Sender: Rare Books and Special Collections Forum <EXLIBRIS@RUTVM1.BITNET>
Randy Tibbits' posting reminds me of a local story about
library automation which we have here at Berkeley. Here the rare
materials collection is housed in something called "Bancroft",
which you'll note begins with a "B". When these holdings first were
listed in the opac, they occurred early on in a list extending
from the "anthropology library" to the "zoology library". The
result was a long line of undergraduates which formed at the
door, demanding to see "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" -- first
edition, signed by the author, or whatever -- simply to read it
for the next day's class, and because "B" for "Bancroft" comes
alphabetically before "M" for "Moffitt", the name of the
undergraduate library.
There is a large literature on the subject of increased strain on
collections caused by increased publicity. Most of it,
unfortunately, comes down rabidly for or against the policies of
rare collections: that they should or should not get more use --
the former argument usually being made without distinguishing
rare from other materials. A good place to start might be with
postings found here and on PACS-L about imaging: one of the
great, perhaps vain, hopes for imaging is that it will ease the
strain on rare collections somewhat, by providing text and images
online which might otherwise be pawed through unecessarily by
users. Then again, online publicity might simply increase the
demand for physical use. Michael Lesk and the Getty Museum have
worked a great deal in this area. The Commission on Preservation
and Access has put out some relevant publications. Do remember
the usage statistics for general collections, though, which
normally show that 7-10% of the collection generates over 90% of
the use: there still is much need to show people out there
what's inside.
Jack Kessler
kessler@ocf.berkeley.edu
kessler@athena.berkeley.edu