PRESERVING THE HISTORY OF U. S. AGRICULTURE AND RURAL LIFE
AN N.E.H. FUNDED GRANT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
Quarterly report
October to December 2000
February 9, 2001
Mary Ochs
Head of Collection Development
USAIN/NEH Preservation Project Director
Joy Paulson
Preservation Librarian
Mann Library
Cornell University
Dear Mary and Joy,
The last three months of 2000 saw a flurry of activity on the USAIN grant at the University of Florida. In addition to completing the document cataloging, we filmed our 1,500th volume, bringing us to 85% of our target goal of filmed volumes. Funds were shifted between Cornell and the University and back again. Cataloging of the resultant film began in earnest and conversations with Dan Lech at the National Agriculture Library regarding shipping of service positives were held. While we did not finish the filming as I had hoped we would, we did make significant progress. The first four months of 2001 should allow us the breathing room necessary to film the remaining 249 volumes.
Gathering:
By this phase of the project, 99% of the volumes had been physically gathered from the various libraries on the University of Florida campus. As mentioned in earlier reports, the National Agriculture Library (NAL) was able to release many of their Florida specific agricultural serial titles to us with the understanding that since the NAL would be getting a service positive of the film, UF could disbind and withdraw the NAL copies post filming. Since many UF collection managers were reluctant to loosen their local holdings of tightly bound copies of these same titles, this windfall from the NAL proved to be a real boon to the quality of the film we produced.
Attempts
to gather volumes ranked in the bibliography via InterLibrary Loan from non-UF
libraries were made during the spring and summer quarters. While neither format
came in all that frequently, monographs seemed to be easier to procure than
serials. In many cases, the
libraries that held the piece we requested had placed the volumes in their
Special Collections. Jacksonville
Public Library, the University of Miami and North Caroline State University,
just to name three, all owned titles that we needed but refused to send us the
volumes we requested. Mainly this
was due to their individual policies of non-circulation of Special Collection
materials. However, curatorial
concerns about the necessary extended circulation period, the possible damage to
the volume caused by the microfilming process itself and the degraded condition
of the originals also limited the number of volumes we received from non-UF
libraries.
Cataloging of the original documents:
Susan Constantineau, the cataloger hired in January to concentrate on the USAIN project, completed the necessary cataloging of the original paper documents by the end of her one year contract in December. Ms. Constantineau spent the vast majority of her time these last three months on serials.
Filming:
We filmed our 1,500th volume late in December. The 1,500th volume was from the serial entitled Florida Cattleman. This particular serial was issued monthly and as the years progressed it became thicker and thicker. Eventually, a single volume was taking up an entire reel of microfilm. This fact played serious havoc with our finances. (See Budget section below.) Realizing by mid-Fall that the thickness of the various serial issues would doom us to missing the December 2000 deadline, we decided to pull in a second camera for non-serial filming. We were able to film 328 additional monographs and pamphlets by late in the year. This left us approximately 249 volumes short of the 1,749 filmed volumes goal indicated in the original grant proposal. As we have finally finished the Cattleman, and are currently filming a run of shorter annual reports for institutions such as the Florida Anti-Mosquito Control Association and the United States Sugar Corporation, I am hopeful that the last 249 volumes will be filmed by the end of April.
Cataloging of the resultant film reels:
Cataloging of the resultant film began in October. A student worker, working in close conjunction with the Head of the Reprographics Unit, creates a new OCLC record based on the record for the paper title. She adds what we refer to as ‘constant data’ to the paper record, mutating it to include new fields such as:
§ An 007 field (three times) containing information pertaining to the three generations of film.
§ A 533 field identifying the filming agent
§ An 037 field identifying the distribution agent.
§ An 830 field adding the series statement line “USAIN State and Local Literature Preservation Project, Florida.”
Adding this information to the OCLC film record will allow scholars at other institutions to use InterLibrary Loan or actually acquire the titles for their research. We have a staff member in the Department with specific responsibilities in this area so institutions looking to acquire this and other UF film have a dedicated distribution contact here at the University of Florida.
Storage:
During the Fall quarter, serious discussions began with Dan Lech regarding proper shipment procedures for the microfilm positives (4P) produced for deposit at NAL. Mr. Lech and I have spoken repeatedly about the best possible work flow regarding these reels. There were some initial concerns about shipping them to the NAL before the OCLC cataloging was complete. With these issues resolved, the reels duplicated up to this point should be transferred to the NAL sometime in the spring. Reels produced during the spring will be shipped after the appropriate OCLC film records are created.
Budget:
In August, the Head of the
Reprographics Unit and myself had analyzed the amount of funds dedicated to the
USAIN grant remaining in UF coffers. We determined, based on volume per reel
estimates from the spring and summer quarters, that we would be able to reach
our goal of 1,749 volumes cataloged and filmed with less money than originally
intended. Therefore, in late
September, the original contract between UF and Cornell was amended to lower the
award amount from Cornell to UF from $100,565 to $85,480. (It was hoped that the
extra money could be distributed to other states to allow them to film more
titles.) Unfortunately, while we had backed off our volumes per reel estimate
dramatically when deciding to return some of the funds, we did not foresee the
possibility that one volume might fill up an entire reel.
For instance, in the first six months of filming monographs, pamphlets
and dissertations, we got an average of 8 to 9 volumes per reel.
In July, August and September, as we began to venture into serials, we
saw an average of 3 volumes per reel. Thus,
our estimates for fiscal needs in October, November and December were based on 3
volumes per reel. When the volumes
started filling an entire reel in late October (see Filming section above), our
volume count dropped while costs stayed even.
The extra money we had anticipated in August evaporated in
October/November.
When I mentioned this turn of
events to Mary in early December, she graciously agreed to send me back half of
the money I had returned in September. (The
other half had, in fact, supported filming of some Home Economics pamphlets in
Nebraska.) On December 27, 2000 the award was amended again to show a final
award total of $92,980. These funds
will allow the University of Florida to continue processing and duplication on
the reels produced in spring 2001. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mary again for
her flexibility and willingness to work with me on this issue.
Thanks for allowing me this opportunity to update you on our work during the October-December 2000 quarter. If you have any further questions, comments or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me at cathy@mail.uflib.ufl.edu or call 352-392-6962.
Sincerely,
Cathleen
L. Mook
Head, Preservation Department
Primary Investigator, USAIN grant
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611
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