Serials distributed by fax

Anyone else "threatened" with fax serials?

    Date: 19 Feb 96
    From: Erich J. Kesse <erikess [at] nervm__nerdc__ufl__edu>
    Subject: Faxed Serials

    Beth :

    Thanks for the print-out regarding faxed serials. I was made
    aware of them in mid-1995 when one of my professional newsletter
    began arriving in fax.  I wasn't aware that its use was being
    considered for anything but newsletters; I'd think it rude to
    busy a fax with page after page of a journal issue.

    I'm writing just to note that the faxed serials issue is more
    complex from a preservation and perhaps acquisitions/cataloging
    standpoint than detailed in the messages you printed out.

    Faxed images received on a standard fax machine are commonly
    developed out by any one of a few impermanent processes on paper
    which does not meet ANSI standard for permanence.  I won't bore
    you with technical detail, but should U.Florida begin to receive
    publications on standard fax they should immediately be copied
    (at reduction and shifted as necessary to create a binding
    margin without obscuring text or losing more than tolerable
    resolution (good God: I'll have to write a policy/procedure when
    we do) on ANSI-compliant paper, and image fusing tested per ALA
    preservation photocopying guidelines. (What kind of cataloging
    nightmare would this be?  HMM, maybe we should look at the
    USMARC 007 again, unless you know of another place to describe
    paper by type so we can tell what kind of fax was created and
    more easily manage the preservation of faxed serials later.
    Maybe hitting a fly with a pink elephant would be more
    appropriate!)

    Ideally, such titles would be received via modem or network
    modem by a computer or network server.  (The Systems
    Dept.--should this become an issue--should be able to recommend
    appropriate hardware configurations and software selection
    (several Windows'95 software packages differentiate incoming
    faxes from other communications to route the images
    appropriately.)  Print-outs (with any necessary binding margin)
    would then be laser-printed on ANSI-compliant paper. Alternately
    (idealistically), images could be retained on a server or
    "printed" to CD-ROM (anticipating a future
    hyper-cyber-junky's-dream-come-true).

    Faxing is probably a (long-term?) temporary distribution method,
    a half-step on its way toward full electronic distribution
    similar to e-mailed newsletters or WWW journals.  Let me know
    when the flies and pink elephants arrive.

Erich J. Kesse
Preservation Department
George A. Smathers Libraries
University of Florida
352-392-6962
Fax: 352-392-4788

                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 9:61
                  Distributed: Thursday, March 7, 1996
                        Message Id: cdl-9-61-003
                                  ***