[PADG:33] RE: Preservation of materials for the general public

[Andrew Hart <ashart@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Same here. As a rule, we do not carry out any conservation or book repair
on materials that are not owned by the library or directly involved in a
cooperative library preservation project. However, we are happy to provide
advice on care for personal collections and information about conservators
and commercial binders. In my experience, most people are pretty sympathetic
to the challenge of keeping up with the library's internal needs.  Also,
for state universities (such as ECU and UNC-Chapel Hill), I think there is
a reasonable argument that it is a misuse of public funds to spend staff
time and materials on anything other than state-owned collections. 
Andy

Julian Stam wrote:

We simply state that our resources are devoted fully to collections and that staff and materials are not available for other services.  As the Preservation Librarian I do offer informal consultations and often direct people to other services, vendors and products.

Julian 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-padg@xxxxxxx [mailto:owner-padg@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of DuBose, Stefanie
Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2004 9:51 AM
To: 'padg@xxxxxxx'
Subject: [PADG:31] Preservation of materials for the general public

 

Hi All,

 

How many academic libraries offer preservation services for the general public?  While in theory I am not against such a service, we've received so many items that my staff member doesn't have time to work on her materials.  I'm proposed a limit on what we accept to our administration, but am curious how other conservation departments approach the matter.  Currently we will work on materials for members of our Friends group or donors, but we've not (as yet) established a maximum number of items per person or maximum number of items per semester/year.  I have no wish to alienate our public, but it's now a matter of preserving our collection or working on walk-in materials.

 

Thanks for your help!

Stefanie

Stefanie DuBose
Head, Acquisitions
Joyner Library
East Carolina University
Greenville, NC 27258-4353
(p)252-328-2598
(f)252-328-4834
duboses@xxxxxxxxxxxx

 

-- 
==================================================
 Andrew Hart, Preservation Librarian
 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
 CB#3910, Davis Library
 Chapel Hill, NC 27514
 tel: (919) 962-8047
 fax: (919) 962-4450
 email: ashart@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
==================================================