Double Fold

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Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper
DoubleFold.jpg
First edition (publ. Random House)
Author Nicholson Baker
Published2001 (Random House)
ISBN 0-375-50444-3

Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper is a non-fiction book by Nicholson Baker that was published in April 2001. An excerpt appeared in the July 24, 2000 issue of The New Yorker , under the title "Deadline: The Author's Desperate Bid to Save America's Past". [1] The work details Baker's project to uncover what happened to the thousands of books and newspapers that were replaced during the microfilming boom of the 1980s and 1990s. Double Fold has been a controversial work and Baker states in the preface that it is not meant to be objective: "This isn't an impartial piece of reporting" (p. x). The New York Times characterized the book as a "blistering, and thoroughly idiosyncratic, exposé." [2]

Contents

Overview

The term "double fold" refers to the test used by many librarians and preservation administrators to determine the brittleness of paper. The test consists of folding down the corner of a page, then folding it back in the opposite direction. The action is then repeated until the paper breaks or is about to break. The test yields a fold number. [3] This experiment was used by library officials in some cases to justify withdrawing items from the shelves or replacing them with another format (most often microfilm). [4] Baker describes the double fold test as "utter horseshit and craziness. A leaf of a book is a semi-pliant mechanism. It was made for non-acute curves, not for origami." (p. 157).

Baker argues against the destruction of books and newspapers by institutions that, in his view, should be held responsible for their preservation. [5] He calls attention to the tension between preservation and access, and claims these goals need not conflict: "Why can't we have the benefits of the new and extravagantly expensive digital copy and keep the convenience and beauty and historical testimony of the original books resting on the shelves, where they've always been, thanks to the sweat and equity of our prescient predecessors?" (p. 67).

Themes

Baker targets many established institutions in Double Fold, including the British Library, the Library of Congress, and the New York Public Library. He accuses these libraries and others of neglecting to preserve the world's cultural heritage through their policies of discarding original materials once they've been microfilmed, and of creating cumbersome barriers to scholarship and research in the form of illegible and incomplete microfilm.

Baker's also targets the Brittle Books Program, the United States Newspaper Program, the mass deacidification policy practiced by the Library of Congress, and the 1987 film Slow Fires: On the Preservation of the Human Record (p. 184).

Baker's issue with microfilming is not so much with the process itself (p. 25) but with the disbinding and discarding that often went hand-in-hand with the procedure, including the loss of thousands of volumes of significant 19th- and 20th-century newspapers: the Brooklyn Eagle , the New York Herald Tribune , the New York World , the Public Ledger , The New York Times , and others. His other problems with microfilm include cost (p. 26), poor image quality ("edge-blurred, dark, gappy, with text cut off of some pages, faded to the point of illegibility on others," p. 14), and frustration with technology (p.39).

Thoughts about librarians and preservationists

Christened the "Erin Brockovich of the library world" by The New York Times , [6] Baker places blame on the complete trust placed in librarians (p.104). Double Fold was viewed by many as a scathing indictment of librarians and libraries everywhere. The author takes to task many past and present prominent librarians and preservationists, including Verner W. Clapp, Fremont Rider, Patricia Battin, and Pamela Darling.

Baker displays a distaste for library officials who advanced the notion that thousands of books and newspapers were on the verge of disintegrating: "Librarians have lied shamelessly about the extent of paper's fragility" (p. 41). He argues that old books and newspapers—even those printed on acidic paper—can survive much longer than many experts predict, and that librarians who claim otherwise are being alarmist and are misguided in their attempts to justify getting rid of books deemed unhealthy. Baker claims that discarding policies at libraries are the result of increasing pressure on librarians to save space on their shelves, although many are reluctant to admit it.

Conclusions

Baker makes four recommendations in Double Fold's epilogue: that libraries should be required to publish lists of discarded holdings on their websites, that the Library of Congress should fund a storage repository building for publications and documents not housed on-site, that some U.S. libraries should be designated to save newspapers in bound form, and that both the United States Newspaper Program and the Brittle Books Programs should be abolished unless they can promise that all conservation procedures will be non-destructive and that originals will be saved.

Critical reception

Double Fold won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction in 2001, [7] and received positive reviews from The New York Times , [8] Salon, [9] The New York Review of Books , [10] and Library Journal . [11] [12]

Response from librarians

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) maintained a web page called "Nicholson Baker, Reviews and Responses", [13] that compiled letters to editors, reviews, interviews, and articles in response to Baker's arguments, including a "Q and A" [14] in direct response to the book. In a letter to the editor in The New York Review of Books , Shirley K. Baker, a librarian writing on behalf of ARL, stresses that preservation decisions occur in a larger institutional context, and are concerned with more than just microfilm. She writes that "librarians have used the best knowledge and materials available at any given time to develop a broad array of preservation strategies." [15]

In an editorial titled "Baker's Book Is Half-Baked", published in the May 15, 2001 issue of Library Journal, Francine Fialkoff says that Baker "doesn't understand – and perhaps never will – that the purpose of libraries is access." [16]

In the June 1, 2001 issue of Library Journal , Baker responded to librarians in an interview with writer Andrew Richard Albanese. In the interview Baker states that some reviewers of Double Fold had misrepresented his opinions and that librarians may be reading these misguided reviews and taking offense without having read the book itself. [17]

Later that year, Baker was invited to speak at the annual American Library Association conference in San Francisco. He called himself a "library activist" and reiterated the need for libraries to retain last copies, as well as originals. [18]

Richard Cox, a professor and archivist from the University of Pittsburgh, responded to Double Fold with a book of his own; Vandals in the Stacks: A Response to Nicholson Baker's Assault on Libraries was published in 2002. In 2000, Cox published a critique of Double Fold called "The Great Newspaper Caper: Backlash in the Digital Age" that appeared in the journal First Monday . In both the article and the book, Cox admits that some good could come from public discourse about preservation issues, but maintains that "the problems are much more complex than Mr. Baker understands or cares to discuss." [19] He writes: "one can believe in the continuing utility of print and the value of maintaining books and some newspapers in their original condition, while recognizing that the ultimate preservation demands requires mechanisms like microfilming and digitization projects," [19] and worries that Baker's focus on original formats will "divert the public's attention from the greater issues facing the preservation of the books, documents, newspapers, and other artifacts of the past." [19]

Marlene Manoff writes: "Museums and libraries both are wrestling with the need to democratize and to expand their audiences and to find new sources of funding. Both are exploiting new technologies to transform their internal operations and the nature of the materials and services they provide." [20] Manoff notes that "discarding books and newspapers, however serious a problem, is not itself the destruction of history" but also acknowledges that the call for libraries to take on a stronger role in preserving the historical record is valid. [20]

American Newspaper Repository

In 1999, Baker founded the American Newspaper Repository in order to save some of the collections being auctioned off by the British Library. A year later, he became the owner of thousands of volumes of old newspapers, including various runs of The New York Times , the Chicago Tribune , the New York Herald Tribune , and the New York World . In May 2004, his collection was moved to Duke University, where it is stored on climate-controlled shelves and maintained by the Rare Books and Special Collections division. As part of the gift agreement between the American Newspaper Repository and Duke, the collection is to be kept together in perpetuity, and no disbinding or experimental deacidification is allowed.

See also

Related Research Articles

Mass deacidification is a term used in library and information science as one possible measure against the degradation of paper in old books, the so-called "slow fires". The goal of the process is to increase the pH of acidic paper. Although acid-free paper has become more common, a large body of acidic paper still exists in books made after the 1850s; this is because of its cheaper and simpler production methods. Acidic paper, especially when exposed to light, air pollution, or high relative humidity, yellows and becomes brittle over time. During mass deacidification an alkaline agent is deposited in the paper to neutralize existing acid and prevent further decay. Mass deacidification is intended for objects on acidic paper that will be lost if no action is performed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slow fire</span> Paper embrittlement of a book or document

A slow fire is a term used in library and information science to describe paper embrittlement resulting from acid decay. The term is taken from the title of Terry Sanders's 1987 film Slow Fires: On the preservation of the human record.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicholson Baker</span> Contemporary American novelist and writer (born 1957)

Nicholson Baker is an American novelist and essayist. His fiction generally de-emphasizes narrative in favor of careful description and characterization. His early novels such as The Mezzanine and Room Temperature were distinguished by their minute inspection of his characters' and narrators' stream of consciousness. Out of a total of ten novels, three are erotica: Vox, The Fermata and House of Holes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acid-free paper</span> Type of paper used for preservation

Acid-free paper is paper that, if infused in water, yields a neutral or basic pH. It can be made from any cellulose fiber as long as the active acid pulp is eliminated during processing. It is also lignin- and sulfur-free. Acid-free paper addresses the problem of preserving documents and preserving artwork for long periods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microform</span> Forms with microreproductions of documents

A microform is a scaled-down reproduction of a document, typically either photographic film or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or 1⁄25 of the original document size. For special purposes, greater optical reductions may be used.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Blackbeard</span> American writer-editor and comic strip collector (1926-2011)

William Elsworth Blackbeard, better known as Bill Blackbeard, was a writer-editor and the founder-director of the San Francisco Academy of Comic Art, a comprehensive collection of comic strips and cartoon art from American newspapers. This major collection, consisting of 2.5 million clippings, tearsheets and comic sections, spanning the years 1894 to 1996, has provided source material for numerous books and articles by Blackbeard and other researchers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Verner W. Clapp</span>

Verner Warren Clapp was a librarian, writer, and polymath.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Columbia University Libraries</span> Academic library system in New York

Columbia University Libraries is the library system of Columbia University and one of the largest academic library systems in North America. With 15.0 million volumes and over 160,000 journals and serials, as well as extensive electronic resources, manuscripts, rare books, microforms, maps, and graphic and audio-visual materials, it is the fifth-largest academic library in the United States and the largest academic library in the State of New York. Additionally, the closely affiliated Jewish Theological Seminary Library holds over 400,000 volumes, which combined makes the Columbia University Libraries the third-largest academic library, and the second-largest private library in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Preservation (library and archive)</span> Set of activities aimed at prolonging the life of a record or object

In conservation, library and archival science, preservation is a set of preventive conservation activities aimed at prolonging the life of a record, book, or object while making as few changes as possible. Preservation activities vary widely and may include monitoring the condition of items, maintaining the temperature and humidity in collection storage areas, writing a plan in case of emergencies, digitizing items, writing relevant metadata, and increasing accessibility. Preservation, in this definition, is practiced in a library or an archive by a conservator, librarian, archivist, or other professional when they perceive a collection or record is in need of maintenance.

The United States Newspaper Program (USNP) is a national effort among the individual states and the US federal government to locate, catalog, and preserve on microfilm, newspapers published in the United States up to the present time. Funding is provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and technical assistance is provided by the Library of Congress. The program has since been enhanced by the National Digital Newspaper Program. The program began in 1982 and was estimated to be completed in 2007. As of 2004, $51.1 million in federal and $19.3 million in state funding had been raised.

The Brittle Books Program is an initiative carried out by the National Endowment for the Humanities at the request of the United States Congress. The initiative began officially between 1988 and 1989 with the intention to involve the eventual microfilming of over 3 million endangered volumes.

Patricia Meyer Battin was one of the first librarians in the United States to combine the responsibilities of library administrator and technology director. Her focus shifted toward preservation when she became the first president of the Commission on Preservation and Access. She later became a pioneer in the digital library movement and began to work in the area of digital preservation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hancock House (Ticonderoga, New York)</span> Historic house in New York, United States

The Hancock House is an historic structure in Ticonderoga, New York. It is a replica of the Hancock Manor on Boston's Beacon Hill that was the residence of Thomas Hancock, the uncle of Founding Father John Hancock.

Preservation survey is the process of collecting and analyzing data about the physical condition of library materials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mold control and prevention (library and archive)</span>

Mold control and prevention is a conservation activity that is performed in libraries and archives to protect books, documents and other materials from deterioration caused by mold growth. Mold prevention consists of different methods, such as chemical treatments, careful environmental control, and manual cleaning. Preservationists use one or a combination of these methods to combat mold spores in library and archival collections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Newspaper Repository</span> Archive

The American Newspaper Repository is a charity whose purpose is to collect and preserve original copies of American newspapers. It was founded in 1999 by the author Nicholson Baker when he learnt that the British Library was disposing of its collection of historic American newspapers. He cashed in his retirement fund to successfully bid for the collection at auction. With support from the Knight Foundation and MacArthur Foundation, the repository was established in a building in Salmon Falls Mill Historic District in Rollinsford, New Hampshire. While serving as a director, Baker researched and wrote Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper about the way in which other library institutions were destroying rather than preserving such originals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Double fold</span> Process used in paper quality testing

A double fold is a process of folding a paper sample first backwards and then forwards about the same line, i.e. one complete oscillation. The number of double folds that is required to make a test piece break is used to determine the material's folding endurance and fold number.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conservation and restoration of books, manuscripts, documents, and ephemera</span> Activity to extend the life of historical materials

The conservation and restoration of books, manuscripts, documents, and ephemera is an activity dedicated to extending the life of items of historical and personal value made primarily from paper, parchment, and leather. When applied to cultural heritage, conservation activities are generally undertaken by a conservator. The primary goal of conservation is to extend the lifespan of the object as well as maintaining its integrity by keeping all additions reversible. Conservation of books and paper involves techniques of bookbinding, restoration, paper chemistry, and other material technologies including preservation and archival techniques.

Newspaper digitization is the process of converting old newspapers from analog form into digital images. The most common analog forms for old newspapers are paper and microfilm. Digitized images of newspaper pages are typically analyzed with OCR software in order to produce text files of the newspaper content. Newspaper digitization is a special case of digitization in general.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christine N. Govan</span> American novelist

Christine Noble Govan was an American writer. She was born in New York City and lived most of her life in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Baker, Nicholson (July 24, 2000). "Deadline". The New Yorker. ISSN   0028-792X.
  2. ↑ Dwight Garner (April 15, 2001). "The Collector". The New York Times .
  3. ↑ "ISO 5626:1993(en) Paper — Determination of folding endurance". ISO. 1993.
  4. ↑ "Double Fold". Slate. April 17, 2001. ISSN   1091-2339.
  5. ↑ McGrath, Charles (August 4, 2011). "Nicholson Baker's Dirty Mind". The New York Times.
  6. ↑ Garner, Dwight (April 15, 2001). "INTERVIEW; The Collector". The New York Times.
  7. ↑ "2001". National Book Critics Circle.
  8. ↑ Gates, David (April 15, 2001). "Paper Chase". The New York Times Web Archive.
  9. ↑ Zacharek, Stephanie (April 27, 2001). "'Double Fold' by Nicholson Baker". Salon. Archived from the original on June 15, 2006.
  10. ↑ Darnton, Robert (April 26, 2001). "The Great Book Massacre". The New York Review of Books. Vol. 48, no. 7. ISSN   0028-7504.
  11. ↑ Chad, Barry (April 1, 2001). "Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper". Library Journal. 126 (6): 119. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007.
  12. ↑ Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper Hardcover – April 10 2001. ASIN   0375504443.
  13. ↑ "Nicholson Baker: Reviews and Responses". Association of Research Libraries. Archived from the original on April 26, 2007.
  14. ↑ "Q and A in Response to Nicholson Baker's Double Fold". Association of Research Libraries. Archived from the original on March 16, 2009.
  15. ↑ "ARL Letter to the Editors, New York Review". Association of Research Libraries. Archived from the original on August 13, 2009.
  16. ↑ Francine Fialkoff (May 15, 2001). "Baker's Book is Half-Baked: Libraries Are Not Museums". Library Journal : 103–104.
  17. ↑ Albanese, Andrew Richard (June 1, 2001). "Double-Edged: Is Nicholson Baker A Friend Of Libraries?". Library Journal .[ dead link ]
  18. ↑ "ALA Annual Conference 2001, San Francisco". ALA.
  19. 1 2 3 Cox, Richard J. (December 4, 2000). "The Great Newspaper Caper: Backlash in the Digital Age". First Monday. 5 (12). doi: 10.5210/fm.v5i12.822 .
  20. 1 2 Manoff, Marlene (October 2001). "The Symbolic Meaning of Libraries in a Digital Age". Libraries and the Academy. 1 (4): 371. doi:10.1353/pla.2001.0075. S2CID   145478361.
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