Preservation Politics: A Major New Contender.

National Endowment for the Humanities ; Association of Research Libraries ; Library of Congress

This article discusses the trend of preservation of library materials in the U.S. in 1990. One example, the National Endowment for the Humanities announced that it has awarded more than $7.2 million in grants for the express purpose of supporting preservation efforts. The money is to be spent on microfilming deteriorating or fragile materials. Meanwhile, OCLC has been selected by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), in partnership with the Library of Congress, to perform the retrospective conversion of 400,000 records contained in the National Register of Microform Masters. ARL Executive Director Duane E. Webster believes that the real importance of the project lies in meeting the much expanded demand for access to bibliographic records for preservation microfilm masters.