In 2003/04 the University at Buffalo Libraries will use a combination of State aid and institutional funding to pursue specific operational goals which support the Five-Year Plan for 2000/05 and the results of the comprehensive review of the Libraries' preservation program. The review was begun in the fall of 2002 and is expected to be concluded with the assistance of a consultant in late spring of 2003. An important outcome of the review will be initiating a search for a new Preservation Officer.
State aid for preservation activities will cover the salaries of Conservation and Reformatting Technicians and the hourly wages of student assistants engaged in conservation and reformatting activities. State aid will be used for the salaries of the staff most directly involved in the day-to-day activities of conserving and reformatting damaged or deteriorated material; institutional support will provide all of the training, space, equipment, and supplies required for those activities. Institutional or competitive grant funding will be used for and all activities related to digitization.
The University at Buffalo Libraries will provide funding for all other staffing and activities related to a comprehensive preservation and conservation program. This support will offset the salaries of other staff engaged in preservation activities, provide funding for all supplies equipment, pay for all reformatting activities including digitizing, and cover the expenses associated with disaster prevention and recovery, travel, and staff training. All Preservation staff are entitled to take advantage of general and specialized staff development and training opportunities provided by the Libraries' and the University.
The projected number of items to receive conservation treatment is in line with numbers for previous years.
Commercial Binding
It is anticipated that in excess of 15,000 volumes will be processed for commercial binding at institutional expense.
As part of the process of establishing a new five-year bindery contract all staff who are engaged in the binding process will participate in the review and discussion of standards for making decisions regarding commercial binding.
Conservation-Identification of Material
Preservation staff continue to review material sent to the Center for Book Preservation and to determine the appropriate method of conservation treatment. In support of the goal to train staff throughout the Libraries in the identification of damaged materials, we will use a web site and other sources for illustrating damaged material.
Conservation-Response to Damaged Material
During 2003/04 we expect to provide conservation treatment for more than 7,000 research level items. Although high priority will be given to material from all unit library circulating collections, we also anticipate increasing the amount of attention given to specialized collections including rare print materials.
In 2003/04 we plan to continue the extensive project to repair or place in protective enclosures volumes of sets which anticipate will be transferred to remote storage in early 2004.
Work will also continue rehousing the extensive archival collections of the Music Library.
We plan to maintain the current standard for prompt treatment and return of damaged material and construction of enclosures.
Preservation Reformatting of Deteriorated Materials
It is anticipated that in 2003/04 the Libraries' Xerox DocuTech Publisher 135 will be used to produce a total of at least 210,000 preservation photocopies. Emphasis will be on brittle material of a research level from the circulating collections of all libraries and on fragile music scores. We expect the number of copies to be less than that for 2002/03 as a result of plans to purchase a greater number of replacement copies in lieu of photocopying.
We do not plan to initiate any new preservation microfilming projects in 2003/04. We will continue to produce periodic reels of the current issues of the two University newspapers, the Reporter and the Spectrum, and current volumes of the Buffalo Law Journal. Retrospective microfilming of this title was completed in 1999/00; work on the defunct Buffalo Medical Journal was completed in 2002/03. Microfilming services will be provided by Preservation Resources, Inc., in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Institutional support will be used to pay costs associated with storing all archival masters by Iron Mountain.
The Libraries' reformatting program will continue to be supported with State aid by funding student assistants. Institutional funding will be used for the purchase of archival and acid free xerographic papers, toner and developer supplies, as well as the outsourcing of color copies to Makin' Copies in Amherst, NY and the purchase of the Savin copier maintenance service contract with Town and Country Office Machines in Cheektowaga, NY.
Relying solely on institutional support, we plan to continue with our limited use of digitizing as a means of preserving material. These are the Love Canal and Rudy Bruner Award for Excellence in the Urban Environment projects. We will also continue our use of digitization as a preservation and access solution through the local initiative to digitize popular government documents issued as folders and brief pamphlets and to digitize lengthy tables of contents for commercial print material.
In 2003/04 we will continue to maintain the local web site "Resources for Digitization" will be continued.
Staff Training and Patron Awareness
Preservation staff will continue to maintain a web site illustrating conservation and preservation techniques ranging from hydration to digitization.
In 2002/03 a major revision and expansion of the content and scope of the local preservation web site was accomplished. We plan to keep the site current in 2003/04.
Environmental Conditions/Disaster Prevention, Response, and Recovery
During 2003/04 there will be two scheduled meetings of the University Libraries Disaster Prevention, Response, and Recovery Team.
The Libraries will continue efforts to work collaboratively with University Facilities and the University Fire Marshall. In 2003/04 we plan to work with the Fire Marshall in the inspection of University Libraries' facilities.
Travel and Educational Materials
The Preservation Officer will attend all meetings of the preservation officers of the New York State comprehensive research libraries at institutional expense.
If relevant workshops are scheduled locally or nationally, travel support will be provided.
Institutional funding will be used to purchase a limited amount of educational material for the use of staff.
Institutional Support
The University at Buffalo Libraries will continue to provide a significant amount of institutional support to supplement the annual state supported funding.
Salaries
The salary of the Preservation Officer is funded by the University Libraries.
Library staff who engage in commercial binding or rebinding preparations, collection development officers who screen brittle materials before any conservation activity takes place, curators of special collections, and administrative staff who set direction and assist in overseeing the preservation program are paid from the University Libraries' regular budget.
Other forms of institutional support
All supplies needed for conservation treatment, preservation reformatting and disaster prevention and recovery activities are provided with institutional funding.
The University Libraries also pay all charges for commercial binding and rebinding, the purchase of new copies, editions, or microforms acquired to replace damaged or brittle books, and for the space occupied by, and services provided to, all preservation/conservation activities.
All general office supplies and equipment are provided by the University Libraries.
The University Libraries support the preservation photocopy program by paying for the maintenance contracts for the Xerox DocuTech Model 135 Publisher and the Savin copier.
All staff and equipment costs associated with the creation of digital collections are assumed by the University Libraries.
Except for the technician positions the salaries of all staff who serve on the Preservation Council or the University Libraries Disaster Prevention, Response, and Recovery Team are paid from the University Libraries' regular budget.
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Preservation Department
University at Buffalo Libraries
Comments: askcts@buffalo.edu
Last update: 18 February 2005
http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/cts/preservation/pres_aid2003_04.html