Re: mass deacidification

[Shannon Zachary <szachary@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 23 Feb 1999, rpilette wrote:

>        I know a number of you folks have started doing mass deacidification 
>      of materials.  My question to you is how many of your institutions are 
>      making a note in the catalog record that the item has been 
>      deacidified?  If so, where are you making the entry?  Who is 
>      responsible for making the entry?  What sort of information is 
>      contained in the entry?

Bobbie -

I did some casting about on this topic last fall. Following is a summary
of my informal survey of practice for recording information in the online
catalog among a *limited* number of research libraries that are currently
sending books to Preservation Technologies for deacidification.


General: Erich Kesse's 1997 draft of "The USMARC 583 Field and its Use in
Preservation" may be found at:
http://www.karamelik.eastlib.ufl.edu/automate/583/index.html


1.  All respondents said that they do record the information that a book
has been deacidified in the online catalog.

 This information is placed variously:
- In a 583 field of the bibliographic record
- In a 583 field (undefined whether bibliographic or holdings record)
- In a staff note in the holdings record

2. The text of the entry reads:
- Follows Erich Kesse's terminology in 583 field.  Identifies vol/copy
number if appropriate. Example:
583/3: $3 c.1-2 $a Deacidified; $C 11/95; Sk PTI
- <deacidified/BKKPR> in staff note

3. Staff that do the entry are usually Preservation staff, although some
steps (depending on workflow) may be done by Acquisitions or Cataloging
staff.

At Michigan, the catalogers refused to let the 583 field be used for this
purpose, since this usage has not yet been officially sanctioned. At
present we are using the note area of the Item Record to enter the
information: Deacidified/Bookkeeper/mm-yyyy. The Item Record is useful
because it is volume specific: no need to further identify volume or copy
number. On the down side, this location has a low level of security --
most circulation clerks have sufficient access to make changes to this
note field, whether deliberately or accidentally.


Shannon Zachary, Head                   E-mail: szachary@xxxxxxxxx
Conservation Services                   Phone:  734/763-6980
University of Michigan Library          Fax:    734/763-7886
837 Greene St. / 3202 Buhr Bldg.
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1048