Preservation of Information

1. Preservation of Information Lecture 1/2 Reformatting 23/30 June , 2007

2. Preservation of artefact orintellectual content? • Preservation of intellectual content which apply to both paper and non-paper format when: • Time, labour, and cost to repair and conserve the item is high • Technical solutions is not effective, e.g. deacidification won’t strengthen the paper • Lack of skills and knowledge

3. Preservation of artefact orintellectual content? • In most cases, most libraries choose to preserve intellectual content because of: • Limited budgets and resources (time and skilled labour), • Some libraries rather preserve the items in another, more durable physical format that is economically feasible, i.e. reformatting

4. Preservation of artefact orintellectual content? Preservation of artefact when: • The item has special value as a physical object, e.g. of economic, historical, aesthetic, legislative value Conservation treatments to be applied to the items may be: • minor repairs to bindings and tears in paper, • commercial rebinding,

5. Preservation of artefact orintellectual content? Conservation treatments to be applied: • a full conservation treatment consisting of deacidification, • encapsulation • conservation binding, • adding a protective enclosure, or polyester encapsulation for single sheets

6. Reformatting as Preservation of intellectual content When books are too brittle to remain in use, some actions to take include: • Withdrawal if the book no longer serves any use • Replacement if a commercial reprint or later edition is available • Enclosure or encapsulation: if it will be used infrequently, then put it in protective enclosure • Reformatting

7. Reformatting • Reformatting: e.g. microfilming, photocopying, and digitization (applicable to both paper and non-paper formats), • Remember: • Take good care in reformatting, use archival quality paper and microforms • Use digital cameras or scanners for digitization • Use book scanners for rare book photoduplication • Some information may be lost in reformatting

8. Reformatting - Photocopying • Photocopy replacement is chosen if commercial reprint is unavailable, • This is costly • Use right-angled copiers and preservation-quality copiers if possible • Use alkaline or archival quality paper • Single- or double-side printing which can be bound if required • Ensure enough margins for binding

9. Reformatting - Photocopy • Books too long, e.g. >100 pages, will probably cost less to microfilm • Books heavily used is better to be photocopied for the convenience of reading • Books with coloured or high quality black-and-white illustrations not appropriate • It does not produce a master copy

10. Reformatting - Microfilming • Microfilming is recording the text and illustrations of materials on photographic film (microfilm and microfiche) • Reading equipment e.g. reader and scanner, storage and maintenance also cost money. • Check if any other institution has already microfilmed the same collection, don’t duplicate effort

11. Reformatting - Microfilming • Buying copies of microfilms from commercial vendor is more economical • Is costly if master negatives and use positives are to be made, Some libraries have preservation master, a print master, and a service copy, totally 3 copies • Master copy of a high quality facilitates scanning of microfilm into digital format and duplication

12. Reformatting - Microfilming • Duplicates can be made with master negatives • Usually use silver gelatin microfilm on polyester which is more stable and stronger • Acetate film base is easily torn and subject to “vinegar syndrome” • Standard widths of microform: 16 mm, 35 mm of microfilm, 105 x 148 mm of microfiche

13. Reformatting - Microfilming • Has long-term stability if processing standards, storage conditions and handling procedures are appropriate, can be used for over 500 years • Storage condition: below 21 C, non-fluctuating 20% - 40 % RH, dust-free environment, archival quality containers • Paper copies and digital copies can be made from microforms for easy reading

14. Reformatting - Microfilming • Materials suitable for microfilming are: paper of poor quality and heavily used, brittle books and pamphlets, newspapers, serials, statistical materials, vertical file materials, government reports, manuscripts • Materials not suitable for microfilming are: illustrated, especially those in colour, materials with poor contrast between image and background, materials have been microfilmed by commercial publishers

15. Reformatting - Digitization • Digitization for preservation • In the past, people use microfilm and photocopy technology to reformat books and manuscripts, • Duplicate audio and visual materials to preserve sound and images • More and more institutions use digital technology to preserve both paper and non-paper information,

16. Reformatting - Digitization • Is costly in labor, time and money • Must ensure high preservation quality in these surrogate copies and adhere to standards, • Otherwise, the physical stability and longevity will be in doubt.

17. Reformatting - Digitization Advantages: • Information is preserved • Access to information can be enhanced, especially online access on the WWW, • Simultaneous users possible • Remote access possible

18. Reformatting - Digitization Questions arise: • Should we discard the originals? • How do we preserve these digital copies? • What are the standards and guidelines, e.g. in metadata? A dual process: • Preserve the originals by preservation reformatting, e.g. microfilming and conservation. • Enhance access by reproduction of a digital surrogate.

19. Reformatting - Digitization Examples of digitization projects • Hong Kong Digitization Project Initiatives: http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/lib/electronic/libdbs/hkdpi.html • China-US Million Book Digitization Library Project: http://www.ulib.org.cn/ • Google Print Program: http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/print_library.html

20. Reformatting - Digitization Examples of digitization projects • Shanghai Public Library上海音樂數字圖書館http://www.libnet.sh.cn/music/ • National Library of China 中國國家圖書館http://www.nlc.gov.cn/ • PRDLA: http://www.prdla.org/

21. Reformatting - Digitization Examples of digitization projects • American Memory, Library of Congress http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ammemhome.html • Cornell University Library, http://campusgw.library.cornell.edu/about/digital.html • New York Public Libraryhttp://www.nypl.org/digital/index.htm