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Re: Nicholson Baker



I also think that in many cases, what's getting microfilmed, though is the
stuff that won't survive many more page turnings without crumbling into
oblivion and once those copies are gone - in many cases, the book, record,
newspaper is gone.  Microfilm is the best way to preserve the
informational content of these materials & the most stable too.  In some
cases, the time the paper was microfilmed was the last time it was intact.

No, obviously reading from microfilm is not the same as reading from a
book, handling a record or unfolding a newspaper.  BUT most microfilming
preservation dollars are spent microfilming stuff that you (as a
researcher or "member of the general public") would not have ANY access to
at all due to fragility - regardless of whether or not the originals were
kept.

In any preservation effort, quality control is paramount.  If you (the
archivist or preservation librarian) don't inspect the work you contract
out and thus end up with pages missing, illegible microfilm, etc.., then
you haven't done your job properly - and they haven't done theirs
either.  And keep the microfilm readers clean please!  that's what
destroys most microfilm and makes it hard to read - scratches and dirt
from poorly maintained microfilm readers.  This is also the responsibility
of library/archival staff.  No, some materials are worth more intact and
those end up getting the big money spent on them for full conservation (&
they should), but the rest needs the best that we can provide - for a lot
of that, it means microfilm.  Plain and simple.

(and before any old fogey rumors start, I am 25!  :D  )

Ellee Figi
Graduate Student
University of Maryland

On Thu, 12 Apr 2001, abg wrote:

> You're missing the point of Baker's articles, imho
> He's criticizing libraries/archives who copy originals and then toss those
> originals - for what purpose?  To save shelf space? Would you microfilm a
> Guttenberg Bible and then toss the original because you now have a copy on
> (11 grades of gray) microfilm?
> It's one thing to make copies for ready access, to relieve the pressure on
> the original items in your collection; but it's incumbent on librarians and
> archivists to preserve the original material entrusted to them.
> I'm reading right now an original editionof US Grant's memoirs that someone
> in family had.  Alum/rosin sized paper. somewhat fragile; but stillreadable
> and the pages turn w/o fallng into dust; & the experience of reading the
> original is far, far greater than reading a microfilm (CD - you name it)
> copy that can't give you the feel or appreciate  the experience of the real
> thing.  That's why there are collectors who will pay a huge amount for the
> stuff that libraries toss out too routinely.
> Allan Goodrich
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Judith Turner <judy53211@YAHOO.COM>
> To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU <ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
> Date: Wednesday, April 11, 2001 10:04 PM
> Subject: Re: Nicholson Baker
>
>
> >Nicholson Baker has found a franchise -- bashing
> >libraries, supposedly for their own good.  One only
> >need look at UCITA, the latest copyright law
> >revisions,
> >the rapidly shifting information landscape with the
> >tremendous possibilities and profits and pitfalls
> >available, and realize libraries are going to have to
> >change if they are to stay viable.
> >
> >As a person who believes in free and/or low cost
> >library services wherever possible, the last thing
> >libraries need is a Nicholson Baker trying to drag
> >them back into the 19th century right now.  Libraries
> >are in the process of reinventing themselves (I hate
> >the word but it's shorthand for a concept we all know
> >about.)
> >
> >Mr. Baker might be a "fine novelist" who considers
> >himself a friend of libraries but it is some mythical
> >library he imagines he remembers from his youth.
> >
> >Judy Turner
> >Director, Library and Archives
> >Milwaukee Public Museum
> >
> >--- Jennifer Hecker <geekarchivist@HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >> Howdy everyone-
> >>   Just got around to reading the last few days of
> >> the list and noticed that
> >> nobody mentioned that Nicholson Baker is also a very
> >> fine novelist.
> >
> >__________________________________________________
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Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>