Who Wants Yesterday's Papers?: Essays on the Research Value of Printed Materials in the Digital Age / Edition 1

by Yvonne Carignan, Danielle DuMerer, Susan Klier Koutsky, Eric N. Lindquist, Kara M. McClurken

Overview

Should librarians try to save everything that is published? If so, in what formats? How can the records of human experience be best preserved in a time of limited resources? These are just a few of the controversial questions addressed in this volume, which distills the essential issues from the proceedings of a conference held by notable scholars and librarians at the University of Maryland Libraries in March 2002.
The conference organizers, editors of this book, were originally prompted by Nicholson Baker's Double Fold, which indicted librarians for creating microfilm instead of saving newspapers and other printed artifacts in original format. One man's complaint has grown into four University of Maryland professors discussing the materials used in their disciplines and an equal number of essays on various aspects of preservation of both printed and digital artifacts. This volume will interest anyone concerned with the preservation of the record of human experience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780810851191
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	12/23/2004
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	215
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Yvonne Carignan is Preservation Department Head, McKeldin Library, University of Maryland, College Park.
Danielle DuMerer is an archivist/librarian in Chicago, Ill.
Susan Klier Koutsky is a librarian in the Preservation Department, McKeldin Library, University of Maryland, College Park.
Eric N. Lindquist is a librarian at McKeldin Library, University of Maryland, College Park.
Kara M. McClurken is archivist of the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College, Northhampton, Mass.
Douglas P. McElrath is curator, Marylandia and Rare Books, Hornbake Library, University of Maryland, College Park.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Preface Part 2 Acknowledgments Part 3 Introduction Part 4 Part 1: The Race Against Time Chapter 5 1 Introduction Chapter 6 2 Books and the "Iniquitie or Wearing of Time: Chapter 7 3 Some Thoughts on the Race against Time and Inherent Vice: Library Preservation in the Late Twentieth Century Part 8 Part 2: Digital Demands vs. Paper Pleas Chapter 9 4 Introduction Chapter 10 5 How Theories Became Knowledge: Why Science Textbooks Should Be Saved Chapter 11 6 What Do Books Want? Chapter 12 7 Who Needs Yesterday's Papers When Today's Are on the Internet? Chapter 13 8 Above the Fold: The Value of Paper Newspapers Part 14 Part 3: Enduring Value Chapter 15 9 Introduction Chapter 16 10 Print Collections and Their Possible Futures Chapter 17 11 The Importance of Primary Records Chapter 18 12 Why We Collect: Curators, Collectors, and the Urge to Acquire Chapter 19 13 Conserving the Physical Object Chapter 20 14 There Are No Easy Answers: Analog vs. Digital for Preservation Reformatting Chapter 21 15 Uses of Primary Records from the Past Part 22 Part 4: The View from the Archives Chapter 23 16 Introduction Chapter 24 17 Assessing the (Non-Monetary) Value of Archival Records Part 25 Afterword: What Do We Mean by "Yesterday's Papers?" Part 26 Selected Bibliography Part 27 Index Part 28 About the Editors and Contributors

Editorial Reviews

...a very interesting and organized contemplation on the issues surrounding the preservation of printed materials.

Collection Building

...provides fresh perspective and a welcome diversity of thinking....One hopes that Who Wants Yesterday's Papers? represents the beginning of renewed questioning of the deceptively complex issues surrounding how we select and preserve for tomorrow the record of human experience, creativity, and discovery.

Information & Culture