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#1
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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 |
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#2
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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
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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 |
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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
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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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