As has been detailed in BiblioFile before (the Fall, 1993 and Spring 1994 issues), preservation of library materials is a major concern here at Brown and at most libraries throughout the country. Now, during the "Challenge to the Finish" phase of the University's Campaign for the Rising Generation, it is being pushed to the forefront as one of the fundraising priorities. [See the article on p. 1. ED.] The primary goal is to fund the various methods at our disposal to arrest the deterioration of the collections, with emphasis on exploring and utilizing the newest technology available.
In many cases, reformatting material is the only resort, when an item has reached a stage where it is unusable and a replacement cannot be purchased. This process involves transferring the text to another, more stable medium while maintaining a degree of ease of accessibility. But, whether it be improved environmental control, deacidification, boxing, photocopying or microfilming, each is a time-consuming, labor-intensive task, that is in many cases expensive, especially if done on a large scale. Nor is any method completely free of problems ranging from how difficult it can be to use (microfilm) to how impermanent a solution it may be (boxing).
The newest method of reformatting is optical disk scanning/digitization. This emerging technology allows information, like texts, to be scanned into digital form and stored in a computerized retrieval system. Once this is done, access to the document is instantaneous at workstations attached to the system or to a network and file server or to the World Wide Web. Usually the user also has the capability of printing or downloading from the text file. This immediacy and ease of access makes this method very attractive as a preservation tool.
Brown is beginning to investigate and experiment in this area. Though the technology is still in its infancy, testbed projects at Cornell, Yale, and the Library of Congress have established its viability from the standpoint of both its success in preservation and ease of access to the resources.
Also, it has been shown, fortunately, that high quality microfilm can be easily transferred to disk. Since selection decisions, prep work, and quality control procedures are similar for all types of reformatting, microfilming need not be seen as a "dead" technology, but as one that can co-exist and blend with digital storage and retrieval systems while and when they are perfected. Even as preservation reformatting moves toward the use of digital media for storage, knowledgeable experts are recommending hybrid systems using both digitizing and microfilming. For example, Yale University's Project Open Book is now testing methods of producing scanned images from microfilm and using text encoding software. Even scanning is not without potential pitfalls. One of the main concerns with digital technology is media obsolescence and its effects on storage and retrieval system design. It is recognized that some form of "refreshment," in the form of recopying to existing media or "migration" to some new format, will be necessary. Costs for these procedures must be budgeted once such technology is used to insure continued access to the stored information.
For the Library, the biggest drawback is cost, which is in the neighborhood of $50,000 initially for the scanner and related equipment, plus software and maintenance. We have not only made it part of the "Challenge to the Finish" to raise endowment for funding digital preservation, but have also put forward grant proposals and have identified some local vendors who can provide the hardware and expertise for such systems. At Brown, we are closely following the developments in digital technology and plan on adopting a system in the near future for use in the preservation of library materials.- E.S.