An Edition of One: Xerographic Replacements to Meet Continuing Demand for Brittle Books in Book Format
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Date
1992
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Abstract
Some books' lives in academic libraries resemble a paraphrased version of Thomas Hobbes's state of Nature: Their lives are nasty, brutish, and short. This is a fact of library life, and we routinely replace this category of common, heavily-used, worn out stock with reprint copies from whichever publishers can provide them, and we write it off as the cost of conducting the business of our educational enterprise. Unfortunately, we too often find another category of book for which a dismaying trio of circumstances makes the routine of simple replacement-with-reprint impossible. This sad triangle is bound on one side by the fact that the book is out of print (o.p.) or out of stock indefinitely (o.s.i.). Secondly, the paper of the copy in hand is too inflexible, or brittle, to allow for routine repair. The third and most important line completing the triangle is that the book, common or obscure, continues to be in demand as a book for a number of reasons. The resultant problem - or "challenge" to those preferring more positive euphemisms - is an irreparable book, reported o.p. or o.s.i. by the Acquisition Department, still needed in book format by the library's readers. A solution: The creation of a replacement edition of one or a few to meet demand. Although this solution is no longer a new idea, it remains a practical option that requires a systematic approach to work well
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brittle book replacement editions, preservation, paper flexibility
Citation
Wesley L. Boomgaarden, "An Edition of One: Xerographic Replacements to Meet Continuing Demand for Brittle Books in Book Format," Archival Products News 1, no. 3 (1992):1-2