Selection for Preservation: A Digital Solution for Illustrated Texts

Abstract

The point of selection for preservation is to identify endangered library and archival materials that have long-term intellectual value and are therefore worth the effort and cost of long-term preservation. Technical issues cannot be separated from selection for preservation, because the limits of preservation technologies can influence decisions. At least for the present, we need to combine digitization with analog preservation methods. This “hybrid approach” operates on an assumption that we can in fact make a digital version of the original, and that the digital version will be able to serve the needs that justified selecting the item for preservation in the first place. Columbia University Libraries’ Preservation Division has been experimenting with the hybrid, digital approach, selecting digitization as the preservation method for materials that previously had to be rejected because our reformatting technologies could not copy them in a way that made the contents accessible to users. In 1994 Columbia undertook a project funded by the Commission on Preservation and Access to combine film with digitization and test the hybrid approach on illustrated materials. We have demonstrated that scanning the microfiche can, in fact, produce digital images with legibility equal to the images made directly from the original printed maps. While legibility was quite successfully achieved during the project, questions remain about the quality of the color that can be delivered to the viewer. Capture is one side of the coin, delivery is the other.