Collection Maintenance and Improvement

Book excerpt: This resource guide provides information about the range of activities that can be implemented to maintain and improve the condition of research collections to ensure that they remain usable as long as possible. After an introduction that describes the major activities and a review of an investigation process that gives an overview of good practice, the following articles are presented: (1) "Handling Books in General Collections" (Library of Congress); (2) "Care and Handling of Library Materials" (John DePew); (3) "Preservation Guidelines for Processing Staff" (University of Texas at Austin); (4) "Preservation Guidelines for Circulation and Stack Maintenance Personnel" (University of Texas at Austin); (5) "General Preservation: What an Institution Can Do To Survey Its Own Preservation Needs" (Karen Motylewski); (6) "Storage and Handling: Choosing Archival-Quality Enclosures for Books and Paper" (Karen Motylewski); (7) "Storage and Handling: Cleaning Books and Shelves" (Northeast Document Conservation Center); (8) "Preservation" (Ann Swartzell); (9) "Guidelines for Using Vacuum Cleaners" (National Archives and Records Administration); (10) "Collection Management" (American Library Association); (11) "Reformatting: Microfilm and Microfiche" (Northeast Document Conservation Center); (12) "Archives and Manuscripts: Conservation" (Mary L. Rizenthaler); (13) "Basic Conservation of Archival Materials: A Guide" (Canadian Council of Archives); (14) "Care, Handling, and Storage of Photographs" (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions); (15)"Storage and Handling: Storage Enclosures for Photographic Materials" (Northeast Document Conservation Center); and (16) "The Care and Handling of Recorded Sound Materials" (Giles St-Laurent). A bibliography lists 19 selected readings for further study. (SLD)