Volume 30, Issue 3

This issue of Microform & Imaging Review is somewhat unusual in that it is dedicated to a single book review: Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper by Nicholson Baker. For those who have read Baker's book or his article in the New Yorker , heard him discuss the book on television or radio, read one of the many reviews that have appeared in newspapers and magazines across the country or the comments and critiques on library listservs, or who attended American Library Association's Annual Conference in July, the rationale for this will be self-evident.

In Double Fold , Nicholson Baker starts out by telling the story of how he acquired a collection of American newspapers that was being de-accessioned by the British Library. Since weeding and de-accessioning are routine operations for nearly all libraries, the Library's decision was neither illicit nor shocking. Many repositories contribute duplicate issues of serials and other items weeded from their shelves to the United States Book Exchange (USBE), a “60 year old nonprofit organization which supplies back issues of scholarly periodicals, trade journals, popular magazines and other serials to libraries worldwide.” Libraries offer materials for sale to faculty, staff, book dealers and the general public. If this alarms you, you may need to become more familiar with the routine operating procedures of libraries. Moreover, even if there is a major shift in policy that will adequately fund the construction, maintenance and operation of additional facilities suitable for book and paper storage, libraries will continue to weed and de-accession. There is no such thing as keeping everything.