Selecting Microfilm for Digital Preservation: A Case Study from Project Open Book

Abstract

Project Open Book is Yale University Library’s multiyear, multifaceted study exploring the feasibility of converting preservation microfilm to digital imagery and enhancing both physical and intellectual access to the resulting collection of digital files. Selection is the central intellectual challenge; challenges are outlined from Yale’s case study that will also have bearing on content-oriented selection for digital conversion of books that have been microfilmed in the nation’s Brittle Books Program. The approach outlined here for building a digital library from microfilm of the nation’s most important brittle books places collection managers under the same umbrella with the other parties interested in creating and then preserving the availability of digital resources. The lessons from Project Open Book about selection of microfilm point to very concrete and achievable solutions for everyone involved in preservation microfilming and the digital conversion of that film.