College and Research Libraries Nineteenth-Century Periodicals: Preservation Decision Making at College Libraries Donna Jacobs Although the problem of deteriorating library materials has been the subject of numerous investigations at many of the nation's large research libraries in recent years, less attention has been given to the impact of the problem at small college libraries. This study investigates, by means of a survey, the preservation activities at the Oberlin Group of college libraries, specifically with respect to their nineteenth-century American and British periodicals collections. The information gathered by the survey and through an extensive review of the literature was used to develop a model for preservation decision making that takes into account the contextual elements of a small college library, the characteristics of the periodicals themselves, and the preservation options available. It was found that the decision-making process at a small college library is complex and multifaceted. Although there is no one answer that will meet the needs of every library, the questions that need to be asked are the same, and examination of those relevant questions will assist librarians in developing a decision-making strategy. g he crisis of deteriorating library materials that librarians are fac-ing today was predicted centu- ries ago. As early as the twelfth century, the emperor of the Occident, Fred- erick I, Barbarossa, prohibited the use of paper in deeds and charters because he feared the medium too perishable. In 1823, John Murray warned readers of Gentlemen's Magazine of the state of "that wretched compound called Paper," saying that "a century more will not witness the volumes printed within the last twenty years."1 Awareness of the problem and commitment to action grew so gradually that in 1946, Pelham Barr commented "Si- lence, rarely broken, seems to surround the subject of book conservation."2 Today libraries face a crisis of major propor- tions. The extent of the problem can be seen in an inventory of the 13.5 million volumes at the Library of Congress, which revealed that three million vol- umes are too brittle to handle, and 70,000 volumes are added to that group each year.3 The results of a survey of the Yale University collections showed that over 37% of their 7,725,000 volumes had brittle paper, 82.6% had acidic paper, and 8% had broken bindings.4 In 1970, Edwin Williams summarized the discussion of the deterioration of li- brary materials in one sentence: "Every- thing in library collections is deteriorating today, was deteriorating yesterday, and will continue to deteriorate tomorrow Donna Jacobs is Science/Reference Librarian at Andrews Library at the College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio 44691. · 263 264 College & Research Libraries although we ought to retard the process." 5 Unfortunately, when one moves from dis- cussion of the topic to action, the problem cannot be so neatly summarized, and the solutions are often unknown, debatable, or unattainable for a variety of reasons. The physical condition of the volumes brings the question of their fate to a library staff's attention. While questions about the causes of deterioration and the availability of appropriate alternatives to halt or re- verse the process must be addressed, an equally important consideration is the works themselves. Such factors as the in- tellectual content of the works, their intrin- sic value, and their availability in original and alternative formats must also be inves- tigated. In addition, such contextual ele- ments as the mission and priorities of the library in question, and its policies and resources, are important factors in preser- vation decision making. The complexity of the problem seems to require a model to assist in the decision-making process. The objective of this project, which was prompted by an assessment of the nine- teenth-century American and British peri- odicals collection at the author's library, was to develop a logical and efficient model for making preservation decisions with respect to nineteenth-century period- icals collections at college libraries. LITERATURE REVIEW The central focus of this study is the question of how preservation decisions should be made. This question has been addressed in recent years by Dan Hazen, Ross Atkinson, and Margaret Child, among others. In a 1982 article, Hazen described the preservation selection pro- cess in terms of collection development. He saw the primary responsibility of col- lection development in the preservation process as one of making item-by-item preservation selection decisions on the basis of criteria similar (but not identical) to the criteria used for the selection of current materials. Collection develop- ment involves librarians deciding which documents to acquire, while selection for preservation involves determining which documents least deserve destruction.6 Hazen listed academic activity, traditional May 1991 collecting strengths, availability and cost, alternatives (to purchasing or to local preservation), and discipline-spe- cific models of access to information as the five distinct, interrelated factors to which both collection development and preservation respond within a given resource base and allocation structure.7 Atkinson pointed out that some of the values involved in selecting for preserva- tion are at odds with those of collection development and that a negative preser- vation decision represents a reversal of a series of positive decisions made through- out the history of the text.8 He identified two decisions that must be made in select- ing for preservation, with each consisting of both technical and critical components. The first decision is the identification for preservation-technically, what needs to be preserved, and critically, what should be preserved. The second decision is the determination of the mode of preserva- tion-technically, which modes are possi- ble, and critically, which modes should be used. In answer to the fundamental question, from the standpoint of collection develop- ment, of why certain items should survive while others should not, Atkinson sug- gested a typology of preservation based on three different categories of library materi- als which should be preserved.9 His Class 1 preservation aims at preserving materi- als or groups of materials that have a high economic value, as well as level-five col- lections, as defined by the RLG Conspec- tus,10 the value of which lies in the comprehensiveness of the materials rather than in any single item's individual intrin- sic value. Child expanded this definition somewhat to include "several nonmone- tary but important research values deriv- ing from artifactual characteristics which compel preservation in the original for- mat. "11 Class 2 preservation focuses on higher-use items that are currently in de- mand for classwork and research pur- poses, the need for preservation arising mainly from overuse. Class 3 preservation maintains for posterity lower-use research materials. Atkinson saw these materials as the source for cooperative preservation, with microfilm as the primary mode of preservation. He pointed out that selec- tion criteria for Class 3 preservation are less easily defined than for Classes 1 or 2 because "we are all products of an age, a nation, and a profession that has [sic] become increasingly unwilling to accept or to apply absolutes." 12 According to Child, two factors compli- cate selection for preservation. First, the extraordinary expansion of American re- search since World War II has increased the subject matter and sources considered ap- propriate for study. And second, the tech- nological possibility of saving everything forces difficult choices with respect to what will be saved and what will be allowed to deteriorateY Atkinson brought horne the importance of this situation by pointing out that, in making preservation decisions today, libraries control the future because "the future will only be able to understand and define itself in relation to what [librar- ies] give it."14 The technological possibility of saving everything forces difficult choices with respect to what will be saved and what will be allowed to deteriorate. In recent years, various research libraries have conducted preservation studies of their collections, many based on Pamela Darling's manual Preservation Planning Program.15 Preservation surveys, and spe- cial programs implemented at different types and sizes of libraries are discussed in Gay Walker, et. al. (Yale); L. Nainis and L. A. Bedard (Georgetown University Law Library); Charlotte Brown, and Brown and Janet Gertz (Franklin and Marshall); and Jan Merrill-Oldham (University of Con- necticut).16 In addition, preservation stud- ies at Yale, Stanford, Berkeley, and the Library of Congr..ess are discussed in the proceedings of an April 1983 conference, edited by Jan Merrill-Oldham and Merrily SrnithP Of particular interest was the study con- ducted by Brown and Gertz at the Shadek- Fackenthal Library of Franklin and Marshall College, the purpose of which Nineteenth-Century Periodicals 265 was to test the applicability of the Atkin- son model for smaller academic librar- ies. The results of the study suggested that the Atkinson typology is indeed workable at s~ller institutions, and that small college libraries may have sig- nificant amounts of materials that fall into Class 3 and that may be of substan- tial research value to the scholarly com- munity. METHOD Most of the preservation studies that have been conducted to date have focused on research collections at large universities. Because the mission of college libraries places more emphasis on current teaching and research, and propoftionally less on archival functions, one would expect dif- ferent priorities to motivate the preserva- tion activities at these smaller institutions. In order to collect information about the preservation activities of smaller college libraries, a questionnaire was sent to the libraries that make up the Oberlin Group, an informal association of directors of more than 60 college libraries across the country with similar characteristics and needs. These libraries serve campuses with enroll- ments ranging from around 500 to 3,400 students, although most fall between 1,000 and2,000. The six-part questionnaire sought to de- termine the extent to which concern for the preservation needs of nineteenth-century American and British periodicals influence collection management policies, and which preservation measures are used. The sur- vey also asked for information regarding the availability of preservation resources, such as trained personnel, facilities, and specific budget allocations, at Oberlin Group institutions, as well as the extent to which a decision-making structure exists at these libraries. Finally, the questionnaire sought to determine the use of nineteenth- century American and British periodicals in support of course work and faculty and student research, the condition of these volumes, and how widely they are held- in both paper and rnicroformat-at the Oberlin Group libraries. The information obtained by the sur- vey was tabulated and analyzed using 266 College & Research Libraries May 1991 TABLE 1 CRITERIA FOR DETERMINING CIRCULATION POLICY FOR NINETEENTH-CENTURY PERIODICALS Rank First or Second Third, Fourth, or Fifth Total Criteria R% N C% R% N C% N C% Age 21 3 8 79 11 34 14 20 Physical condition 71 12 32 29 5 16 17 25 Intrinsic value 94 15 41 6 1 3 16 23 Use 38 5 14 62 8 25 13 19 Space 22 2 5 78 7 22 9 13 Total 37 32 69 Chi-square=22.93; p