Word: microfilms
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...Microfilming--the principal method for preserving deteriorated books--is very expensive ($50 per volume), so national library conferences are working to cut costs by sharing microfilms and developing cheaper methods of preservation. Even the government has jumped on the bandwagon, giving $6 million each year to libraries to microfilm unique materials...
...book does have "brittle paper," and is therefore unusable, the library first checks to see if a reprint or a duplicate microfilm can be purchased. In the event that neither of these is available, the book is sent to be microfilmed in Harvard's own department in the basement of Widener. Even after being microfilmed, the book is looked at again to determine whether there is any value in keeping it. "We are superconservative" in throwing away books, Freitag says...
...terms of cost, Freitag says, it is much less expensive to buy a duplicate microfilm of a book ($1) or to rebind it ($6), than to microfilm it ($50). Because Harvard libraries operate under a decentralized system, money for preservation must come out of each individual library's budget, Freitag says. "That determines how much they can preserve...
...microfilming can only go so far. Many of the books in Houghton need to be preserved in their original form. "There are certain things that you cannot allow to be worn out because they cannot be replaced," says Stoddard. "Microfilm serves the needs of most readers," he says, but "microfilm won't show you how the book was put together... There is no substitute when it comes to evidence for the book itself...
...addition to a general request for preservation of unique materials in the University library system, the proposal also includes requests from specific Harvard libraries. Among the more unusual requests: Langdell Library at the Law School wants $25,000 to microfilm the official law gazettes of Latin-American countries which date back to the 1800s, and the Harvard Archives in Pusey Library needs $100 to microfilm Harvard mathematical theses of the 18th century...