Subject: Impact of automation on preservation decisions
Our preservation department is in the habit of using circulation history from date due slips and book cards to help make preservation decisions. This summer the library is going to be switching to an online circulation system with Innovative Interfaces Inc. Once the switch is completed we won't be using either date due slips or book cards any longer, so the information they have provided will no longer be available. At this point I don't know what information will be available once the new system is in place. Currently the type of treatment a book receives is determined by its physical condition in conjunction with its circulation history. For example, worn cases with good paper that regularly go on reserve or that circulate ten or more times in a decade are sent to a commercial bindery for recasing whereas worn cases that have circulated less frequently are repaired in house. Fragile or brittle books that have circulated five or more times in ten years are sent to the acquisitions librarian for withdraw/replace consideration, but if they have only circulated once or twice, they are put into phase boxes. Multiple copies, other volumes in a set, and other editions are also part of the decision making process. Does anybody have any experience or suggestions about how to deal with this kind of preservation decision making after circulation automation? Also, if anybody has effectively edited fields in III to retain specific circulation history, I would be interested in learning how you did it. Terry Kissner Carleton College Library tkissner [at] carleton__edu *** Conservation DistList Instance 7:87 Distributed: Friday, June 3, 1994 Message Id: cdl-7-87-007 ***Received on Tuesday, 31 May, 1994