Book Description

This resource guide focuses on handling library materials that are too deteriorated to benefit from other preservation treatments. Hopeless case items, that would require an unreasonable amount of conservation work to fix, can be resolved through a process of reselecting items by replacing them or reformatting them. The reselection integrates preservation with collection development, acquisitions, cataloguing, circulation, and public service. The following articles are presented as guides to replacement and reformatting: (1) "Replacement for Brittle Items" (Emory University) and "Preservation Decision Making: A Descriptive Model" (Yale University) (Association of Research Libraries Office of Management Services); (2) "Brittle Book Preservation Policies" and"Replacement/Reformatting Options for Brittle and Missing Materials" (Columbia University Libraries); (3) "Cornell, Yale Advance with Digital Technologies" and "Special Report: Research on the Use of Color Microfilm" (Commission on Preservation and Access); (4) "RLG Preservation Microfilming Handbook: Operational Impact of Filming Projects on Library Units" (Nancy E. Elkington, Ed.); (5) "Preservation Microfilming" and "Preservation Decision Flow Chart" (Nancy Gwinn); and (6) "Preserving Harvard's Collections: The Acidic and Brittle Paper Problem and its Solutions" and "Preservation Workflow for a Worn, Damaged, or Deteriorated Book in the Research Collection" (Harvard University). A list of 13 selected resources recommends additional reading. (SLD)