The Intrinsic Value of Archive and Library Material T. 2
2. Conversion with preservation of examples of the original: In this case analogue pictorial conversion can preserve the most important testimonial characteristics. Additional, not convertible testimonial features are repeated in the same way within the group of library and archive material identified by these criteria. They are sufficiently transmitted when some orignals remain as examples.
3. Complete conversion: Here the testimony of the items is not dependent on external formal features. They can be completely reproduced by analogue image representation. A particular form or their own unique transmission traces are not important for these items. In these cases textual conversion can also be considered, but only as an additional measure to increase the ease of use, not as a permanent form of preservation.
4. Testimony of unclarified or disputed authenticity or unestablished origin
Explanation: Proof as to the origin or authenticity of documents can often only be brought when the external formal features can be examined according to different criteria. Age and origin of the paper used, ductus of handwriting, or the ink used provide such evidence. The concrete need for analysable features can first be defined when comparable items are at hand. Conversion could impede any necessary examinations. In the case of large groups of items, for which an analysis of the external features can determine the origin, a few examples of the originals suffice.
Examples: Usually single blemished items of uncertain or destroyed provenance, uncertain or questionable authorship, proved or suspected forgeries (e.g. Hitler diaries).
5. Rarity and monetary value, great age, high market value, small number of extant copies
Explanation: Archive and library material can, for reasons of its origin and the particular importance given to it at the time of its production, be decorated or produced with particularly costly materials. A papal seal pressed in gold advertises both the importance of its owner and the matter endorsed by it. Alone the the great age of some archive and library material makes these of great importance and a small number of extant copies renders them even more valuable. These values lie beyond the features necessary for the understanding of library and archive material, but lend these items a particular character. Their value cannot be adequately preserved by conversion.
Examples: Imperial decrees, particularly splendid illuminated handwritten manuscripts, items decorated in gold or silver or with precious stones; rare items old at auction of which only a few are extant; valuable postage stamps on archive material; handwritten manuscripts from famous personalities, for example a Mozart composition.
6. Special effective value through a connection to historical events or personalities
Explanation: Some documents and historical items can establish a particular authenticity and a particularly effective connection to certain historical events and the persons concerned in them. This effective value is closely allied to the portance of the historical event and the importance attached to the people concerned. Its received importance can therefore change. It is similar to the exhibition value (see 7). However the prime aim of preserving the original is not to exhibit it. The effective value can also be communicated by means of a pictorial representation in a publication (not conversion), or by special exhibition for a particular occasion.
Examples: Constitutions of the states of the German Federal Republic in their sometimes very unimpressive external appearance; the Unification Treaty signed by Wolfgang Schäuble and Günther Krause; the note handed over during a television programme announcing the fall of the Berlin wall; food ration cards; founding documents of an institution; manuscripts of particular literary or scholarly texts and their first editions.
7. Didactic and exhibition value
Explanation: History classes in schools or adult education,the communication of historical background, and developments in exhibitions require demonstration material. Here objects are required which vividly illustrate an event or person, or an historical event, in a pictorial and graphic way. Curiosities and rare items fall into this category. These can overlap with other criteria, see above all 6.
Examples: Writing blocks, notched sticks, legal files containing items evidence, posters and pamphlets, individual passports, school reports, menues, entry tickets, autographs in autograph collections.
8. Legal evidence
Explanation: Archive and library collections can contain items which are legally obliged to be kept in their original form.
Examples: There is a legal obligation in some states that drafts of federal or state laws or communal constitutions, building files etc. be retained in their original. The destruction of the original after filming is prohibited in these cases. The obligatory publishers' copies for libraries usually presume the retention of the original.
9. Testimony as to the history of archive and library collections
Explanation: Older archive and library working material often contain handwritten additions and amendments that give information about additions to collections, their limitations or losses, and about previous ordering systems. They are frequently the only source of information for the reconstruction of the history of the collection. They can also be referred to for later description or research work. Archives sometimes contain administrative record lists as finding aids in which notes have been made regarding discarded items and inventorisation. The original can be necessary to interpret these traces of usage and so reconstruct the history of the material.
Examples: Old official manuals and archive registration books containing notes as to the processing of the material; old library (book) catalogues with deletions and amendments.
Several criteria can apply to one individual item. Where one of the criteria is satisfied the analysed item should be preserved in the original. The decision whether to convert it for use should be taken independently. In most cases, however, it is advisable in order that the valuable originals are only exposed to the dangers of use in unavoidable cases. They should only be made available for use in cases where the converted form is inadequate.
Image convertible archive and library material with preservation of some originals as examples:
The following documents and printed works have convertible testimonial quality when retention of examples of the originals enable the reconstruction of the testimonial characteristics possibly lost in conversion. It is above all items with repeated, uniform testimonial characteristics and multiple transmission of the external formal features which are suitable for this form of preservation.
To determine whether an item is unique or whether there is multiple transmission, the items within an institution can be investigated or the investigation can be carried out in cooperation with other equivalent libraries and archives. The prerequisite is the repetition of features of testimonial quality which can be clearly reconstructed for converted items on the basis of the items preserved in the original.
Should conversion be necessary for the preservation of a collection, the following kinds of archive and library material can be converted without loss of testimonial quality where samples of the original are preserved. Analogue image conversion cannot however, be replaced by digital or textual conversion without loss of testimonial quality and preservational function.
1. Journals and monographs
These are produced by a publisher. They are more or less deliberately given formal features on production, which are necessary for the comprehension of the published text. These features are repeated within an edition or over several editions. Most of these features are convertible or can be reconstructed for converted items on the basis of samples of the originals.
Criteria for the preservation of samples of originals:
Originals preserved as samples should above all be representative of a group of items. Further originals should be selected according to the list of criteria for the preservation of originals. With criterium 1 particular attention must be paid to certain publishers' productions.
Copyright libraries and specialist collections should be responsible for sample copies. Digitalisation or textual conversion cannot replace analogue image conversion for preservation purposes. It can, however, be employed in order to facilitate use and to protect the preserved originals.
2. Uniformly structured file collections in archives
These are created in areas where work procedures are similarly structured and which have uniform ordering of written material and uniform file composition. They can be arranged in chronological series of uniform script type or according to alphabetical or numerical references.
An exception is found in the mass of uniform parallel files of administrative authorities, which open with an application, often on a printed form, and close with a decision. They are identified in the archival appraisal as being of differing informational value but of the same testimonial quality. The informational value and parts of the evidential value can be imaged. Those parts which are not convertible can be reconstructed from the features of sample files retained in the original. Examples are: tax files, rent assistance files, social benefit files, social security files, planning permission files, official surveyers reports, technical permission and control procedures, examinations files of educational institutions, disciplinary proceedings.
Criteria for the preservation of samples of the originals:
Originals preserved as samples should be representative for the converted group of files. Further originals should be selected according to the list of criteria for the preservation of originals. Criterion 1 also applies to the file structure, so that particular kinds of files can be reconstructed in their original form.
Digitalisation or textual conversion cannot replace analogue image conversion for preservation purposes. It can, however, be employed to facilitate use and to protect the preserved originals.
3. Newspapers
Newspapers depend on time and place. They are produced to impart information directly and not for long-term preservation. This is why their preservation is particularly endangered. Their contents can in general be converted well by imaging. The non-convertible features can be reconstucted when a sample copy has been preserved.
Criteria for the preservation of sample copies
For national as well as regional and local editions an agreement should be reached among the archives and libraries concerned, so that one sample of every edition is preserved. Newspaper supplements should also always either be filmed or preserved as originals. Example: A daily newspaper with a town edition and several regional editions with differing supplements. All editions can be preserved as originals in their place of publication while being kept on film in other places, whereby in addition the respective supplements can be kept in the original.
The following documents and printed works have convertible testimonial quality, without the retention of sample originals being necessary. The value of the external features for the understanding of the user is here so minimal that, insofar as they are not reproducible, they can be dispensed with without loss of testimonial quality.
1. Doctoral theses
Doctoral theses are, due to their particular character as part of an examination, less dependent on external and formal features to support their contents than other publications. Some of them are first produced economically and without a publisher. Pictorial analogue representation can be supplemented by digital textual conversion for further distribution and increased ease of use. The stabilisation of the original form and its permanent evidence require pictorial analogue conversion even in the case of an original digital text.
It can be assumed that in exceptional cases in which for particular reasons the preservation of the original is mandatory, the university where the doctoral examination took place knows and fulfills the respective university examination regulations.
2. Collections of newspaper cuttings
These have usually been made before they are taken over by an archive or library. Their testimonial quality is not connected to external formal features. Their composition and material form, insofar as these are not reproducible, say nothing about their producer. When information is required regarding the publishing organ, this can be found elsewhere.
Blank forms
Convertible testimonial quality suffices where they have been identified as being worth keeping in an archive for special reasons, e.g. in order to reconstruct the grounds for a decision and the manner and kind of information required. Originals are found in the files of the proceedings for which they were designed or used.
3. Printouts of original statistical material
The printout on paper, COM or other analogue form, of data collected and processed by computer means, serves to stabilise and preserve it. If it cannot be used in this form a redigitalisation must be made possible and the preservation of the necessary software guaranteed.
4. Statistical questionnaires
Census questionnaires or forms for business statistics, forms and other questionnaires, are often produced on greatly endangered paper. If they have been identified as being worth preserving conversion suffices as the preservation measure, as it completely reproduces the evidential value.
5. Law gazettes and official printed matter, including parliamentary publications
Should the preservation of the original be necessary by law, this is carried out by the state or regional archive responsible for the territory. Otherwise complete conversion is possible.
6. Address and telephone books
These can be completely converted. Textual conversion endangers the stabilisation of certain historical circumstances. Pictorial analogue conversion can therefore also be used to preserve the contents even where the original was digitally produced.
Additional textual conversion for increased ease of use
An additional textual conversion can increase the ease of use of archive and library material. When employed, care must be taken that the original is not endangered or its condition impaired. Textual conversion takes place by writing down the contents, copying or electronic text recognition. Each of these methods can either unconsciously or consciously alter the text. Textual conversion cannot guarantee authenticity. Authentification, when necessary, must take place externally, as when legal certificates or deeds are legally verified by a notary. In the case of editions this is achieved through the scholarly reliability of the author or publishing institution. Textual conversion and, above all, digitalisation needs an external guarantee of reliability. However, the higher the requirement for reliability, so much more necessary is it that authenticity is externally guaranteed.
Sole effective proof of authenticity can only be given in pictorial analogue form. This is also the case for original digital texts.
1. Doctoral theses
Once their authenticity has been established in pictorial analogue form, the digital text can ensure wider accessibility and use, e.g. in the internet. Full text research and HTML connections in the text make the contents even more accessible.
2. Law gazettes and official printed matter including parliamentary publications
Textual conversion enhances ease of use specially for administrative work and public accessibility. Pictorial analogue form, however, is the only authentic proof of the legal force of the publication.
3. Address and telephone books
These are to some extent published directly in digital form. The digitalisation of old address books could considerably increase their use of ease, but it must be backed up by pictorial analogue representation to stabilise them.
4. Journals
Online subscription of journals or parts of them require pictorial analogue representation as security. Printed or substitute filmed editions enable greater ease of use through user-orientated digitalisation of parts of them.
Procedures for establishing intrinsic value
The establishment of intrinsic value for the employment of preservation methods is carried out for existing library and archive collections. Archival appraisal and description or the purchase by libraries and cataloguing have already taken place. Registers and catalogues can therefore be used to survey the collection. Should they not exist, some of the steps are more complicated.
All steps should be documented. This is best done by means of a form, as appended. The documentation should include the results of the analysis, reasons for decisions and explanations. It should be the basis for information in the register or reading room, with which the user and reader is informed about conversions, and where the connections between perhaps different storage areas, signatures and storage media are made clear.
- Establishment of the method of analysis (general,group or individual analysis)
- Preparation for the analysis: division into record groups with common features (time, production factors) or the putting together of the items to be investigated.
- Applying the criteria and establishing the intrinsic value
Establishment of the analysis method (general or individual analysis). Questions:
- Does the material (or group) contain uniform features throughout?
- Does it contain groups of documents with similar features, which can be investigated in general on the basis of samples?
- Is it completely lacking in uniformity?
- Uniform running times for administration documents and uniform production periods in the case of books. These allow conclusions as to uniform paper quality.
- Uniform script form and file forms (such as reference files, single case files, file series, mass uniform parallel files) in archives, and uniform production quality in the case of printed works (hardback, paperback, printout of theses, year of publication, country of publication etc.) in libraries. They indicate the probability of consistent care in the treatment of written material in an administration, and in production quality in the case of printed works.
- Uniform origin of administration documents of official authorities and of certain publishers in the case of printed works. This increases the probability of similar material quality and the form used.
- Uniform causality in written and printed works: documents from a particular field of work often have similarities, just as, for instance grey literature from one particular place of production and from a particular time.
When as many as possible of these four common features are present a general decision on the basis of sample analysis can be made for a group of written material or a collection. It ensures with sufficient certainty the representiveness of the analysis results for the whole group or collection. Where there is no agreement in the four categories a general decision cannot be made. In this case individual items must be examined.
The reason for the procedure used should form part of the documentation for the decision.
2nd Step
Formation of groups which can be analysed in general and the establishment of the criteria to be used.
3rd Step
Identification of those items which are to be preserved in the original and those items suitable for conversion, including documentation of the selection procedure.
For the selection of those items of a group to be preserved in the original:
- Where in the collection is there exceptional material which could have market value? Could files contain valuable additional material or postage stamps?
- Can one expect to find old material in the files, such as mediaeval deeds? Are there notes, letters or autographs to be found in the books of an author's library? Are there manuscript versions in a collection of private papers which show the genesis of printed works?
- Are there enclosures or additions of artistic value, such as special bindings, hand-drawn maps and plans, hand-coloured drawings?
- Does the group contain documents which according to the register are of uncertain origin or authorship?
- Are the documents and printed works particularly old or do they span large periods?
- Have the documents or books played a role in particular historical events? Were they used by famous people? Important here is the particular authenticity of the originals, which can allow a direct vivid connection to the events.
- Are there items particularly suitable for display or teaching purposes?
- Are there legal regulations which specifically demand the preservation of the original and do not permit replacement with microfilm forms?
- Do the items contain unusual handwritten coloured markings?
- Should watermarks remain visible? For the preservation of samples in the original:
- Are there particular forms of stitching or production forms of books, which are not normally used but are clearly typical for this corpus?
- Are there no similar forms to be found elsewhere?
- Are there much-used form sheets, of which some should be preserved in the original?
- Should in the case of parallel files the typical form be preserved?
- Should for other reference files or book forms a typical sample demonstrate the usual procedures with the documents?
Peter Z. Adelstein: Study of Historical Records at the National Archives, Washington, D.C. In: Proceedings of the International Symposium: Conservation in Archives, Ottawa, Canada May 110-12, 1988, Hrsg. v. ICA, Paris 1989, S. 173-179.
Susan Aramayo, Gertrud Schenck, Dieter Schmidmaier und Elisabeth Simon (Hrsg.): Bestandssicherung und Bestandsrestaurierung - ein Einblick in die praktische Arbeit. Restoration and Preservation - A practical approach. Referate des internationalen Kolloquiums in Berlin, 10. - 12.10.1990, dbi-materialien 114, Berlin 1992.
Bestandserhaltung in wissenschaftlichen Bibliotheken. Verfahren und Maßnahmen zur Rettung der vom Papierzerfall bedrohten Bibliotheksbestände. Studie der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek im Auftrag der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft, bearb. von Maria Mann, bdi-materialien 135, Berlin 1994.
Blaubeurener Empfehlungen. Empfehlungen für die Restaurierung und Konservierung von Archiv- und Bibliotheksgut. In: Hartmut Weber (Hrsg.) Bestandserhaltung in Archiven und Bibliotheken. Werkhefte der staatlichen Archivverwaltung Baden-Württemberg, Serie A, Heft 2, Stuttgart 1992, S. 157-170.
Philip C. Brooks: The Selection of Records for Preservation, in: American Archivist, Vol.3, 1940, S. 211-234
Alan Calmes: Preservation Priorities for Textual (Paper) Records at the United States National Archives, in: Committee on Conservation and Restoration (ICA/CCR) Committee on Archival Reprography (ICA/CRA) Bulletin No. 1, Madrid 1982/1983, S. 35 ff.
Marianne Dörr und Hartmut Weber: Digitalisierung als Mittel der Bestandserhaltung? Abschlußbericht einer Arbeitsgruppe der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft, in: Zeitschrift für Bibliothekswesen und Bibliographie Jg. 44 (1997) H. 1, S. 55 - 78.
Jacques Grimard: Mass Deacidification: Universal Cure or Limited Solution? In: American Archivist, Vol. 57, 1994, S. 674-679.
Intrinsic Value in Archival Material, NARS Staff Information Paper 21, Washington 1982
Kommission des DBI für Bestandserhaltung: Kriterienkatalog für bestandssichernde Maßnahmen der Bibliotheken, erscheint 1997 in der Reihe des dbi-Materialien des Deutschen Bibliotheksinstituts
Hans Martin Maurer: Wie lange noch Sicherungsverfilmung? Ein archivalisches Ausleseproblem. In: Der Archivar, 18. Jg., 1965, Sp. 15-28.
Mikrofilm-Recht. Sammlungen von Rechtsvorschriften und sonstigen Regelungen zur Mikroverfilmung. Herausgegeben von der AWV - Arbeitsgemeinschaft für wirtschaftliche Verwaltung e.V. Eschborn 1988.
James M. O'Toole: On the Idea of Uniqueness. In: American Archivist, Vol.57, 1994, S. 632-658.
Papierzerfall - Bericht über Ursachen, Ausmaß, Wirkungen und Folgen des Papierzerfalls im Bibliotheks-, Archiv- und Verwaltungsbereich sowie Gegenmaßnahmen und Empfehlungen, hrsg. von der Bund-Länder-Arbeitsgruppe Papierzerfall, Berlin 1992.
Werner Schwartz (Hrsg): Bestandserhalt durch Konversion: Mikroverfilmung und alternative Technologien. Beiträge zu drei Fachtagungen des EU-Projekts MICROLIB (Göttinger Bibliotheksschriften 7) Göttingen 1995. Abschlußbericht des MICOLIB - Projektes des niedersächsischen Ministeriums für Wissenschaft und Kunst zur Erhaltung von Bibliotheksgut durch Mikroverfilmung.
Ulla Usemann-Keller: Entwicklung von Konzepten zur Bestandserhaltung, in: Sabine Wefers, Hrsg, Ressourcen nutzen für neue Aufgaben. 89. Deutscher Bibliothekartag in Erlangen 1966, Zeitschrift für Bibliothekswesen und Bibliographie, Sonderhefte 66, Frankfurt 1997, S. 329-335.
Hartmut Weber und Gerd Brinkhus: Bestandserhaltung als gemeinsame Aufgabe der Archive und Bibliotheken. Eine Konzeption zur Lösung eines fast unlösbaren Problems, in: ABI-Technik, Zeitschrift für Automation, Bau und Technik im Archiv-, Bibliotheks- und Informationswesen, 9. Jg., 1989, S. 285-296.
Hartmut WEBER: Erhalten von Archivgut. Möglichkeiten und Wirtschaftlichkeitsaspekt, in: Gregor Richter (Hrsg.) Aus der Arbeit des Archivars. Festschrift für Eberhard Gönner, Stuttgart 1986, S.Ê43-66
Hartmut WEBER: Rechtsfragen und Wirtschaftlichkeitsüberlegungen beim Mikrofilmeinsatz, in: Der Archivar, 41. Jg., 1988, Sp. 85-95.
Hartmut WEBER: Verfilmen oder Instandsetzen? Schutz- und Ersatzverfilmung im Dienste der Bestandserhaltung, in: Hartmut Weber (Hrsg.), Bestandserhaltung in Archiven und Bibliotheken, Werkhefte der staatlichen Archivverwaltung Baden-Württemberg, Serie A, Heft 2, Stuttgart 1992, S. 91-133.
Hartmut WEBER: Bewertung, Konservierung und Konversion. Strategien zur Sicherung der langfristigen Zugänglichkeit zur archivalischen Überlieferung. In: Choosing to Preserve. Towards a Cooperative Strategy for Long-Term Access to the Intellectual Heritage, Amsterdam 1996, S. 136-149.
© 2005 
Uhde@staff.uni-marburg.de, Stand: 01.07.2001