This guide presents information on planning and managing microfilming projects, incorporating co-operative programmes, service bureaux and the impact of automation for library staff with deteriorating collections.

Microform, Video and Electronic Media Librarianship focuses on techniques, measures, and processes in librarianship. The book first discusses librarianship, microforms and microform librarianship, non-book media in libraries, and history of microforms. The text also looks at the place of microforms in libraries. User reaction to microforms; economic advantages of microform acquisitions; and contrast, resolution, and density of microforms are discussed. The book also discusses micropublishing. Changes in publishing methods, abstracting and indexing services, bibliographical services, archives, synoptic journals, and government reports are described. The text underscores library catalogues. British National Bibliography; Scottish Libraries Co-operative Automation Project (SCOLCAP); South West Academic Libraries Co-operative Automation Project (SWALCAP); and benefits of computer-based cataloguing systems are discussed. The book also looks at data services, copyright laws, relationship of information technology and libraries, and archival potential of non-book media. The text is a good reference for readers interested in librarianship.

The ostensible purpose of a library is to preserve the printed word. But for fifty years our country’s libraries–including the Library of Congress–have been doing just the opposite, destroying hundreds of thousands of historic newspapers and replacing them with microfilm copies that are difficult to read, lack all the color and quality of the original paper and illustrations, and deteriorate with age. With meticulous detective work and Baker’s well-known explanatory power, Double Fold reveals a secret history of microfilm lobbyists, former CIA agents, and warehouses where priceless archives are destroyed with a machine called a guillotine. Baker argues passionately for preservation, even cashing in his own retirement account to save one important archive–all twenty tons of it. Written the brilliant narrative style that Nicholson Baker fans have come to expect, Double Fold is a persuasive and often devastating book that may turn out to be The Jungle of the American library system.