The Digital Preservation of Books
Solve the problem of long-term book preservation and you will warm the cockles of the heart of many an archivist. One method gaining ground is scanned digitization. A pilot program is being launched by “PALINET, an organization of hundreds of libraries, information centers, museums and archives that promotes library cooperation and resource sharing. It is partially funded by a $1 million grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.”
The initial phase of the project involves scanning 60,000 volumes and providing free access to them on the Internet. The books will be scanned in their entirety, including endpapers which may contain bookplates or notations.
A puzzler for archivists is to determine which media today, if any, will still be accessible 100, 500, or 1,000 years from now. The physical book, particularly those printed on rag paper or vellum, has stood the test of time. Will digital imagery do the same? In a few years, will it seem as low-tech as microfiche does today? Will the monetary investment be wasted? Will digital files be as permanent as they appear to be? Remember how music CD’s, when first promoted, were supposed to be a one-time purchase, never to fail? My jazz CD’s can skip around and be as annoying as any ancient LP could ever be.
The Media Wire news article we reference for this post tells of the West Virginia University Libraries and their involvement in the project. We think it is a great attempt to make available to the public rare pieces that they might not otherwise be able to access. But it does not omen the demise of the collectible book, a demise commonly predicted with the advent of new technology.
Scanned images do not fulfill the pleasure of reading a rare book in a fine leather binding while stretched out in an easy chair.
Add a glass of bourbon, the family cat, and a pipe, and you have a picture of how I spend a typical evening.
Read more at WVU libraries part of pilot plot to make rare books digital
