Nicholson Baker - Double Fold - Libraries and the Assault on Paper

truffle hunting: Cornell’s Making of America database helped me find the poem about mummy paper in Punch, because it was republished (with no date) in Littell’s Living Age (which Cornell scanned and discarded), as well as the mummy item in Scientific American.

CHAPTER 36 — Honest Disagreement

“Think about space costs”: Pamela W. Darling, “Microforms in Libraries: Preservation and Storage,” Microform Review 5:2 (April 1976). Darling also points out that the “cost of the microform is almost always less than would be the cost of binding the original issues, and no one has to claim missing issues, replace lost covers, or give readers no service for months while last year’s volumes are ‘At Bindery.’ Instead, the original issues can be held in the periodical reading area for as long as interest keeps them ‘current,’ and then sold, exchanged or discarded since the microform will be available for backfile reference.” In a 1974 article in Library Journal, Darling said that microfilm was “a medium more stable than paper,” which “takes up 90 percent less space to store.” “Developing a Preservation Microfilming Program,” p. 2803.

“keep re-examining”: Pamela W. Darling, “A Local Preservation Program: Where to Start” (an article based on a paper presented at a “Books in Peril” conference), Library Journal, November 15, 1976. As a grande dame of the preservation movement, Darling later wrote the introduction to Nancy Gwinn’s textbook, Preservation Microfilming.

special consultant: “National Preservation Program Office Expands,” Library of Congress Information Bulletin, November 5, 1984.

self-study manual: Pamela Darling, ed., Preservation Planning Program: An Assisted Self-Study Manual for Libraries (Washington, D.C.: Association of Research Libraries, 1982).

“may well be cheaper”: Patricia Battin, “The Management of Knowledge: Issues for the Twenty-first Century,” paper presented at the seventh international seminar, Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Library Center, Kanazawa, Japan, 1989, in Welsh, Research Libraries, p. 399. On the same page, Battin writes Byronically of the “tangled web of new interdependencies” brought about by our growing dependence upon technology.

“millions of books”: Patricia Battin, Written Statement of Patricia Battin, Past President, Commission on Preservation and Access, on the Fiscal Year 1996 Appropriations for the National Endowment for the Humanities, March 31, 1995.

Adkinson, Burton W. Two Centuries of Federal Information. Stroudsburg, Pa.: Dowden, Hutchinson, and Ross, 1978.

American Institute of the City of New York. Catalogue of the Life and Annual Members of the American Institute of the City of New York. New York: New York Printing Co., 1868.

American Society for Testing and Materials. “Standard Test Method for Determination of Effect of Moist Heat (50 % Relative Humidity and 90 °C) on Properties of Paper and Board.” Annual Book of ASTM Standards, 1998. Vol. 15.09, D4714. Conshohocken, Pa.: American Society for Testing and Materials, 1998.

American Society of Information Scientists (ASIS). Pioneers of Information Science in North America, www.asis.org/Features/Pioneers/isp.htm.

Angle, Paul M. The Library of Congress: An Account, Historical and Descriptive. Kingsport, Tenn.: Kingsport Press, 1958.

Associated Press. “British Library Giving Away Old Newspapers,” January 29, 1997, Nexis.

Association of Research Libraries. Preserving Knowledge: The Case for Alkaline Paper. Washington, D.C.: Association of Research Libraries, 1990.

Auger, C. P. “The Importance of Microforms.” Microform Review 20:4 (fall 1991). Reprinted from Information Sources in Grey Literature, 2d ed. New York: Bowker-Saur, 1989.

Bahr, Alice Harrison. Microforms: The Librarians’ View, 1978–79. White Plains, N.Y.: Knowledge Industry Publications, 1978.

Baker, John P. “Preservation Programs of the New York Public Library. Part Two: From the 1930s to the ‘60s.” Microform Review 11:1 (winter 1982).

Baker, Nicholson. “Books as Furniture.” In The Size of Thoughts. New York: Random House, 1996.

—. “Discards.” In The Size of Thoughts. New York: Random House, 1996.

—. “Weeds: A Talk at the Library.” In Reclaiming San Francisco, ed. James Brooke et al. San Francisco: City Lights, 1997.

—. “Deadline.” The New Yorker, July 24, 2000.

Ballard, Diane. “Goodness Gracious, Great Books Afire!” Torchbearer, University of Tennessee, fall 1990.

Bamford, James. The Puzzle Palace. New York: Penguin, 1983.

Banik, Gerhard, and Werner K. Sobotka. “Deacidification and Strengthening of Bound Newspapers Through Aqueous Immersion.” In Luner, Paper Preservation, 1988.

Bansa, Helmut. “Selection for Conservation.” Restaurator 13:4 (1992).

Bansa, Helmut, and Hans-H. Hofer. Artificial Aging as a Predictor of Paper’s Future Useful Life. Abbey Newsletter Monograph Supplement. Provo, Utah: Abbey Newsletter, 1989.

Barrow, William James. “The Barrow Method of Laminating Documents.” Journal of Documentary Reproduction 2:2 (June 1939).

[Barrow, William James]. Deterioration of Book Stock, Causes and Remedies. Conducted by W. J. Barrow. Ed. Randolph W. Church. Richmond: Virginia State Library, 1959.

—. Procedures and Equipment Used in the Barrow Method of Restoring Manuscripts and Documents. Richmond: W. J. Barrow, 1961.

Barrow Research Laboratory. Permanence/Durability of the Book: A Two-Year Research Program. Richmond: Barrow Research Laboratory, 1963.

—. Test Data of Naturally Aged Papers. Richmond: Barrow Research Laboratory, 1964.

—. Permanence/Durability of the Book — V: Strength and Other Characteristics of Book Papers, 1800–1899. Richmond: Barrow Research Laboratory, 1967.

Basbanes, Nicholas. A Gentle Madness. New York: Henry Holt, 1995.

Battin, Patricia. “The Electronic Library — a Vision for the Future.” EDUCOM Bulletin, summer 1984.

—. “Preservation at the Columbia University Libraries.” In Merrill-Oldham and Smith, Library Preservation Program, 1985.

—. Preservation: Proposal for a National Approach. [Speaking notes.] Sixth annual conference of Research Library Directors on OCLC. Dublin, Ohio, 1988.

—. “A Message from the President.” Commission on Preservation and Access, Newsletter 3 (August 1988).

—. “Crumbling Books: A Call for Strategies to Preserve Our Cultural Memory.” Change, September/October 1989.

[ — ]. “Preserving Our Crumbling Collections: An Interview with Patricia Battin, President, Commission on Preservation and Access.” Betty J. Turock, interviewer. The Bottom Line 3:4 (1989).

—. “The Management of Knowledge: Issues for the Twenty-first Century.” Paper presented at the seventh international seminar, Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Library Center, Kanazawa, Japan, 1989. In Welsh, Research Libraries — Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.

—. “The Silent Books of the Future: Initiatives to Save Yesterday’s Literature for Tomorrow.” Logos (London) 2:1 (1991).

—. Written Statement of Patricia Battin, Past President, Commission on Preservation and Access, on the Fiscal Year 1996 Appropriations for the National Endowment for the Humanities, March 31, 1995.

Bellardo, Lewis J. “National Archives Preservation Research Priorities: Summary and Update.” In Preservation Research and Development: Round Table Proceedings, September 28–29, 1992, ed. Carrie Beyer. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress Preservation Directorate, June 1993.