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National Library News |
by Gwynneth Evans, Director General, National and International Programs
In January 1988, the National Library took an important step towards saving the nation's published heritage by creating a formal preservation collection. The Preservation Collection of Canadiana consists of one original copy of all Canadiana 1 materials acquired by the Library since 1988. In addition, single copies of Canadiana publications collected before that date are added to the Preservation Collection as staff have time to prepare one of the two copies from the Library's general collections. This collection will be preserved for as long as practically possible through restricted access and the use of appropriate conservation measures such as deacidification and separate housing under special environmental conditions. In this article, Gwynneth Evans looks back on what has been accomplished during the Collection's first decade of existence, and looks ahead to the many remaining challenges. She was assisted in her reflections by Michel Brisebois, Alison Bullock, Mary Collis, Pierre Gamache and David Murrell-Wright.
"Today's preservation collection is tomorrow's rare books collection" -- a catchy phrase and an intriguing concept. I first heard it articulated by Michel Brisebois, Rare Book Librarian, at a meeting of some National Library staff in the fall of 1997. But Michel is reluctant to take credit for originating the notion, and says that the phrase had already been used by other staff. The purpose of the meeting was to review the impact of the decision to establish the Preservation Collection and to identify the progress made.
The decision to begin the Preservation Collection was a concrete recommendation from "Orientations: A Planning Framework for the 1990s", a 1980s planning document in which the National Library set out its proposed focus and direction. At that time, the Library identified three implementation phases. The first phase has been put in place, and applies to new books and periodicals. Once staff have taken appropriate conservation measures, the use of items in the collection is restricted to consultation in the Reading Room of the Library, so that these materials will be kept in good repair and available to researchers in the future. They are not normally to be photocopied, scanned, photographed, sent on interlibrary loan or displayed outside preservation-sensitive exhibits.
The Library expands the collection through a number of important library mechanisms. The first is legal deposit, by which Canadian publishers are required to send two copies of any new publication to the National Library.
A second means of obtaining a preservation copy is through direct purchase. Unfortunately, budget cuts have made it impossible to continue systematically to acquire two copies of Canadiana published abroad.
The third means of developing the Preservation Collection is through gifts from donors and exchange among libraries. Although this generally means that acquisition is not as timely as it would be through legal deposit or direct purchase, gifts and exchanges greatly assist the Library in ensuring as comprehensive and "double" a collection as possible.
In limited cases, the Library has also added Canadiana published before 1988 to the Preservation Collection. This process requires staff to examine the two copies of the material in the stacks and to choose whichever copy is in better condition. Then the book's record is changed and the copy is added to the Preservation Collection.
As of March 1997, the Preservation Collection contained:
Each month about 200 items in the National Library's Preservation Collection are consulted on site. The lack of stack space and the incidence of leaks and floods have caused concern about maintenance of the collection. Senior managers are searching and lobbying for an appropriate off-site facility where the full collection may be safely and securely brought together. At present, the Library is developing a plan for environmentally acceptable off-site storage for the retrospective collections and for those materials, such as newspapers, microforms and sound recordings, that have not yet received the conservation attention they deserve.
So far, only the first of the three implementation phases identified in 1988 has been realized: the setting aside of one copy of current monographs and periodical issues. Phase II was to identify and separate retrospective (pre-1988) titles, and Phase III was to include other types of materials such as educational kits, microforms, sound recordings and compact discs. Although we have not been able to accomplish all our plans, we have made substantial progress.
Library staff have become more respectful of the book as a physical item through training, experience in disaster recovery, and the development of a preservation unit that prepares and uses boxes and archival-quality materials for storing the collection. The National Library also works closely with the conservation staff of the National Archives, now working in the new Preservation Centre across the Ottawa River in Gatineau, Quebec. Last October, the Library assumed responsibility for the Wei T'o Mass Deacidification System (see sidebar), which has been housed at 395 Wellington since its installation.
Today, more than 90 percent of new monographs are published on alkaline or permanent paper and do not have to be deacidified. Regrettably, a good portion of periodicals are still published on acidic paper or use inks, paper or printing processes that disqualify the materials from effective deacidification on the Wei T'o System.
Some may wonder about the purpose and necessity of a "preservation collection". Does the treatment, separation and limited use of this collection make sense?
For an answer, consider the question from the perspective of a researcher trying to understand the enormous and continuing impact of the works of Lucy Maud Montgomery on children and parents in Canada and around the world. Montgomery's works were first published in the United States, not in Canada. Copies of the original imprints are probably available in the Library of Congress, but it is not the same as having a collection of Montgomery's works, the translations, and the works about her and her opus together in the National Library of Canada. And, of course, it is not just books and periodicals that comprise the Montgomery Canadiana Collection: films, videos, television series and other expressions of her influence, such as memorabilia, shed light on Lucy Maud Montgomery, her work and her times. Regrettably, we do not (yet!) have a complete collection of all the editions of her books, but we have many parts of the whole. Housed together, they have an integrity and exert a fascination that is greater than the appeal of the individual pieces. As a "living" collection, it will continue to gain in value as the period of Montgomery's life and works recedes into the past.
A number of recent articles attest to Montgomery's continuing influence. For example, in ACS Bulletin, the newsletter of the Association for Canadian Studies, Katarina Leandoer, Department of English, Uppsala University, writes:
At the age of nine, I, along with most other Swedish girls, read Anne of Green Gables.... The book was given to me by my mother and was the very copy that she in turn had received as...a young girl.... Little did I know that this was to constitute the beginning of a long-lasting and sincere devotion to Canada and its literature. 2
She adds that Swedish versions of Anne of Green Gables have been in print without interruption since 1909, a year after the original edition was published in the United States.
Katarina Leandoer speaks for many Canadianists the world over, and her words provide a glimpse into how "today's preservation collection is tomorrow's rare books collection". Factors such as publication date, an autograph on the flyleaf, a particular translation or set of illustrations, or a limited edition, play a part in helping Library staff decide on the status of both individual books and collections. Besides, in library and literary terms, "today" and "tomorrow" are not strictly temporal, but also metaphorical.
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Notes
1 Materials published in Canada, created by Canadians or are about Canada and published
abroad.
2 Katarina Leandoer, "My Canadian Year: A Swedish Reflection on Canadian Studies",
ACS Bulletin, Vol. 19, No. 2-3 (Summer-Fall 1997), p. 7. "The Hidden Life of
Anne", a review of the recently published The Annotated "Anne of Green
Gables" by Mary Henley Rubio, is another example (The Globe and Mail,
October 4, 1997, p. 4; follow-up letters to the book editor appeared in The Globe and
Mail on October 11).
Copyright. The National Library of Canada. (Revised: 1997-12-29).