ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

LC PRESERVATION PROGRAM

Frazer G. Poole has been appointed Preservation Officer at the Library of Congress, In his new duties, Mr. Poole will direct the Library of Congress program for the physical preservation of its varied types of library materials, developing managerial and technical solutions not only for the library’s use but also for use or adaptation by other libraries faced with similar preservation problems. Libraries throughout the U.S. are concerned about preserving their collections from the inroads of time and the effects of environment. They not only face problems with paper, ink, and bindings of traditional materials such as books, manuscripts, and newspapers, but also deal with unknown factors affecting twentieth century forms, such as films and magnetic tapes. Together with the Association of Research Libraries Preservation Committee, the Library of Congress has developed a national preservation program. This includes a campaign to rescue thousands of “brittle books” printed on acid paper in the last one hundred years and now disintegrating in libraries all over the country. Through a recent grant from the Council on Library Resources, Mr. Poole also will direct a pilot project on this problem.