HANDLING AND PRESERVATION

One of the principal goals of digitally converting historical and rare materials is to preserve the knowledge contained in them long after the lifetime of the physical container. Ironically, the very act of scanning these materials can cause damage to the physical artifacts if care is not taken in handling and treatment. In the library community, there has always been talk of the tension between preservation and access. To preserve treasures, they must be safeguarded, kept away from light and stress, and used only under restricted circumstances. Digital libraries seem to provide a solution to this problemūthe possibility of creating facsimile digital images and distributing them widely while sheltering the original artifact from prolonged abuse. Institutions such as Keio University's HUMI Project and the Tsukuba University Library exhibit admirable leadership to the library community by submitting their treasures to the scanning process. Tsukuba University Library and the National Diet Library have stated they plan to rescan materials repeatedly as greater storage space, high speed networks, and higher quality display technology allow for superior images. In the United States this idea has not been expressed due to preservation, cost, and labor considerations. To retain knowledge in materials published on paper and other unstable media, handling and preservation concerns are significant factors to face when considering the possibility of a global digital library.