392G - Management of
Preservation Programs
Fall 2006
Class 4
*Collection Preservation Needs
Assessments
*Sampling
U. of Illinois UrbanaChampaign Assessment
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Purpose of Assessment
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Compare data to 1989 survey
Learn about a significant portion of the library’s
collections
Seize the opportunity to conduct an assessment
of the defined population (move of 100,000
volumes to a new LSF imminent)
Prepare for long-range preservation planning
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Inability to re-evaluate the 1989 sample
Rudimentary nature of 1989 survey; need for more
thorough analysis of collections
Collection Parameters
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Central Stacks Collection (50,000+ items;
largest and oldest circulating collection in the
library)
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Exclusions:
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Microforms (82,000 items)
Un-bound periodicals
Specialized collections, e.g. Government Docs., Asian
Collection
Brittle books and periodicals backlog (6,000 items)
Work Flow, Surveyors and
Instruction
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Data gathered by 5 student employees
Students required to attend a single training
program
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Overview of project’s goals
Introduction to book construction
Discussion of assessment techniques and methods
Hands on exercise allowing for skill testing and clarification
Tour of the stacks; introduction to method for locating
materials using maps and random numbers.
Pitfalls
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Some students too quick to note damage
when none was present.
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Possible solution: A trial run and a post-trial
follow-up session with the student group could
have been conducted.
Workflow Efficiency
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83 hours to to analyze 390 books, averaging
13 minutes per book
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Some decisions required consultation; others
were straightforward.
Familiarity with stacks layout and their assigned
decks (all samples on 2-4 decks) facilitated
efficient data gathering.
Assessment Results
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In basic terms, results corroborated those of
the 1989 assessment.
1989
2002
Embrittlement
37%
36%
Moderate or
poor binding
condition
29%
25%
Publication Data
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Collected to better understand the
bibliographic history of the collection
Included data on date and place of
publication and size of item
Date of Publication
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Analyzed by decade, reveals collection’s
development and composition
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Until 1980, collection growth rate increased nearly
every decade with the exceptions of the decades
1881-1890 and 1941-1950.
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Authors careful not to make direct attribution to any
one reason for decline in collection growth.
See Table 2, Date of Publication…, p. 218
Place of Publication; Size of
Items
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See Table 3, p. 219
79.23% of collection items standard size
(6 - 10.5” in height)
Survey Terminology
and Definitions
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Binding Style
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8 choices. See Table 4, Binding Style…, p.
219
Library Binding consisted of any binding
performed by a binder after the library
purchased an item (1/4-1/2 bound to modern
library binding).
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External Cover Damage: Hinges and
Mechanical Deterioration
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Detached boards
Loose hinges
Tears
No boards or covers
341,447 items suffer from missing or detached
boards.
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External Cover Damage: Other
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Water damage
Misshapen boards (16.15%!)
Light bleaching
Staining (Is it mold?)
Insect damage
Abrasion
Mold (None found. Did students mistake mold for
dust or debris? Does it matter?)
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Extraneous Material (4.36%)
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Book tape and the like
Enclosure Information (1 item = .26%)
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Internal Pages
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Leaf Damage
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Marking (11%)
Staining (10%)
Pest-related damage (3.08%)
Extraneous Material
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Adhesive tape (4%)
Patron-deposited materials
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Paper slips (6.4%), paper clips (1.28%), other (3.33%)
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Paper Acidity
 Tested with Abbey pH pen on exterior margin of the last
page of text.
 90.26% of collection is acidic.
 See Table 5 for Acidity to Breakability, p. 221
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17.18% of the sampled items were both acidic and embrittled to
the point that the paper could not withstand 1 double-fold without
breaking.
Authors careful to surmise rather than conclude in regard to the
impact of conditioned and un-conditioned storage on level of
collection embrittlement.
See Table 7 for Acidity to Date of Publication, p. 223
Assessment Conclusions and
Programmatic Development
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3 areas of general need
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Education and outreach
 Which data may point to the need to educate and train staff
and users?
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Collection repair and maintenance
 12% of collection are in soft covers; 23% are misshapen.
 39% of these items were purchased since 1989.
 Collecting patterns changing; binding policies need to follow
suit.
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Administrative development
 Justify facilities improvements based on specific needs.
 The rate of acid deterioration is having an impact that
presently outpaces the rate of acid-free transfers into the
collection. The % of collection embrittlement is stable even
though newly acquired materials are often non-acidic.
 The ability to contrast the replacement and reformatting
needs of the collection against the costs of introducing
environmental controls is valuable. The costs of
environmental control is dwarfed by the costs of
replacement, reformatting and deacidification.
Yale University Survey
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Purpose of Assessment
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Yield a detailed description of the collections in
the discrete units of the Yale system.
Examine the complex relationships between the
nature of materials, their condition and the
environment in which they are housed.
Estimate how many volumes require immediate
attention, how many will need attention soon, and
what kind of attention will be needed.
Collection Parameters
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Entire library system
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40 separate library units
Main library (4 million volumes of 7,725,000; 1 million
circulated in 1982)
36,500-item sample
15 of the 16 major libraries divided into 36 sub-units, each
of which was treated separately in terms of its statistical
framework and generation of results.
Surveyed libraries varied greatly in size, age and nature of
buildings and collections, reader access and circulation
patterns.
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Exceptions
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Rare Books
Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library
Folios
Pilot Study
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Helped eliminate problems in sampling design
1,000 items in 1 stratum surveyed
Emphasized need for the following:
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Consistent method of locating books
Detailed instructions on how to fill out questionnaires and
guidelines for answering questions
Knowledge of book structure and ability of recognize
different methods of leaf attachment and book covering
materials.
Workflow, Surveyors and
Instruction
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6 groups of 4 interns over 2.5 years
Each group stayed at Yale for 5 months, spending
1/2 of each day surveying collections
3,800 hours for surveying (16 minutes/book)
Instruction
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Sample materials for study
Time in stacks practicing evaluation techniques and
standardizing findings
Discussion session with statisticians on statistical theory
Data Gathering
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College Board form IBM-H45352 used.
Form eliminated errors sometimes introduced
when data are input into a computer
manually.
Form and cardboard overlay supported by a
jig.
Reference materials included with each
survey packet.
See Appendix B: Survey Instructions, p. 175.
Survey Questions
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Is the leaf attachment intact?
Is the paper very brittle?
Is the paper very acidic?
Is the printed area of all pages intact?
Is the book mutilated?
If the book damaged by environmental factors?
Does the volume require immediate treatment?
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Is the book circulating or non-circulating?
What kind of primary protection does the book
have?
What kinds of materials cover the joint?
How are the leaves of the book attached?
What is the width of the gutter margin?
Data Intersections
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See Figure 4, Significant Intersections…,
p. 169.