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books from mediavel time



 
 
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  #1  
Old July 2nd 03, 07:10 PM
Jeff Inman
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Default books from mediavel time

Richard Moriarty wrote:

I could do away with the students, burn the carrels and tables and
journals and evil book-supplanting computers and get more shelves, but
there could be complaints.


I've known several system admins who have claimed
(only half in jest, I think) that their work is only
a second-best to the much-more-efficacious approach
of just turning off all the computers and going home.


Jeff
Ads
  #2  
Old July 8th 03, 05:18 PM
William M. Klimon
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"Patrick Scheible" wrote in message
...

Mr. Baker's book is specifically about newspapers and their
replacement by microfilm. What makes it a fantasy is his belief that
newsprint can be bound into volumes that will last for a few hundred
years. I've seen some of those volumes, mostly gifts from other
institutions or individuals. To start with, most newspapers print
right up to the gutter edge of the paper so there's no room to sew a
binding and still be able to read the first word of every line. But
more seriously than that, newsprint doesn't last that long. It's made
to be used and thrown away. With care it might last 50-75 years. If
people use it a lot, it would last less time than that -- but if you
don't let people use it, why is it taking up space in your library?




(1) The genesis of Baker's book was his interest in newspapers. But the
book is about much more--as I recall from my reading 2 years ago, probably
as much, if not more, about books as about newspapers.

(2) One of those other topics, e.g., is a chapter on the chemical
deacidification experiments that were conducted in the early 1990s. I saw
with my own eyes (and smelled with my own nose) the fabulous failure of
those experiments as the books that JHU's M.S. Eisenhower Library sent out
came back burned and unusable. I have never seen anyone dispute this
chapter of DOUBLE FOLD.

(3) I don't think Baker anywhere says that there shouldn't be microfilming.
He does focus on its failures, without perhaps highlighting its many
benefits. What he does say, though, which I think is beyond dispute, is
that the microfilming of a given title ought not to be a license to disgard
ALL the originals of that work--again, as I recall, he gives some examples
of exactly that sad event happening.

(4) As for the durability of newspaper, it can certainly last longer than 75
years. I have in my collection of early Catholic Americana 30 issues from
1833 of THE JESUIT, the first Catholic newspaper in the U.S., a weekly
published in Boston, which continues today as the Boston PILOT:

http://www.rcab.org/pilot.html

You can view beautifully preserved newspapers older than 75 years at Baker's
American Newspaper Repository:

http://home.gwi.net/~dnb/gallery.htm



William M. Klimon
http://www.gateofbliss.com



  #3  
Old July 9th 03, 03:54 PM
Patrick Scheible
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"William M. Klimon" writes:

(2) One of those other topics, e.g., is a chapter on the chemical
deacidification experiments that were conducted in the early 1990s. I saw
with my own eyes (and smelled with my own nose) the fabulous failure of
those experiments as the books that JHU's M.S. Eisenhower Library sent out
came back burned and unusable. I have never seen anyone dispute this
chapter of DOUBLE FOLD.


It was an experiment. Not all experiments are successes.

(3) I don't think Baker anywhere says that there shouldn't be microfilming.
He does focus on its failures, without perhaps highlighting its many
benefits. What he does say, though, which I think is beyond dispute, is
that the microfilming of a given title ought not to be a license to disgard
ALL the originals of that work--again, as I recall, he gives some examples
of exactly that sad event happening.


Ideally, yes. But in a typical library they have more items than
space. Preserving the original newspapers means setting aside a
restricted space (because they're too fragile to let anyone use them),
and they disintegrate anyway.

The most compelling example Baker gave is of an incomplete run being
microfilmedd and then (as far as he could discover) complete runs
being discarded in favor of the microfilm. But that situation is
rare; usually microfilm makers go to considerable effort to find
missing issues. If they can't find any copies, they usually state
that on the box and the first few frames of the microfilm, and most
libraries check that before discarding. If a library does find a
missing issue, it is possible to film it and then splice it into the
microfilm.

(4) As for the durability of newspaper, it can certainly last longer than 75
years. I have in my collection of early Catholic Americana 30 issues from
1833 of THE JESUIT, the first Catholic newspaper in the U.S., a weekly
published in Boston, which continues today as the Boston PILOT:


That's before wood pulp newsprint.

http://www.rcab.org/pilot.html

You can view beautifully preserved newspapers older than 75 years at Baker's
American Newspaper Repository:


A few fortunate examples doesn't mean they'd survive that long
in general, especially in a library where they get used.

-- Patrick
  #4  
Old July 9th 03, 05:56 PM
John Yamamoto-Wilson
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William M. Klimon wrote:

(4) As for the durability of newspaper, it can certainly last longer than

75
years.


Absolutely. I've got numerous 19th century newspapers, and some much older
than that, e.g.,
http://rarebooksinjapan.com/religiou...dongazette.JPG (The London
Gazette, 1679)

--
John
http://rarebooksinjapan.com

  #5  
Old July 9th 03, 06:51 PM
William M. Klimon
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Default

Patrick Scheible wrote in message ...

You can view beautifully preserved newspapers older than 75 years at Baker's
American Newspaper Repository:

http://home.gwi.net/~dnb/gallery.htm


A few fortunate examples doesn't mean they'd survive that long
in general, especially in a library where they get used.




Of course, all of Baker's "examples" come from library discards--which
one would assume are in the worst condition.

I made the point earlier, but the proper temperature and humidity
conditions can probably extend the life of woodpulp newsprint and
other paper indefinitely.

As for library "use"--that doesn't mean using them up, i.e., careful
use need not be a great danger to the life of the kind of material we
are discussing. And we are not talking about overuse either. A lot
of this material will be used only very infrequently. For some, this
has meant a license to discard. For others, it's a sacred mission to
preserve our literary culture. Nick Basbanes tells the story in
PATIENCE & FORTITUDE of trying to confirm a citation in A GENTLE
MADNESS. He needed a particular edition of the book in question and
Harvard (his go-to source) didn't have it. He found it, though, in
the Boston Public Library. He took the books (published c. 1900) to
be checked out and discovered that they had never been charged. He
commented to the librarian, noting that the books had probably never
been used, "I wonder who these books were purchased and held all these
years for?" The librarian responded, "Why for you, Mr. Basbanes."



William M. Klimon
http://www.gateofbliss.com
 




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