foundation announced a $1.5 million grant over three and one-half years for programs, communications and publications, technology, scholarly involvement, and archives and nonprint materials. The international program is supported by a separate grant from the Mellon Foundation. In May 1993, the Culpeper Foundation provided a grant of $175,000 over a two-year period to help support the College Libraries Committee, a series of seminars to explore new educational concepts for preservation managers, and the communications and publications program. The Commission held an international scholars’ conference at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio, Italy, facilities in June 1993.

Initiatives

Catalyze and support the transition to the virtual library by extending explorations into the use of digital technology for the preservation of deteriorating research resources. Explore other broad issues including copyright, standards and economics. Serve as a convener and catalyst to articulate issues, support pilot projects and commission relevant publications.
Collaborate with scholars concerning the use of digital technologies for preserving the contents of brittle books, journals, photographic collections and other nonprint resources. Encourage faculty involvement on individual campuses, at professional meetings and through professional journals.
Maintain a strong, flexible capability for responding to preservation initiatives in Eastern and Western Europe, Latin America and other parts of the globe. Assist in developing a European commission on preservation and access and encourage the European Community’s efforts to develop and maintain a European Register of Microfilm Masters. Provide catalytic support for microfilming and bibliographic access projects in Eastern Europe.
Advocate the sustained and fully funded operation of the brittle books program managed by the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Division of Preservation and Access. Serve as an information resource for Congress through staff briefings and annual testimony. Serve as an honest broker to help establish centralized storage and distribution services for the preservation microfilms produced by the brittle books program. Help develop a program for regular audits of preservation microfilm.
Expand constituencies receiving newsletters and publications to include additional scholars, librarians and technology specialists, the international community and institutions of higher education. Develop printed and display materials for targeted audiences and programs. Expand the exhibit schedule at disciplinary conferences, publishers associations and other constituencies’ gatherings.
Advance education for management of preservation and access. Convene an institutional meeting to explore the current and future needs of librarians charged with providing continuing access to scholarly information recorded on a variety of media. Proceed with the science initiative in order to carry forward and coordinate preservation research activities.

This report documents activities in the areas of technical assessment, international cooperation, scholarly involvement, archives, the brittle books program, and communication and institutional initiatives, and then lists publications and reports, the composition of committees and task forces, and the board of directors and staff. The report concludes with the audited financial statements for the fiscal year. For more background on the founding and history of the Commission, see Brittle Books, Reports of the Committee on Preservation and Access (Washington, DC: Council on Library Resources, 1986) and Commission annual reports issued in the fall of each year (available from the Commission and ERIC).

The purpose of the Commission is to foster, develop and support systematic and purposeful collaboration among all libraries, archives and allied organizations in order to insure the preservation of the published and documentary record in all formats and to provide enhanced access to scholarly information.

Bylaws of The Commission on Preservation and Access

The International Project

‘Mankind can only hope when it can remember.’ so said Simon Wiesenthal, historian of the Holocaust…. Only if we can always remember, analyze history, and use the lessons of the past for the present, is there any hope to solve the problems in the future. In order to remember, mankind needs the testimonials of the past.

Christoph Graf, Director of the Swiss National Archives:
“Kulturgut in Gefahr” (Endangered Cultural Heritage) in Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Switzerland, No. 127, June 5/6, 1993.

The major objectives of the international project are to encourage and coordinate cooperative preservation and access programs, to generate further support for active preservation programs and to help develop new programs in countries with minimal or no preservation activities. In its international endeavors, the Commission’s overriding goals are to continue to enrich American scholarship as well as provide the intellectual stimulus and seed funding necessary for catalytic activity around the globe. As with all Commission initiatives, international activities are designed to eliminate redundancy of effort and to make maximum use of financial resources.

The past year has been a time of transition, from initial emphases on fact-finding, responding to obvious needs and initiating contacts, to a new focus on consolidating past efforts into locally supported and maintained preservation programs. The project continued to maintain its vital executive capacity to monitor international activities, participate in a variety of national and international meetings and programs, provide a productive communication channel and respond quickly to emerging possibilities. Activities in the past year centered around four major strategies: bibliographic control; collaboration, cooperation and communication; education; and scholarly involvement.

Bibliographic Control

Since its beginning in 1989, the international project has supported the development of a shared database capacity for bibliographic information about microfilmed materials. In January 1993, the European Register of Microform Masters (EROMM) completed its first phase, partially supported by a contract with the Commission funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. A test database of merged records from England, France, Germany and Portugal was made available to partner countries and the Commission for distribution to the U.S. bibliographic utilities. Plans are underway for EROMM’s sustained operation and for extending the project to additional countries. Under a second Commission contract, again with Mellon funding, France’s Bibliothèque Nationale nearly completed the conversion to machine-readable, U.S.-compatible format of its entire register of 130,000 records of filmed nineteenth-century French literature.

A third contract with Mellon support will enable the National Library of Poland to begin converting to machine-readable form the register of Polish microfilm holdings. These include almost 90,000 records of filmed serials, monographs, manuscripts and musical prints. The three-year joint project will make the register available to U.S. library and scholarly communities, allow Poland to participate in EROMM and serve as a demonstration project for other Central and Eastern European countries.

An activity report of the international project published in January 1993 featured a descriptive listing of microfilming projects in 30 countries. The report notes:

The most prevalent reformatting remains with microfilm; small- medium- and large-scale projects are underway in many countries and the need for an informational infrastructure–bibliographic control–is overwhelming. … Progress is being made toward an internationally shared database capacity for bibliographic information about microform masters, nodes for the collection of such data are being developed and arrangements are being made for the exchange of information among nodes.

Information about microfilming projects at the collection level includes descriptions and contact points from national libraries that responded to a questionnaire. The results confirm varied conditions throughout the world.

Collaboration, Cooperation and Communication

The Commission elected its first international board member, Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, General Director of the Deutsche Bibliothek. Lehmann, who has expressed interest in sharing technological developments, is responsible for the design of new national bibliographic services and bibliographic utilities as well as cooperation with publishing companies and specialized information services. He serves on a number of German, European and international committees concerning library policy, including the UNESCO Intergovernmental Council of Federal Information Program, the German Commission for UNESCO, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) National Committee (Section on Information Technology) and the Commission of the European Communities (CEC).

UNESCO invited the Commission to take part in the planning of a world-wide preservation initiative, “Memory of the World.” In addition, the Commission’s explorations of technological advances for the preservation of deteriorating collections were taken into consideration as UNESCO began developing its preservation plans.

The CEC, with which the Commission works closely in developing the EROMM, invited the Commission to join in symposia on acidic and permanent paper organized by CEC’s Directorate-General X, responsible for Audiovisual, Information, Communication and Culture. In a related effort, the Commission’s newsletter reported on the publication by the European Foundation for Library Cooperation of the European Directory of Acid-Free and Permanent Book Paper. The 31-page directory was compiled at the request of the Culture unit of Directorate-General X, as part of a campaign for raising European public awareness of books and reading.

IFLA asked the Commission to participate more closely in the collaborative preservation agenda of its Preservation and Conservation Centers, covering many regions of the world.

Progress with preservation reformatting was featured in two issues of the Commission newsletter. The February 1993 newsletter included a special insert, the translation of an article on digital technology and microfilming for preservation and access written by Dr. Hartmut Weber, director and department head at the archives administration of the federal State of Baden-Württemberg. Dr. Weber supports the notion that “filming, coupled with modern information access systems, not only contributes to technical progress, but, more importantly to the preservation of the originals….” The June 1993 newsletter reported on a new project of The German Research Council (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) in Bonn to microfilm deteriorating library collections. The program was developed to encourage similar initiatives in individual states (Länder) and to promote standards for filming and bibliographic control. In its planning document, the DFG stressed the importance of access to deteriorating collections.

Slow Fires, the film/video documentary on the preservation of the human record produced in 1986 and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Library of Congress and the Council on Library Resources, received a grant from the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia toward the production of a Chinese version. The Commission, which has been advocating the use of the film internationally, is seeking additional funds from both U.S. and Chinese sources for the translation and production effort.

Education

Three staff members of Die Deutsche Bücherei, the former national library of East Germany that has joined with its western counterpart to form Die Deutsche Bibliothek, were trained in operating and managing a modern micrographics laboratory. Funded by a Commission contract with the MicrogrAphics Preservation Service (MAPS), the 11-week internship included technical and language training at the MAPS facility in Bethlehem, PA. The three staff members will train their colleagues, and their microfilm facility in Leipzig will become the central resource for microfilming activities throughout united Germany. In this case, the interest and support generated by the training program helped the national library in obtaining an increased allocation by the German Ministry for Research and Technology for the purchase of microfilm equipment. MAPS has now established an extensive curriculum which could be useful for libraries in other areas, particularly Central and South America, Southern Europe and Central and Eastern Europe.

Education for preservation programs is a top priority among libraries in Central America. The international project supported the participation of two librarians from Central American countries in the Preservation Management Seminar for College Libraries scheduled for July 1993 at Wellesley College, MA.

Scholarly Involvement

As reported in the Scholarly Advisory Committee section, the Commission convened a group of international scholars at the Rockefeller Foundation’s conference facility in Bellagio, Italy, in June 1993. This cooperative conference resulted in a unanimous resolution to establish a European Commission on Preservation and Access, whose start-up will be supported in part by the international project. The establishment of such a commission is viewed as a successful outcome of the project’s catalytic strategies.

Technology Assessment

From the inception of the Technology Assessment Advisory Committee (TAAC), the members have approached their mission very broadly. The collective view is that the digital surrogates of preserved materials ultimately will blend into the stream of electronic access to materials of all kinds. For example, when a person searches for an item for either electronic viewing or on-demand printing, the system will operate the same regardless of the original format of the item. Except for the indicators in the bibliographic record, the requestor will not necessarily be aware of whether the item drawn from an electronic file was a preserved item, an electronically produced publication, or a scarce out-of-print resource republished in digital format.

Indeed, it has been TAAC’s view that the effectiveness, cost, quality and capacity of access systems for preserved materials will depend heavily on the general progress in electronic access to the bulk of digitally available publications and files. Thus, the committee believes that the technological means of access to preserved materials cannot be considered apart from the development of access to other materials.

The second characteristic of TAAC’s deliberations is the manner in which it assesses the current, emerging and future technologies. The committee first determines how these technologies can, by themselves and in combination, be used effectively in preservation and access. But, more importantly, TAAC also considers the broader policy implications that these technologies will pose economically, organizationally and structurally. Thus, reports from TAAC try to consider all the above perspectives in order to help those charged with implementing preservation and those who are integrating preservation into broader information systems.

With this philosophy in mind, previous TAAC reports take on new significance. Michael Lesk, in the report Image Formats for Preservation and Access (July 1990) urged readers to consider either microfilming or digital scanning, but to “use either method as they can manage, expecting to convert to digital form over the next decade.” He pointed out that postponing microfilming because digital is coming is “only likely to be frustrating and allow further deterioration of important books,” since microfilm to digital image conversion will be relatively straightforward and the primary cost of either microfilming or digital scanning is in the many labor-intensive steps leading up to capture.

Stuart Lynn, in the introduction to the extensive and practical Preservation and Access Technology. A Structured Glossary of Technical Terms, August 1990, presented a thought-provoking discussion of concepts, “many of which are only just beginning to be understood or accepted, which are critically important to librarianship in general and to preservation in particular.” A rereading of that introduction, which addresses such issues as sharply-shortened life cycles and the transition from batch to continuous processing in the digital world, would be helpful to libraries that are today contemplating changes in technologies.

Similarly, in this past year, Don Willis’ extensive analysis comparing microfilm and digital technologies (A Hybrid Systems Approach to Preservation of Printed Materials, November 1992) devoted considerable thought to where such systems might lead, suggesting that even though technology and performance will improve in the future, one should get started in the planning process now to a significant degree, since “technology travels faster than the speed of decision-making.”

In a recent Commission newsletter, the 14th century Abbot of Sponheim was reported to have expressed the following concern about new technology’s impact on preservation:

If writing is inscribed on parchment it will last for a thousand years. But if on paper, how long will it last? Two hundred years would be a lot.

Imagine his concern today, with the crumbling library collections that resulted from the “improved” paper technologies of the 19th century. With each new technological improvement in communication media has come an almost consistent shortening of the durability or life cycle of the product. The good abbot would be horrified to learn that the electronic and non-print analog video and music tapes of today will not last a fraction of one’s life expectancy. It is time to turn attention to this aspect of our large and rapidly-growing electronic output and to develop policies and strategies to deal with its preservation.

In October 1992, TAAC member Lesk produced a provocative discussion, Preservation of New Technology following up on an alarm sounded a year earlier (“Mixed Microform and Digital,” Rowland C.W. Brown, INFORM: The Magazine of Information and Image Management 5, issue 9, October 1991). Lesk dealt with the difficult issues of obsolescence of media, software, hardware and the absence of necessary standards. On behalf of the Commission, the TAAC report called for collaborative efforts in dealing with the problem and tackling the tough policy issues, reminding us that with the advantages of new technology come new challenges, a point frequently ignored in the adoption of the new approaches.

The Commission is exploring, along with other organizations, how this critical and growing problem of preservation facing our society and much of the world can be brought to the attention of the public, policy-makers and funding agencies, much as the Slow Fires warned us about the brittle books problem. Unfortunately, the problem today is much more complex and the solutions more varied and less clear, even in assigning responsibility. As one part of a broad-scale technical agenda for the future, the Commission contracted for the preparation of a preliminary treatment for a film addressing the issues of safeguarding and disseminating information in electronic formats and media. The film, in the planning stage, would be cosponsored by a number of concerned institutions.

In keeping with the Commission’s mission of providing access to materials that have been preserved but that are no longer in circulation, TAAC has continued to monitor the changing telecommunications scene and the growing availability of digital networks to provide almost instantaneous and cost-effective transfer of enormous amounts of digital information. A comprehensive report, The Evolving National Information Network: Background and Challenges, is to be published in July 1993. Written by TAAC member Douglas Van Houweling and his colleague at the University of Michigan, Michael McGill, this timely study thoroughly explores the technologies and how they are likely to develop, the structure and organization of the evolving infrastructure, the implications for future transmission of text and image and some of the thorny issues of policy that are posed by these exciting developments. In the author’s words, “this new environment for information transmission has the potential to revolutionalize the way we publish, access and preserve information. It has the capability to transform the way libraries acquire and preserve information and introduces new prospects for preservation and access.” Interestingly, one could contend that if appropriate mechanisms and collaborative efforts are established, preservation surrogates in digital form will become more readily available and universally accessible through these emerging digital highways than either the original resources or the microfilm copies.

The work of the digital preservation consortium, which has been monitored by TAAC and reported upon previously, continues to progress. These contracted projects are testing the application of new digital equipment and software for the preservation of print materials and the conversion of preservation microfilm collections. The demonstrations will provide experience and results to be shared among the consortia during the development period and ultimately with the total Commission audience. It is the intention that the output of these projects, including both text and image, will be shared electronically among the institutions, with remote printing where appropriate, to determine the feasibility of broad electronic access to preservation materials. During this year, TAAC and the Commission approved one additional contract. The newest project explores the feasibility of the application of the Kodak photo-CD process for preservation generally, and specifically for the deteriorating black-and-white photographs from the University of Southern California’s (USC) collection that documents the history and development of Southern California and the Southwest over the past 130 years. USC and Cornell University will explore the use of different disc formats for different applications and plan to exchange images and image libraries over Internet.

The bulk of the collective effort of TAAC this past year, however, has not been with reports or assessments of the current and emerging technologies, but on the broader mission: Exploring the long-range implications for higher education and scholarly communication as these technologies transform our society in the decades ahead. TAAC recommended that the Commission take a lead in organizing a unique planning process to focus on how this revolutionary transformation will particularly affect higher education and scholarly communication. It is an exciting and far-reaching effort, possibly the most important assessment effort to date, and the committee looks forward to reporting progress during the next year.

In today’s environment, only research libraries have undertaken the responsibility of preservation of little used documents. There is no apparent likelihood of the network and associated digital storage technology relieving higher education of its responsibility in this arena.

The Evolving National Information Network: Background and
Challenges, p 27.

Scholarly Advisory Committees

The past year saw the establishment of two new groups concerned with providing advice on selection priorities in specific fields of scholarship, namely history and Renaissance studies. Additionally, the geological information imaging project that had originated from the Joint Task Force on Text and Image invited geologists to evaluate alternative formats and media for preservation of and access to maps and diagrams. Finally, the Commission convened an international group of scholars at the Rockefeller Foundation Study and Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy, to explore opportunities for collaboration in saving the embrittled contents of libraries in the U.S. and Europe.

Preserving Historical Material

The Commission sponsored a meeting at which a small group of scholars with special interests in American history and culture made a new attempt to delineate an approach to preservation priorities for the scholarly material of their field. The Commission had earlier sought advice from a rather diverse group of historians, representing various areas, epochs and topical specialties, but had not obtained clear, consensual recommendations, possibly because the task was too broad or ill-defined.

The participants quickly identified the printed materials produced in the latter half of the 19th-century as those most urgently in need of preservation because of their deteriorated condition, noting that this era was prolific in publishing not only records of contemporary events, but also in putting documents from earlier periods into printed form. Participants also came to the view that preservation strategies might be easier to develop if the very broad field, “history,” were partitioned among several committees of advisors. The idea developed that such committees could usefully be organized around the type of media or material to be preserved (rather than epochs or geographical areas) and peopled by historians from various topical fields who were known to use a particular medium in their research. Thus, a committee on the preservation of 19th- century periodicals might include in its five- to seven-person membership a historian of religion, popular culture, labor, immigration/ethnicity and agriculture, and two regional historians–all of whom depend heavily on 19th-century periodicals in their work. Scholars identified various types of publications around which advisory groups might be organized, offered the names of others who might participate and suggested that one or two meetings of such specially constituted committees might be more effective than a standing scholarly advisory committee which attempted to cover all of history.

Preservation of Literature of the Renaissance

One of the curiosities of the preservation movement has been the seeming indifference of many scholars TO [DELETE-ABOUT] the condition of the intellectual resources of their fields. Only rarely has there been a spontaneous initiative for preservation that originated with scholars themselves. That was the case for Medieval Studies, whose first meeting took place in March of 1990 and whose work was continued with Commission support. In 1992, the Renaissance Society of America became the second specialty group to organize its own members for preservation of the literature of the field. The Society appointed a Preservation Committee and provided support for an initial meeting of five persons–scholars and librarians–to begin planning.

The avowed purpose of the meeting was to develop, with advice and guidance of Commission staff, a “scholarly advisory committee seeking to formulate a preservation strategy for embrittled Renaissance resources.” Clearly, the Society’s initiative parallels that followed by the Medieval Academy in its report Preserving Libraries for Medieval Studies.

Preserving Text and Image: A Demonstration Project

The Joint Task Force on Text and Image recommended that the Commission sponsor projects that would employ a variety of technologies for the preservation of text-cum-image publications in order to learn what time, effort and special problems might be involved in using the techniques, as well as how satisfactory the results could be for scholarly purposes. The first such project, directed by Susan Klimley, was carried out through the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory Library, with assistance from the MicrogrAphic Preservation Service and funding from The Getty Grant Program. The project used color prints and drawings, photographs and maps from the New York State Museum Bulletin to produce black-and-white microfilm that was scanned electronically to make a CD-ROM, as well as color microfiche. Several different processes were used to produce paper copies as well. The results were shown to geologists attending a national professional meeting, who evaluated their usefulness.

The project has provided a wealth of insight into the current problems of producing and using both photographic and digital electronic copies of text-cum-image materials. Not only did it demonstrate that, for scientific purposes, color copies of a map (itself colored for the purpose of discriminating different areas, not for representing their actual color in nature) could be “unfaithfully” rendered but still be useful; but it also strongly suggested that users would recognize and accept the tradeoffs between cost and aesthetic quality. The demonstration strongly suggests that scanning 35mm black-and-white microfilm can produce a digital copy that can be usefully converted to paper form, at least for black-and-white line drawings as well as text (but not for color maps). The CD contained illegible words and its copies of photographic images were hard to identify, though simple black-and-white drawings were clear. Electronic scanning of the color film was not even attempted because of the very high estimated cost. The test also highlighted current deficiencies in simpler technologies such as slide/film projectors and CRT screen monitors, especially with regard to oversize items (which can be important in both science and art).

Bellagio Conference: Preserving the Intellectual Heritage

An international group of scholars, librarians, archivists and information scientists took decisive steps toward the establishment of a European commission on preservation and access at the June 1993 Conference on Preserving the Intellectual Heritage convened by the Commission at the Rockefeller Foundation Study and Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy. The three-day conference [DELETE-WAS CONVENED WITH] ALSO HAD the cooperation of the Commission of the European Communities Directorate-General X and the Standing Conference of Rectors, Presidents and Vice-Chancellors of the European Universities (CRE) and was supported by the Rockefeller and Andrew W. Mellon Foundations.

The three principal objectives of the conference were to increase awareness and concern about the problem of decaying library collections, especially among European scholars; to begin to build a European-centered effort to effectively collaborate with scholars and libraries in the United States, while still addressing preservation issues that are unique to European countries; and to enlarge and begin to solidify the scholarly linkages between Europe and the United States in all fields that depend on the endangered literature on both continents.

On June 10, 1993, the final day of the conference, the 23 conferees from 11 countries agreed that a European counterpart of the Commission on Preservation and Access should be formed and that the initiative should come from the persons present. The final plan, unanimously approved, created an ad hoc steering committee responsible for initiating and supervising the constitution of such a commission. Elected to the committee were Professor Pieter J. D. Drenth (Netherlands), Professor Michel Jouve (France) and Professor Geoffrey Martin (United Kingdom), with Alison de Puymège as secretariat ad interim. They, in turn, were charged with selecting three additional members. It was suggested that the European commission seek endorsement and initial financial support as an independent body from a wide range of existing European cultural institutions. The conferees also recommended that the U.S. Commission on Preservation and Access be represented on the new board. Conferees agreed that recommendations and momentum from the conference would help involve a wide range of colleagues and secure collaboration between the two continents in the work of preservation. A final report on the conference is due to be published in fall 1993.

There is agreement that actions for book preservation have to be taken quickly, systematically, and extensively, even though complete preservation of all endangered books is impossible for financial reasons.

Heimo Reinitzer, Head of German Bible-Archiv at the Universitat
Hamburg, from a talk given at the Bellagio Conference, June 1993.

The Brittle Books Program

The Commission maintained its strong advocacy for the brittle books program operated by the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Division of Preservation and Access at the completion of the first five years of this 20-year effort. The Commission board and the Preservation Managers Council issued forceful statements in favor of the broad-based program to save three million crumbling books through preservation reformatting. The brittle books program remained on schedule, with over 60 libraries, archives and museums participating and over 530,000 books and documents either completed or in the process of being microfilmed.

In May 1992, the Commission cosponsored testimony with the Association of Research Libraries and the National Humanities Alliance endorsing full appropriations for preservation activities in FY-1994. Speaking on behalf of the three organizations before the Subcommittee on the Interior and Related Agencies, Committee on Appropriations, U.S. House of Representatives, David H. Stam, Librarian, Syracuse University, urged that $2.3 million be restored to the Endowment’s budget for 1994 to reflect the original target of $20.3 million for library and archival programs. The testimony also requested a modification to fund the exploration of the preservation potential of digital technology:

While these advances are promising, all our studies continue to show the nation’s investment in microfilming for preservation continues to be well founded. It assures the safety of the information, but does not preclude the imminent advantages of new types of access. Expansion in the types of formats for preserved material through digitization will clearly be beneficial because it will enhance access to information, a primary goal of the NEH program.

With the increase in preservation reformatting, the Commission initiated a series of pilot studies and surveys to help verify and adapt current practices for the growing numbers of microfilm being stored and available for access. A survey managed by the Research Libraries Group, Inc., under contract to the Commission investigated the practices and use of standards by producers of first-generation microfilm. The investigators concluded that the level of adherence to standards was about equal for microfilm produced for profit and for preservation, but that adherence could be significantly improved by all types of micropublishers. The final report recommended that routine inspection programs for stored films be immediately devised and implemented.

To investigate the feasibility of such an inspection program, the Commission contracted for a pilot survey to help establish procedures and methods for the periodic audit of the quality of first- and third-generation microfilm. The survey, conducted by MSTC, Fairfax, VA, an independent firm that provides assessments of microfilm quality to government and corporate customers, addressed image quality with additional inspection for evidence of deterioration. Cooperating in the effort were the preservation departments of the libraries at Ohio State, Yale and Harvard Universities, which each provided about one percent of their master and printing negatives filmed under the NEH program.

While the inspected masters did not show signs of deterioration and no data was lost, one-third of the film did not meet established resolution standards. The survey found that in some cases libraries had not received all the preservation microfilming services for which they had contracted. Investigators recommended that training programs on microfilming standards and contracting would be helpful. More than two dozen preservation managers reviewed the survey results and discussed next steps at a meeting sponsored by the Commission during the June 1993 American Library Association conference in New Orleans.

In affirming the high priority of access to preserved materials as an integral part of the brittle books program, the Commission board recommended continued investigation into the possibility of centralized storage and access services for the growing numbers of preservation microfilm. One study collected cost data and explored a number of financial options for collaborative support of a centralized service that would provide quick and inexpensive access to preservation microfilm. Such a service could also serve as a precursor to the development of dedicated electronic retrieval services. A small, informal survey on the current availability of preservation microfilm conducted by the Preservation Managers Council found that acquisitions and interlibrary loan systems often cannot provide timely access to these resources and that costs vary considerably from institution to institution. In another preliminary study, the Commission surveyed the large libraries forming the core of the NEH filming project, regarding their recording methods for stored microfilm. The returns indicated that most libraries house the film in clearly labeled boxes, a practice that will expedite linking library records to a centralized service’s retrieval system. The Commission also undertook preliminary investigations regarding the database linkages necessary to connect a centralized service’s retrieval system to current bibliographic information systems.

Funding The Brittle Books Program: The First Five Years

The first five years of the National Endowment for the Humanities preservation program have demonstrated the capacity of the nation’s libraries and archives to work with the federal government in the national interest. The brittle books program remains on target with its microfilming efforts, despite a reduction in requested funding for the past two years. In the first three years, the President proposed and the Congress appropriated funds very close to the original 1988 plan: $12.5 million in FY-89, $13.7 million in FY-90 and $15.8 million in FY-91. In the past two years, allocations have fallen below the original plan: FY-92 fell $1.1 million below the estimated $17.7 million required, and FY-93 was $2.3 million below the fifth-year target of $20.3 million.

From May, 1992 testimony in support of NEH funding

Communication

Communication efforts of the Commission advocate and promote the preservation and access agenda and provide education and timely information among many constituencies. The Commission distributes its newsletters and publications on a complimentary basis in the U.S. and throughout the world, supported through foundation grants. In addition to its regular reports, the monthly newsletter included special features on paper standards, deacidification research, international preservation planning, regional and state programs, and research and demonstration projects involving digital and imaging technologies. To broaden coverage, the newsletter began a series of opinion columns by board members and multi-page inserts on evolving technologies and scientific issues.

The publication series provides analytical and descriptive resources to stimulate thought, discussion and collaborative action regarding preservation and access at national and international levels. The policy is to seek credible specialists to prepare the publications, to provide responsible editorial oversight, fact-checking and peer review and to indicate the provenance of the publication. Publications are recommended by Commission committees and task forces, generated as a result of Commission-sponsored seminars and conferences, and developed in response to requests from the collective voice of segments of the Commission’s constituencies.

In the past year, the Technology Assessment Advisory Committee completed a substantive publication series describing new technologies and their implications for preservation and access (see Technology Assessment Section). These reports, together with progress reports from universities conducting research and demonstration projects, accounted for the majority of publication activity.

The Commission encourages the reproduction of its publications for noncommercial purposes, including educational advancement, private study and research. A number of professional journals republished Commission reports, and the Commission arranged with Conservation OnLine, a bulletin board operated on the Internet, to scan publications for full-text online use. As a matter of policy, all Commission publications are submitted to the ERIC Clearinghouse on Information Resources.

The Charles E. Culpeper Foundation provided support to expand the base of constituencies receiving newsletters and publications to include additional scholars, librarians and technology specialists, the international community beyond national libraries and institutions of higher education. The communications assistant assumed responsibility as managing editor of the newsletter, in addition to maintaining the exhibit schedule and responding to requests for communications materials for workshops, conferences, meetings and other purposes. The current two exhibits, both focusing on brittle books, were shown at several conferences and meetings and were adapted to the needs of each borrowing institution. The Commission has begun to update its large, modular panel exhibit to reflect the technological aspects of preservation and access.

The Slow Fires video on embrittled books traveled with the exhibits to a number of their destinations and was distributed to individuals and institutions throughout the world. French and Spanish versions of the film were developed and made available by the American Film Foundation, Santa Monica, CA. The Commission contracted with the American Film Foundation for the preliminary developmental phase of a new film and video exploring the characteristics of electronic information, including the phenomena of brief life cycles, rapidly expanding amounts of information, changing hardware and software access systems, needs for improved indexing and analysis and radically different copyright and ownership issues.

Information plugs us into the world of computerized productivity. but the open space of books balances our computer logic with the graces of intuition.

The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality, by Michael Heim, 1993,
Oxford University Press, pp 26-27.

Institutional and Education Initiatives

The Commission convened a small group of scientists and preservation administrators to facilitate the development of a workable scientific research agenda addressing preservation needs. The initiative, funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, is supporting a progressive series of education and communication activities to help establish productive links between the consumers and producers of scientific research and its applications.

The initiative began with publication of a series of reviews of individual science projects and a directory of laboratories conducting relevant research. During a two and one-half day workshop at the Belmont Conference Center, MD in September 1992, three research teams, each consisting of several preservation administrators and a scientist-leader, began to explore a long-term, focused scientific research effort. Participants agreed that while it is the scientists who conduct the actual research, it is the administrators’ responsibility to define the research needs for preservation, to oversee projects, to help translate and apply results, and to lead the way to developing useable technologies based on the results.

At a one-day planning session in February 1993, administrators and scientists further refined and outlined the research needs for various types of materials found in library and archives collections. A second workshop scheduled for September 1993 will seek to develop three to four projects addressing the current, most critical needs of the preservation field. These projects are expected to have a major impact on advancing the national preservation effort and will be identified within the broad context of a long-range, useful research agenda for the 1990s and beyond.

The Commission convened the first two meetings of the Preservation Managers Council, which was established in June 1992 to provide a productive forum for the contributions of managers of large preservation programs to the Commission’s activities. At an organizational meeting in October 1992, the group explored several broad areas for future investigation, including education of preservation administrators and those with whom they work and a broadscale examination of the preservation function within an institution, in order to clarify its interrelationships with other library and institutional activities and goals.

At a second meeting in March 1993, council members identified the research and development projects of the digital preservation consortium as a primary Commission priority. Members voiced the need for institutions to become more active in involving and informing scholars in preservation and access explorations and suggested that institutions become more vigorous in raising funds for preservation and access projects. The group affirmed the importance of continued institutional support for the NEH brittle books program and discussed how to enhance the availability of the more than 530,000 microfilms produced so far. Council members are expected to serve as a communication link between the Commission and the broader preservation constituency. Meetings, chaired by the Commission president, are held in the spring and fall at Commission headquarters.

The College Libraries Committee, which serves as an education and communication link between the Commission and college libraries and archives, received support in May 1993 to continue its activities for another two years as part of a grant from the Charles E. Culpeper Foundation. The committee pursued a feasibility study titled Project IBID, developed by two of their members, to investigate the possibility of using digitization and on-demand printing to enhance access to brittle, out-of-print books for curriculum and instructional purposes. The project is looking into the viability of marketing these reprints by either commercial or nonprofit firms. Project IBID stimulated substantial interest on the part of publishers, both academic and commercial, during an exploratory phase funded by the Commission.

Project directors developed a preliminary business plan and obtained support from a number of colleges and universities prior to submitting a grant proposal to the U.S. Department of Education for a two-year demonstration of scanning, on-demand printing and marketing. Amherst College, the College of Charleston, the Southeastern Library Network, Inc. (SOLINET), Atlanta, GA, and the Commission are supporting the proposal with funds and in-kind contributions.

The committee served as an advisor to SOLINET in the design and conduct of a second Preservation Management Seminar for College Libraries scheduled for July 1993 at Wellesley College, MA. The original concept and design for this eight-day seminar originated with the committee and was developed with SOLINET staff, culminating in a first seminar in summer 1991. In 1992-93, SOLINET took over management of the seminar, with the committee selecting the 22 participants and the recipient of a Commission scholarship. Two attendees from outside the U.S. received scholarships from the international project. The seminar is scheduled to be held in other locations in future years. It is targeted for college librarians responsible, usually on a part-time basis, for planning and coordinating preservation activities.

The Commission joined with five other organizations to cosponsor a symposium on policies for preservation at Southern Methodist University in April. The one-day conference was developed for legislators, university administrators and other leaders instrumental in providing funds and support for library preservation and conservation activities. Speakers included Commission board chairman Billy E. Frye and member David B. Gracy II.

The grant from the Culpeper Foundation supporting the College Libraries Committee also provides funds for the development and conduct of a library education seminar to explore the current and future needs of librarians charged with providing continuing access to scholarly information recorded on a variety of media.

The workshop represented the start of a process to link the consumers of applied science in this tiny area known as library and archives preservation with the producers.

Participant, September 1992 Science Research Workshop

Publications and Reports

July 1, 1992 – June 30, 1993

Published by the Commission

The Commission on Preservation and Access Annual Report, 1991-1992.

The Commission on Preservation and Access Newsletters: nos. 47-57 (July 1992 – June 1993).

Jones, C. Lee. Preservation Film: Platform for Digital Access Systems (Newsletter Insert July 1993). $5.00.

Kenney, Anne and Lynne Personius. Joint Study in Digital Preservation Phase 1 (September 1992). $10.00.

Kesse, Erich. Survey of Micropublishers (October 1992). $5.00.

Rütimann, Hans. The International Project 1992 Update (January 1993). $10.00.

The Preservation of Archival Materials: A Report of the Task Forces on Archival Selection (Newsletter Insert April 1993). $5.00.

Van Houweling, Douglas and Michael McGill. The Evolving National Information Network: Background and Challenges–A Report to the Technology Assessment Advisory Committee. In press.

Waters, Donald. Electronic Technologies and Preservation: A Report of the Technology Assessment Advisory Committee(June 1992). $5.00.

Waters, Donald and Shari Weaver. The Organizational Phase of Project Open Book. (September 1992). $5.00.

Weber, Hartmut. Opto-Electronic Storage–An Alternative to Filming? (Newsletter Insert February 1993). $5.00.

Willis, Donald. A Hybrid Systems Approach to Preservation of Printed Materials. (November 1992). $10.00.

Published Elsewhere

Battin, Patricia. “Redefining Preservation and Reconceptualizing Information Services.” In Library Issues: Briefings for Faculty and Administration 13, no. 2 (November 1992).

Battin, Patricia. “Image Standards and Implications for Preservation. In Proceedings of Workshop on Electronic Texts, June 9-10, 1992, edited by James Daly, pp 57-60, Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, October, 1992.

Battin, Patricia. “‘As Far Into the Future as Possible’: Choice and Cooperation in the 1990s”. In Advances in Preservation and Access, edited by Barbra Higginbotham and Mary E. Jackson, Vol. 1, 41-48. Westportm CT: Meckler Publishing, 1992.

Rütimann, Hans. “The European Register of Microform Masters (EROMM).” In Medieval Academy News, no. 114, Medieval Academy of America, Cambridge, MA (November 1992).

Rütimann, Hans. “New Technologies for Preservation: A Leap of Faith.” Published in the papers of the 1990 Conference on Library Automation and Networking (September 1992).

Rütimann, Hans. “Presentation of the Situation in the United States.” In Expert Meeting on Conservation of Acid Paper Material and the Use of Permanent Paper, Lasne, Belgium, Marc WALCKIERS, EFLC-Librime (May 1993).

Rütimann, Hans. “Preserving our Heritage: A Global Concern.” Published in the papers of The Alliance of Universities for Democracy Fall 1992 Conference (July 1992).

Reprints

Calmes, Alan. “New Preservation Concern: Video Recordings” (April 1990 newsletter article). Reprinted in The Video Annual 1993. Denver, CO: ABC-CLIO. (1993).

“Cornell, Yale Advance with Digital Technologies” (October 1992 newsletter article). Reprinted in Options for Replacing and Reformatting Deteriorated Materials. Washington, DC: Association of Research Libraries, January, 1993.

Kenney, Anne and Lynne Personius. Joint Study in Digital Preservation Phase 1 (September 1992). Reprinted in The Electronic Library, Volume 10, no. 3 (June 1992): 155-163

Kesse, Erich. Survey of Micropublishers (October 1992). Reprinted in Microform Review 22, no. 2 (Spring 1993): 65-92.

Preserving the Illustrated Text: A Report of the Joint Task Force on Text and Image (April 1992). Reprinted in Microform Review 22, no. 1 (Winter 1993): 15-31.

Preserving the Illustrated Text: A Report of the Joint Task Force on Text and Image (April 1992). Reprinted in European Research Libraries Cooperation (ERLC), the Quarterly of the Ligue des Bibliotèques Europeénnes de Recherche (LIBER) 2, no. 1 (1992): 1-32.

Review and Assessment Committee Final Report. Reprinted in Microform Review 21, no. 3 (Summer 1992): 111-123

Rütimann, Hans, and M. Stuart Lynn. Computerization Project of the Archivo General de Indias, Seville, Spain (March 1992). Reprinted in Cadernos De Biblioteconomia, Arquivística E Documentaçã 2 (1992): 131-149

“Special Report: Research on the Use of Color Microfilm” (September 1992 newsletter article). Reprinted in Options for Replacing and Reformatting Deteriorated Materials. Washington, DC: Association of Research Libraries, January, 1993.

St. Laurent, Gilles. The Care and Handling of Recorded Sound Materials (September 1991). Reprinted in the ARSC Journal 23, no. 2 (Fall 1992): 144-157

Committees and Task Forces

Technology Assessment Advisory Committee

Rowland C. W. Brown (Chair)
Consultant
Commission on Preservation and Access

Douglas E. Van Houweling
Vice Provost for Information Technology
University of Michigan

Michael Lesk
Division Manager, Computer Science Research
Bellcore

Peter Lyman
University Librarian and Dean
University of Southern California

M. Stuart Lynn
Vice President, Information Technologies
Cornell University

Robert Spinrad
Vice President,Technology Analysis and Development
Xerox Corporation

Robert L. Street
Vice Provost and Dean of Libraries and Information Resources
Stanford University

Digital Preservation Consortium

Millicent D. Abell
University Librarian
Yale University

Patricia Battin
President
Commission on Preservation and Access

Nancy Cline
Dean of University Libraries
Pennsylvania State University

Richard De Gennaro
Roy E. Larsen Librarian of Harvard College
Harvard University

Richard Ferguson
University Director, Computing and Information Systems
Yale University

Stephen Hall
Director, Office for Information Technology
Harvard University

Fred Harris
Vice Chancellor for Computing and Telecommunications
University of Tennessee

Paula Kaufman
Dean of Libraries
University of Tennessee

Donald Koepp
University Librarian
Princeton University

Peter Lyman
University Librarian and Dean
University of Southern California

M. Stuart Lynn
Vice President, Information Technologies
Cornell University

Salvatore Meringolo
Assistant Dean and Head, Collections and Reference Services
Pennsylvania State University

Alain Seznec
University Librarian
Cornell University

Robert L. Street
Vice Provost and Dean of Libraries and Information Resources
Stanford University

Lee Varian
Director, Systems and Technical Support
Computing and Information Technology
Princeton University

Donald J. Waters
Head, Library Systems Office
Yale University

Scholarly Advisory Committee on Art History

Nancy S. Allen
Librarian
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Elizabeth Boone
Director of Pre-Columbian Studies
Dumbarton Oaks

Richard Brilliant
Professor, Department of Art History and Archaeology
Columbia University

Marvin Eisenberg
Professor of Art History Emeritus
University of Michigan

Lorenz Eitner
Osgood Hooker Professor Emeritus
Department of Art
Stanford University

Larry Silver (Chair)
Professor, Department of Art History
Northwestern University

Deirdre C. Stam
Professor, School of Library and Information Science
Catholic University of America

Scholarly Advisory Committee on Medieval Studies

Steven Horwitz
Curator, Robbins Collection, School of Law
University of California, Berkeley

Mark D. Jordan
Associate Professor, Medieval Institute
University of Notre Dame

Christopher Kleinhenz
Professor, Medieval Studies Program
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Milton McC. Gatch (Appointed)
Director, The Burke Library
Union Theological Seminary

Lillian M. C. Randall
Research Curator of Manuscripts
Walters Art Gallery

Susanne F. Roberts (Chair)
Humanities Bibliographer, University Library
Yale University

Fred C. Robinson (Resigned)
Professor, Department of English
Yale University

Jan M. Ziolkowski
Professor, Department of the Classics
Harvard University

Scholarly Advisory Committee on Renaissance Studies

Peter Graham
Associate University Librarian for Technical and Networked Information
Rutgers University

Marcella Grendler (Chair)
Associate University Librarian for Special Collections
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Daniel Javitch
Professor, Department of Comparative Literature
New York University

Pauline Watts
Professor, History Department
Sarah Lawrence College

Georgianna Ziegler
Reference Librarian
Folger Shakespeare Library

Advisory Committee on Archival Selection

Margaret S. Child (Chair)
Consultant
Commission on Preservation and Access

Evelyn Frangakis
Director, Preservation Management Training Program
Society of American Archivists

Larry J. Hackman
Director
New York State Archives and Records Administration

Anne R. Kenney
Assistant Director, Department of Preservation and Conservation, John M. Olin Library
Cornell University

James M. O’Toole
Professor, History Department
University of Massachusetts at Boston

Helen W. Samuels
Director, Archives
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Task Force on Appraisal

Frank Boles
Director, Clarke Historical Library
Central Michigan University

Paul Conway
Head, Preservation Department Sterling Memorial Library
Yale University

Edie Hedlin
Archival Consultant

Robert Sink (Chair)
Archivist/Records Manager
New York Public Library Archives

Sarah S. Wagner
Senior Photograph Conservator, Preservation Policy and Services Division
National Archives and Records Administration

Christine Ward
Chief, Bureau of Archival Services
New York State Archives and Records Administration

Task Force on Documentation Strategy

Bruce H. Bruemmer
Archivist, Charles Babbage Institute
University of Minnesota

Richard J. Cox
Professor, School of Library & Information Science
University of Pittsburgh

Timothy L. Ericson (Chair)
Director of Archives and Special Collections Golda Meir Library
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Karen Garlick
Head, Paper Conservation Lab
Museum of American History
Smithsonian Institution

College Libraries Committee

Willis E. Bridegam
Librarian of the College
Amherst College

Barbara J. Brown
University Librarian
Washington and Lee University

Joel Clemmer (Resigned)
Library Director
Macalester College

David J. Cohen
Dean of Libraries
College of Charleston

Caroline M. Coughlin
Library Director
Drew University

Michael J. Haeuser
Head Librarian
Gustavus Adolphus College

Victoria L. Hanawalt (Appointed)
College Librarian
Reed College

Kathleen Moretto Spencer (Chair)
Associate Vice President for Academic Resources and College Librarian
Franklin & Marshall College

Preservation Managers Council

Patricia Battin (Chair)
President
Commission on Preservation and Access

Margaret M. Byrnes
Head, Preservation Section
National Library of Medicine

Ellen Cunningham-Kruppa
Preservation Officer, General Libraries
University of Texas at Austin

Richard Frieder
Head, Preservation Department, University Library
Northwestern University

Kenneth E. Harris
Director for Preservation
Library of Congress

Carolyn Clark Morrow
Malloy-Rabinowitz Preservation Librarian
Harvard University

Barclay Ogden
Head, Library Conservation Department
University of California, Berkeley

Christine Ward
Chief, Bureau of Archival Services
New York State Archives and Records Administration

Board of Directors

Millicent D. Abell
University Librarian
Yale University

Henriette D. Avram (Retired)
Associate Librarian for Collections Services
Library of Congress

Patricia Battin
President
Commission on Preservation and Access

Betty G. Bengtson (Elected)
Director of University Libraries
University of Washington

Billy E. Frye (Chair)
Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost
Emory University

Barbara Goldsmith
Trustee
New York Public Library

James F. Govan (Retired)
University Librarian
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

David B. Gracy II
Associate Dean and Governor Bill Daniel Professor in Archival Enterprise, Graduate School of Library and Information Science
University of Texas at Austin

Kenneth R. R. Gros Louis (Resigned)
Vice President, Indiana University and Chancellor–Bloomington
Indiana University

J. L. Heilbron
Vice Chancellor
University of California, Berkeley

Carole Huxley
Deputy Commissioner for Cultural Education
New York State Education Department

Donald S. Lamm (Resigned)
President
W.W. Norton & Company

Klaus-Dieter Lehmann (Elected)
Director General
Die Deutsche Bibliothek

W. David Penniman
President
Council on Library Resources

Cornelius J. Pings (Elected)
President
Association of American Universities

Winston Tabb (Elected)
Associate Librarian for Collections Services
Library of Congress

Nicholas A. Veliotes (Elected)
President
Association of American Publishers

Sidney Verba
Director
Harvard University Library

Staff

Patricia Battin
President

Pamela M. Davis
Executive Assistant

Linda J. Hutter
Treasurer

William J. Koerner II
Communications Assistant

Maxine K. Sitts
Program Officer

Consultants

Rowland C. W. Brown
Technology Assessment

Margaret S. Child
Non-print Materials

Henry W. Riecken
Scholarly Advisory Committees

Hans Rütimann
International Project

The Commission on Preservation and Access
1400 16th Street, NW, Suite 740
Washington, DC 20036-2217
USA

The Commission on Preservation and Access was established in 1986 to foster and support collaboration among libraries and allied organizations in order to insure the preservation of the published and documentary record in all formats and to provide enhanced access to scholarly information.

Additional copies are available at no cost while supplies last.

Submitted to ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center)

The image on the cover is one of the illustrations from Preserving the Illustrated Text: Report of the Joint Task Force on Text and Image, published by the Commission in April 1992. It is from: Clarke, John M. “Report of the State Paleontologist 1902.” New York State Museum Bulletin 69, p. 851-1311, 1903. Courtesy of Lamont Doherty Geological Sciences Library.

CPA Annual Report: 1992 – 1993

Annual Report July 1, 1992 – June 30, 1993

Table of Contents