Word: preservationism
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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As well as providing storage space for the University's 10.5 million-and-counting book collection, HDI is also "designed to provide the best possible environment for the secure preservation of materials," according to Sidney Verba '53, director of the University Library. The building will limit the rate of change...
Not all of Harvard's libraries are hazardous to books' health. Houghton Library, Harvard's goldmine of rare books, was originally constructed with its special preservation needs in mind. Built in 1942, Houghton was the first library to have atmospheric controls integrated into the building plan, according to Roger E...
Funding for Houghton's microfilming comes mostly from outside endowments, which include the Title 2C grant from the Department of Education, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Stoddard says. Other preservation efforts are paid for out of the library's own budget.
Although Houghton is doing a lot of microfilming, other techniques of preservation are being used to preserve original volumes. Pamphlets are bound in cloth to prevent them from falling apart, and endangered books are kept in specially constructed hinged boxes. These boxes are used both for books bound with sharp...
Even if the efforts in Houghton and other libraries succeed, officials agree there is no way to save every book. The answer to preserving Harvard's written legacy, they say, lies in extensive microfilming, laser disks, special preservation sprays and other solutions which are still in the experimental stage. Whether...