RECREATION COMMITTEE
20 September 1990
SELECTION FOR SURVIVAL : A REVIEW OF ACQUISITION AND RETENTION
POLICIES
Report of the County Librarian
1. Introduction
This document stems from an invitation to Brian Enright
(University Librarian, Newcastle upon Tyne), to lead a small
team of British Library staff in an internal review of
acquisition and retention policies in the British Library and
inter alia, 'to look more thoroughly at the grounds underlying
the current collection priorities.'
During the development of the British Museum Library in the
nineteenth century national library objectives were set to
provide 'the necessary means of information on all branches of
human learning, from all countries, in all languages ... capable
of keeping pace with the increase of human knowledge'(1). This
has now been seen to be unrealistic in terms of present day
published output: 'no national library on earth, however great
and rich, can systematically collect the literature of the whole
world that the librarian of the 19th century attempted to do'
(2). Nonetheless it has been suggested that the prime
responsibility of a national library is 'collecting and
conserving the whole of that country's book production for the
benefit of future generations'(3).
The principal of comprehensiveness is thus an important element
in considering national library objectives and their practical
application within the services offered by the British Library.
The question is of national interest and has a practical effect
on libraries of all types - not least the public library. The
Enright Review is therefore not just relevant in helping the
British Library to form its own priorities for the allocation of
available resources; it could have a dramatic effect upon all
public libraries and the services they are able to offer for the
benefit of their users. Clearly there will be differences of
emphasis : some matters will be of very wide significance while
others will be matters of internal organisation within the
British Library itself. This Paper will therefore concentrate
on matters of particular significance for public libraries where
the retention and availability of stock is concerned.
2. MAJOR ISSUES
The Enright Review identifies a number of major issues which may
be summarised as :
National library growth
Publishing output
Legal deposit
The impact of technology
Preservation and decay
User expectations
Costs, inflation and funding
Accommodation requirements
The following comments in this section elaborate these issues and
provide some explanatory notes on the matters raised.
(a) National library growth is being questioned within the
context of national libraries themselves as being
unrealistic and not necessarily adding value to the
collections. A former librarian of the British Museum
wrote 'there is a great danger in mere size ... Up to a
certain point, size increases the value of a library and
engages the respect of its users: beyond that point it has
to be controlled'(4). The important thing here is that the
word 'controlled' is used rather than curtailed - which is
in effect what the proposals in the report would mean. It
is of course of limited value for a larger collection to be
acquired if there is not adequate support for the
recording, storing and making available of stock. On the
other hand if long-term needs are not taken into account it
is possible that the national library could move into a
downward spiral from which it would be hard to recover in
the future. Responsibility to preserve material - at a
point where it can be reasonably expected to be made
available to the public - is an important role for the
national library and one which supports the work of every
individual library in the country. This responsibility
should not be lightly discarded because of administrative
problems which, whilst serious when they occur, are not
insurmountable. When material is discarded, or not
collected at all, there is likely to be a permanent loss
which it is unlikely that it will be possible to make good
at a later date.
(b) Publishing output of books in conventional printed form is
rising year by year. In addition new periodical
publications are constantly appearing; witness the
explosive growth in 'free' newspapers in the last decade.
In addition a mass of reports and other documents which
have a limited circulation are being recognised as of value
and their spread has been made easier by the growth in
desktop publishing using computer technology. There are,
of course, new media forms for the dissemination of
information. The storage and retrieval of such media
presents particular difficulties: in capturing information
in the first place, and also by the degradation of the form
in which the material is stored (computer disks should be
changed every 12 months according to latest advice). The
obsolescence of the equipment on which information may be
retrieved means that there is a continuing need to convert
existing holdings into new, or current, technical forms.
(c) Legal deposit requires publishers to deposit single copies
of their output irrespective of worth or need.
Consequently the deposit from the United Kingdom has risen
by over 50% during the last ten years to over 62,000 titles
in 1988. The result is that there is a danger in creating
an imbalance in the collections and an increasingly large
cost associated with the acquisition, cataloguing, storage
and conservation of such material. Indeed apparently the
British Library has already resorted 'to the clustering and
"dumping" of blocks of material on the assumption that
storage was cheaper than the staffing effort required to
discipline and filter accessions. The material dumped in
this way is barely accessible ...'(5).
(d) The impact of technology has meant that a wider range of
material, including publications which combine print with
non-print items, has formed a part of the collections of
the British Library. This in turn leads to difficulties as
the technological equipment for accessing the non-print
media becomes obsolescent (as noted in (b) above).
(e) Preservation and decay have received a good deal of
attention during the past five years or so and the British
Library is aware of the public criticism which arises from
the collection of material which is then allowed to decay
on the shelves of libraries. Indeed there is speculation
that natural causes of decay may impose a selection process
on the librarian far more arbitary than any process used by
a librarian in deciding which books to collect and which to
reject. The 1986 Preservation Scrutiny seemed to accept 'a
policy of benign neglect'(6).
(f) User expectations are rising as in so many walks of life.
Sometimes the expectations of one person will be in
competition or conflict with those of another; almost
certainly they will require a heightened level of service.
Take for example the British Library's aim 'to balance
humane and social values as they have evolved through the
ages with the vital needs for information of the commercial
sector';(7); or again the Chief Executive of the British
Library's statement that it is not simply or primarily a
museum. 'As the central place of national record the
library is responsible for storing and exhibiting documents
of particular national, historic, literary and other
interest. But this is just one expression of the
fundamental responsibility of the library to support
scholarship and research'(8) which has to be combined with
the need to meet demand for the latest economic and
commercial information using up to date technology.
(g) Costs, inflation and funding have all changed over the
years. The proportion of costs attributable to various
aspects of the service has altered as expenditure on staff
to maintain the service has increased faster than other
costs. The result has been a higher proportion of the
total budget being devoted to personnel and operating costs
whilst at the same time financial support has not kept pace
with overall inflation. Even though the British Library
has been successful in generating more income than any
other national library in the world, this has not matched
the loss in grant aid. Indeed it would appear that the
more income that is received the less will be the grant.
(h) Accommodation requirements are going to grow as collections
increase in size. It is now anticipated that the new St.
Pancras building will be full ten years after being handed
over, which negates thoughts of a single building for the
national library collections adequate for decades to come.
This situation need not arise, though, if it was not for
insistence by that the present Great Russell Street site
must be sold. The British Library is thus under pressure
from the sheer quantity of material to be stored and also
from the cost of the new building which will have to be met
from a cash limited sum. A serious dilemma is thus posed :
more acquisitions require more space which requires extra
finance to maintain the service which means that less money
is available for additional acquisitions and retention of
existing stock.
3. PRESENTATION OF REPORT
The total library community has a strong and continuing interest
in what is happening at the British Library and has expressed
some doubts about the way in which new principles on which the
service is to be based are being introduced with a minimum of
discussion. Although there was a meeting which sought the views
of regular B.L. users, this consisted of a small invited group
of 25 people which could hardly be representative of the library
community at large. Since the publication of the Enright report
British Library staff have attended a number of library
meetings, but it would be desirable the whole library community
should have an opportunity to voice opinions at a larger meeting
attended by representatives from various areas of library work.
4. ROLE OF THE BRITISH LIBRARY
In discussion of this subject the role of the British Library is
of considerable importance. Some would see it acting as a
leader to the library community not only through the provision
of materials for consultation or lending but in the provision of
added bibliographic and information services providing the
national record which feed on the strengths of the collections.
If this bibliographic record is intentionally weakened it is
likely that publishers will deposit less material when they
think it may be thrown away. It also has a very important part
to play in the preservation and conservation of materials and
has been seen as a library of last resort not only for
conventional printed books but for periodicals, newspapers and
many other items(9). If, as is indicated in paragraph 2 above,
this is no longer to be the role of the British Library, then it
would be helpful to spell out clearly whether this is because of
financial or other physical constraints, or whether it flows
from an acceptance in principle that the role of the British
Library is changing.
The concept of co-operation in the collection of what may well
be unique items is superficially an attractive one but the
difficulties and long term risks should not be underestimated.
For example the sharing of responsibility for collection and
preservation with the other Copyright Libraries (Bodleian
Oxford, Cambridge University Library, National Library of
Scotland, National Library of Wales, Trinity College Dublin)
could be seen as a way of spreading the load and responsibility.
But it is because material is being acquired for national
preservation that difficulties could occur. What if an
institution unilaterally changed policy, or its funding based
dramatically altered? Not only could there be a significant
loss of existing material but the infrastructure for the future
might no longer be in place; it is almost certain that there
would be no slack either in space or staff for substitute
collection by whatever other partners remained.
The effect upon co-operating libraries as a whole should not be
under-estimated. Material not available for consultation within
the British Library will be sought elsewhere and, particularly
for the higher priced items, it may be difficult to find any
other organisation holding such material.
5. MATERIAL SELECTION AND RETENTION POLICIES
Given the information supplied by the British Library which was
presented in summary form at paragraph 2 above, it is not
surprising 'that a prime area of concern was likely to be
pressure on storage space after 1993 and the scope for
controlling the pace of growth of British Library collections
without prejudice to the future needs of researchers.'
Unfortunately it is precisely because the British Library is the
national library that any changes in collection policies will
have such a considerable effect on the bibliographic resources
of the nation.
Present practice is to accept materials not explicitly required
by law to be deposited. This brings in material for which the
Review Team questions whether there is a long term need. For
example the Report contains details about reprints received by
the British Library (although second and subsequently unchanged
impressions of an item are excluded from the need for legal
deposit.) However, this simple statement is fraught with
difficulties; for example it has been found that even though
pagination is the same and no amendments have been noted on the
title page, there may be alterations in the following text from
ostensibly unchanged previous reprints. It is thus a matter if
serious concern that material should not be rejected which
contains even minor variations in text; that the varying
physical formats in which books may be published should not be
cause for rejection (for example in the 19th century Dickens was
published in serial part works and only subsequently in volume
form). The time spent in making these detailed assessments as
to suitability of stock could be better spent in other areas of
collection policy or reader service. A further danger is that
by weakening the deposit principle (which is discussed at para.
4 above) the bibliographic record, which is prepared from that
material, will also be weakened.
One of the dangers in moving away from a collection and
retention policy of published output to a selection policy of
published output is that a principle of collection has been
broken, so that in the future it would be easier to alter the
interpretation of the policy than it might have been before. It
is not too difficult to foresee future crises where the spatial
and staffing requirements of the British Library could then
appear to justify reductions of input of stock. For example the
collection of 'free' newspapers could be seen as an unnecessary
luxury as they contain mainly advertising matter and when
published are available freely within their circulation areas.
Experience has shown, though, that many titles which have come
and gone are now very rare indeed and may well be lost to future
users. Consequently Enright's statement that 'As a result of
selection before acceptance of legal deposit material a
considerable quantity of material will in future be rejected'
needs very careful discussion and consultation, as should the
recommendation contained in the report that 'The Library should
weed the candidates for disposal ... (materials deposited
without legal requirement, dumped items).' No weeding should
take place until the library community has been extensively
consulted on the explicit guidelines to be followed.
Clearly the use of alternative storage media can be usefully
explored. Two matters of concern recur in discussions on this
topic. One is that no-one can be sure how permanent non-paper
forms are for preservation purposes - it is anticipated that
microforms could achieve a life of 100 years without
deterioration - but nobody can be sure that this will be the
outcome. Given modern testing techniques, however, this is a
lesser concern than the changing technology which allows reader
access to the non-paper media. Where the medium is
straightforward, as with print on paper, there is no physical
barrier between the reader and the text. Where the technology
is relatively stable, such as mircroform, there can be a
reasonable expectation that the technology which allows access
will be available for the foreseeable future. However in newer
technologies where sophisticated computer based systems are used
there is a real danger that the method of accessing the material
will change long before the time expiry of the form in which
text is held. The result will be either loss of material or
expensive re-copying into a more up to date form.
All this is irrespective of quality or ease of use for the user.
It argues for a cautious approach to this problem, especially
where it is envisaged that surrogate alternative storage media
should replace original text.
6. THE FUTURE
It is clear that the British Library faces considerable
difficulties in terms of growth of collections, published
output, impact of new technology, user expectations and funding.
It is recognised that these comments on the Enright report
advocate a policy which would almost certainly lead to increased
expenditure. However, this is such an important matter, which
in its impact will be irreversible, that it is suggested it
deserves the fullest discussion and consultation. If such
consultation takes place, supported by detailed indications of
space and cost implications, and at the end there is a strong
view that action should not be taken to vary the selection and
retention policies of the British Library, not only would there
be a strong argument for additional funding support but it would
be possible to mobilise a number of bodies who, having been
consulted, would be willing to support the British Library in
its request for extra funding.
REFERENCES
(1) Humphrys, K.W. The role of the national library. Libri, 14,
1964 p. 363.
(2) Wormann, C.D. National libraries in our time : the UNESCO
symposium on nat
ional libraries in Europe. Libri, 9, 1959, p 287.
(3) Burston, G. National libraries : an analysis. In : National
libraries ed. M B Line and J Line. 1987, p 87.
(4) Francis, F.C. The organisation of national libraries. In :
National libraries : their problems and prospects : symposium on
national libraries in Europe, Vienna, 27 September 1958. Paris :
Unesco, 1958, p 25.
(5) The Bookseller, 3 February 1989, p 374
(6) Preservation in the British Library : an efficiency scrutiny (2
parts) 1986.
(7) British Library. Advancing with knowledge : the British Library
strategic plans 1985-1990. 1985, p 10.
(8) British Library Annual report 1986/7, p 7.
(9) The British Library (Cmnd 4572).
RECOMMENDATION
That it be a recommendation to the County Council :
That representations be made to the Association of County
Councils in order to seek their support that the present Great
Russell Street site should not be sold until long term final
decisions have been made on preservation policies.
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