Promoting Preservation Awareness in Libraries: : a Sourcebook for Academic, Public, School, and Special Collections

Citation

Ratcliffe, F.W. (1998), "Promoting Preservation Awareness in Libraries: : a Sourcebook for Academic, Public, School, and Special Collections", Library Review, Vol. 47 No. 8, pp. 406-408. https://doi.org/10.1108/lr.1998.47.8.406.6

The concern over preservation in libraries reached almost crisis proportions in the late 1970s and 1980s. It began in the USA with the realisation that much of their relatively short history was recorded on paper which was rapidly deteriorating. It was fuelled by the further discovery that the new media, increasingly used to save shelf space, were probably even more suspect in terms of longevity than the traditional papers. This propelled the American nation, not just the librarians and archivists, into action which still retains much of its momentum. The transfer of this concern to the world stage followed and although not always attracting quite the same level of attention, very few countries in the developed world have failed to propound and implement preservation policies.

In the UK preservation became a dominant library theme in the 1980s. The establishment of the National Preservation Office is tangible evidence of the determination to tackle a problem which the growth in published output in the nineteenth century via the introduction of machine printing had promoted. In this context the situation was no less serious than that of the USA. Ensuring a comparable degree of awareness and maintaining the momentum has, however, been much more difficult to achieve in the UK and the situation is still far from satisfactory.

The need to create awareness is one thing: library priorities, which are necessarily determined by funding, are quite another. Despite the size of the problem the majority of library users do not see books crumbling to pieces on shelves and rarely glimpse those book trolleys which contain the evidence. Moreover, to all too many library staff who are aware of the situation, it is simply the way things are and always have been. Furthermore, the excitement generated by the new technology and the increasingly misleading belief that the book will soon be superseded, a view to which even some librarians subscribe, distract attention and even mask the need. Inculcating preservation awareness among a generation to which the computer is already a natural means of communication is not easy.

This book is a clear reminder of the difficulties. It is not intended for the established specialist preservation librarian or for any librarian already aware of the need, although there is much in it of general interest purely in the context of good library practice. “As a professional reference sourcebook, it is designed especially for those staff members, librarians, and administrators who have no primary responsibility for preservation but who need information about preservation practices and issues. It emphasises practical examples that can be used by libraries to educate and inform their community of customers”. It has all the characteristics of a preservation primer.

The theme is education and to some it may seem all too elementary. It addresses issues which many librarians take for granted, such as emphasising the role of the librarian in the day‐to‐day routines as the begetter of good practice among users. “Preservation education for library users is more than just posters and no‐food‐or‐drink policies. It involves the commitment and involvement of all library staff and the active support of library administration to bring about a heightened awareness of preservation issues”. Again, in pointing to the potential of the new technology for preservation, as in the case study “The World Wide Web as a preservation Resource”, even the least technologically minded in the profession would not be challenged. It says nothing that is startlingly new: that is not its aim. It presents basic preservation principles in the context of practice and experience. It is precisely because of this that this book will be useful to many staff at different levels and in quite different libraries.

Aimed at virtually all sectors of librarianship, it is inevitably a large book. It is presented in seven chapters with four appendices. With the exception of the first, “Preservation issues and the Community of customers”, each chapter comprises an article with a series of case studies. The first three are of general interest to librarians in all areas of the profession. The last four deal specifically with the four sectors mentioned in the title. The editors advise the reader to read the first three chapters which “focus on staff training issues as well as user education” before turning to the chapter which deals with their own speciality.

The introductory articles, each written by “a knowledgeable library professional”, set the scene for the case studies which follow. When it comes to the “care of non‐print media”, digital technology and the like, the objective is, as already suggested, to avoid technical discussion on matters which are fully dealt with elsewhere in library literature and to concentrate simply on the preservation of such media. Their potential role as surrogates is not relevant to the purposes of the book: excursions into the literature on pigments and similar conservation topics would only detract from the aims of the book.

The four appendices underline the basic educational nature of the seven chapters. The first deals with “Effective Graphics for Displays and Handouts”. It includes such commonsense advice as “Don’t overburden people with data”, advice all too frequently absent in publications of this kind. The second is an annotated bibliography “for Children, Teachers and Parents”, emphasising the need to catch users young and the importance of teaching by example. The third, “Videos for General Preservation Education: an annotated Videography”, points to the availability of other videos besides Murder in the Stacks and Slow Fires: on the Preservation of the Human Record, both of which have found their way to this side of the Atlantic. Only the NPO in this country has really made any effort to promote awareness via such teaching aids, but there is no mention of their work in this book. Finally, the annotated bibliography on Staff and User Education provides a very useful survey of the literature and in this instance reference is made to UK contributions.

The book concludes with an annexe about the editors and contributors. No less than 45 are involved and this in itself says much about present attitudes to preservation in the USA. As a subject, it undoubtedly lacks the “glamour” of the new technology and suffers in a sense, certainly to the young professional, from being “yesterday’s librarianship”. Some UK librarians may feel that this book would be an acquisition of doubtful value and given the continuing pressures on finances in all libraries that is understandable. It does, after all, deal with preservation by reminding librarians and users of the obvious in good library practice. That, however, is clearly its purpose. It is precisely because of this that this manual of preservation practice deserves a fair wind.