Preservation Program Overview

– last updated: May 2001

The Harvard University Library is dedicated to providing dynamic, responsive information services in support of the University's mission. The library's holdings are ever expanding in size, scope, and in the range of formats through which information is presented; and use of the collections is actively encouraged through cataloging, reference services, instruction, and publication. At the same time, new discoveries, evolving curricula, and changes in political climate affect library demand in ways that cannot be foreseen. It is in this arena that the work of preserving the collections is carried out. Fulfillment of these dual roles—promoting the use of the collections while ensuring their survival for future generations of scholars—is among the greatest challenges of research librarianship. The more than 90 libraries at Harvard make up the largest academic library in the world, and the age and vulnerability of its vast holdings vary widely. The comprehensive library preservation program that is underway and under development at Harvard thus embraces many technologies, engages people with a broad range of skills, involves thoughtful decision-making, and encourages advancements in preservation technologies and materials. Preservation strategies include prevention, conservation, and copying.

PRESERVATION AND RISK MANAGEMENT

Information resources can be preserved most successfully by slowing the process of deterioration and preventing incidental and catastrophic damage. The library approaches these goals from many directions.

Environmental Control

Library collections are made up of paper, fabric, leather, wood, plastic, and other materials that survive longest in cool, dry, low-light spaces, free of gaseous and particulate pollutants. In recent years, environmental improvements of great consequence have been undertaken or planned for collections storage in the Widener, Baker, Countway, Andover-Harvard Theological, Dumbarton Oaks, Gutman, Harvard-Yenching, Law, Loeb Design, and Schlesinger libraries. Potential initiatives, such as the development of a consolidated science library, could bring an even greater percentage of Harvard's library collections into conditions that enhance their longevity.
Led by a team of conservators and preservation librarians, five Harvard libraries are participating in a national field study conducted by the Image Permanence Institute. The goal of this important investigation is to test sophisticated new environmental assessment software, together with digital instruments for gathering temperature and humidity data. Used in combination they will provide invaluable information for the managers of library climate control systems throughout the University.
In Fiscal Year 2000, thirty thousand square feet of new, high-quality storage space for books, journals, and other materials were added to the Harvard Depository; and forty thousand square feet of existing Depository space were upgraded to meet the same high environmental standards. Conditions are maintained constantly at 50 degrees Fahrenheit and 35% relative humidity.

Disaster preparedness

A group of 14 preservation librarians and conservators staff the Library Collections Emergency Team, which is on call 24 hours a day. In addition to responding to emergencies, the team sponsors educational programs on disaster preparedness and response for Harvard staff. Team leaders teach collections recovery skills in hands-on training sessions held periodically.
Disaster recovery supplies have been procured for the libraries and distributed to strategic locations.
The installation of modern sprinkler systems is complete, underway, or planned in many libraries throughout the University.
Harvard College Library administrators and members of the Weissman Preservation Center staff are participating in a groundbreaking risk and recovery assessment. The study focuses on one library and will serve as a model for other parts of the University's core infrastructure.

Education

Staff members in the Weissman Preservation Center and Harvard College Library Preservation & Imaging Department regularly organize educational programs for the University's library, museum, and facilities personnel. Topics have ranged from the conservation of medieval pigments and bookbindings, leather manufacture for conservation binding, and the use of the microscope in conservation analysis, to identification of photographic media, disaster preparedness and recovery, environmental monitoring, and library security.
Posters printed with guidelines for proper care and handling of the libraries' book collections have been distributed and are also available on the library's preservation web site. Other printed products, including Guidelines for the Care & Handling of Harvard's Manuscript Collections, have been produced or are under development.

CONSERVATION

The libraries at Harvard are well used, and many millions of items throughout the collections are in need of repair or conservation treatment. The goal of the conservation program is to ensure that the overall condition of the collections is improved and that materials remain accessible to scholars and researchers.

Staffing

Over the course of the past five years, conservation staffing in the Harvard College Library has nearly tripled, from four to twelve staff working in Widener's state-of-the-art conservation laboratory for circulating collections, and from two to five in the special collections conservation laboratory in the Weissman Preservation Center. This year Baker Library launched an important conservation initiative, securing the ongoing services of a sixth Weissman Center conservator. Throughout the libraries, conservation technicians repair circulating collections and oversee commercial binding activities.

Scope

In Fiscal Year 2000 the libraries conserved and boxed 109,523 items and contracted for the commercial binding of 73,541 volumes (mostly journal issues and paperbacks). Conserved materials range from worn and damaged books in the circulating collections to rare and unique holdings in the special collections: books, manuscripts, maps, globes, prints, posters, drawings, music scores, and other materials of extraordinary historical, social, cultural, and artistic value.

COPYING

Library materials are reproduced for several reasons: to provide back-up copies of items showing obvious signs of deterioration, to replace those that have become too fragile to use, to reduce wear and tear on items that are rare or unique, and to extend access to Harvard's collections beyond the University. Since the beginning of recorded history, copying has been vital to the survival of information.

Paper

Cellulose, the primary structural component of paper, is a long-chain glucose molecule (a polysaccharide). When exposed to oxygen, light, and heat, cellulose (like all organic matter) deteriorates through hydrolysis and oxidation. Polymer chains break into smaller units, and materials such as paper become brittle. While decay is inevitable, it happens more rapidly when the paper is inherently weak. Attention to the problem is critical, because with increasing brittleness comes increasing vulnerability to damage and loss through the normal course of use.
For many decades, people who work with nineteenth- and twentieth-century research collections have noted signs of aging unprecedented in collections so young. At Harvard, enormous number of books, journals, and other materials produced in the 1800s and early 1900s are brittle. Unfortunately, the point in time at which paper has become too deteriorated to sustain use cannot be practically identified, and once it can no longer be handled with ease, copying of any sort becomes difficult, expensive, and often unsatisfactory. For this reason, in the ideal, materials are reproduced when deterioration is evident but while the item can still be copied safely and with good results.

Microfilming

Harvard's practice is to retain nearly all books and journals that have been microfilmed. Since the library undertook its first project under the National Endowment for the Humanities-funded brittle books program in 1990, retention of paper copies has been almost comprehensive. The availability of storage space in the Harvard Depository has been fundamental to the library's ability to keep multiple versions of a text. Even in those rare instances where paper breaks with gentle turning of pages, many materials are boxed after filming; a few are withdrawn. Evidence of advanced stages of deterioration can be substantiated readily.

The library's microfilming program is an insurance policy against ultimate loss of its great nineteenth- and twentieth-century library collections. Last year, highly skilled staff microfilmed 8,366 volumes. Filming is often initiated when a book or journal earmarked for repair has become so brittle that treatment proves not to be a viable option. Where large numbers of brittle volumes in a particular subject area are filmed, as is the case with National Endowment for the Humanities-funded preservation projects, many materials are repaired (if needed) and returned to the shelf after filming. Others are carefully wrapped or boxed and sent to the Harvard Depository.

Microfilm quality

Microfilm produced since 1965 in the Harvard College Library Imaging Services program meets or exceeds national standards for quality and permanence. The microfilm used for preservation purposes today is exceptionally stable, having a minimum life expectancy rating of 500 years provided that the film is properly created, processed, and stored (see standard ANSI/ISO 10602-1995, issued by the American National Standards Institute and International Organization for Standardization).

Preservation microfilming involves the creation of multiple products. The "master negative" (the film that is exposed in the camera) is used only once, to make a "printing negative." The master negative is thereafter housed permanently in a microfilm vault in the Harvard Depository, where optimal storage conditions are maintained. From the printing negative, a "service copy" is produced for use by readers. Should the service copy become lost or damaged, a new one can be made from the printing negative. All microfilm is secured on reels with acid-free paper tags and stored in acid-free boxes to help ensure longevity.

The value of microfilming

Microfilming enables Harvard's libraries to loan copies of printed materials without diminishing local access to the collections. Not every scholar has the opportunity to travel to the University to consult the research materials amassed here, but reels of microfilm can be shipped to any location. This is especially important where large, heavy volumes are concerned.
Where microfilmed publications are not under copyright, copies can be sold (for the cost of production) to individuals and institutions seeking long-term access. Last year, 940 reels were copied and distributed to researchers and other libraries. Microfilming enables libraries to make a wealth of information available to people around the globe. Readable on simple machinery, it can be used in parts of the world where access to electronic resources is not widespread.
In preparing materials for microfilming, bibliographic records are improved or created—sometimes describing publications previously unknown to scholars. Excellent cataloging greatly leverages the library's investment in reformatting. Circulating materials are carefully reviewed during processing, and are sometimes brought to the attention of a curator for potential transfer to a special collection.
Rare books and manuscripts are often filmed to reduce wear and tear on unique, valuable, and/or fragile originals. The creation of surrogates makes it possible for special collections to be consulted frequently by researchers, or incorporated into the curricula for core courses and graduate seminars, in cases where digitizing is not practical or possible. In Fiscal Year 2001, 23,071 manuscript pages were filmed.

Micropublishing

Occasionally the Harvard College Library grants publishers permission to incorporate copies of library materials in microfilm publications. Such projects result in greatly enhanced access to the library's holdings. To ensure that publishing projects also accomplish preservation goals, HCL Imaging Services produces all such film, and the library retains both master negatives and the original paper copies. Publishers receive a printing negative from which to make copies for distribution.

Creation of paper facsimiles

In cases where a brittle book is damaged and beyond repair, and there is evidence that the volume has been consulted frequently in recent years, a paper copy may be made. Disbinding is allowed, as the new paper facsimile will replace rather than duplicate the original volume. Unfortunately, the production of a single paper copy is an inadequate response when a title is rare, or is held only at Harvard. In these cases, microfilm is made to back up the new paper copy. Creation of a master negative, printing master, and service copy provide better insurance that the title will survive. Master negative microfilm is an international asset—the source material from which many new copies can be generated.

Digitizing of paper-based materials

In Fiscal Year 2000 the library digitized 4,268 photographs, trade cards, archival typescripts, and reports. Some of these electronic copies have already been made available worldwide via the Internet to people who would otherwise never have been able to access them. Library materials are reviewed by conservators before digitizing; many receive treatment, all remain in the collections. Digital reproductions undergo extensive quality control during production and are deposited to a centrally managed digital repository for long-term retention.

Audio reformatting for preservation

Following a thorough review of the research surrounding the preservation of audio recordings, the Harvard College Library in 1998 established a well-equipped studio for reformatting recordings of music and the spoken word. The studio is staffed by an audio engineer and features a fine acoustical design. In addition to traditional analog audio preservation capabilities, the studio is fitted out with high-quality digital audio equipment, allowing for high-density sound recording up to 96 kHz/24 bit. Audio recordings, especially magnetic tape, are extremely fragile, and their life expectancies are usually much shorter than most forms of printed material. Preservation procedures must be initiated as soon as possible after the production of magnetic media. To maximize the safety of the library's recordings, multiple digital formats are produced. The original recording and one each of the two new digital formats are stored under climate-controlled conditions in the Harvard Depository, and a digital copy is made available to users. Since the inception of the studio, more than 500 rare recordings have been reformatted.

PRESERVING INFORMATION IN ELECTRONIC FORM

Creating preservable digital objects

Reformatting experts in HCL Imaging Services, the Weissman Preservation Center, and the Loeb Music Library have developed exacting specifications for digital replication of materials in Harvard's library collections. Through the creation of appropriate file types and administrative and descriptive metadata, the potential for long-term retention is high.

Preserving digital objects

The Harvard University Library Office of Information Systems has developed a robust service for storing and maintaining Harvard's digital collections, parallel to the services of the Harvard Depository for physical collections. The Digital Repository Service is designed to support not only day-to-day access to digital materials, but also their long-term preservation in a world of continual technological change.

As forward looking as it is, Harvard's library preservation infrastructure requires further development—including more comprehensive programs to repair materials in the library's magnificent general research collections, to conserve irreplaceable holdings in the library's special collections, and to copy materials in many ways for many purposes. Programs to care for the library's vast collections of photographic prints and negatives, to preserve the information recorded on failing videotape and motion picture film, and to rescue data stored on obsolete disks of all kinds, have yet to be developed. Issues involving videotape are currently under investigation and a pilot project is planned.