Fringe Or Grey Literature in the National Library: on "Papyrolatry" and the Growing Similarity Between the Materials in Libraries and Archives LISE HESSELAGER

American Archivist/Volume 47, No. 3/Summer 1984 255 Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/47/3/255/2747170/aarc_47_3_l631t82130464n07.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021

Fringe or Grey literature in the National Library: On "Papyrolatry" and the Growing Similarity Between the Materials in Libraries and Archives LISE HESSELAGER

Abstract: The amassing of a national collection of books and related materials has been a continuing objective ever since the enactment of the first legal deposit law, the Ordonnance de Montpellier of 1537. There are various degrees of comprehensiveness, from deposit only in connection with copyright, to deposit of all printed information (and, by analogy, information in any other medium). The information revolution of the twentieth century is closely associated with the media revolution, and by 1984 permanent preservation of all information in national repositories has become a Utopian goal. Modern reprography and new media have changed the materials of archives and libraries and complicated the distinction between them. Reprography has created problems of definition for Scandinavian national libraries, whose collections are based on deposit from printers. Much of the grey, or non-conventional, literature that is presently being discussed by information scientists can be identified as documents that were formerly reserved for the archives. It is suggested that archivists and librarians cooperate in defining their fields of collection and in revising their methodologies in the light of new technology, in order to cope with the massive amounts of material.

About the author: Lise Hesselager was born in Denmark and received her cand. mag. degree in English and French from the University of Copenhagen. She works as academic librarian in the Royal Library (the Danish national library) in Copenhagen. Recent publications are: "An In- troduction to the International Serials Data System" (1978) and and article on legal deposit, "The Dust of One Age Is the Gold of Another" (1980), both in Nordisk tidskriftfor bok- och biblioteksvasen. A paper presented at a seminar on legal deposit in Vienna was published in Bulletin/Ligue des Bibliotheques Europeennes de Recherche in 1982. 256 American Archivist/Summer 1984

THE CONSTANTLY GROWING MASS OF legitimacy of preserving at high cost a FRINGE OR SO-CALLED GREY LITERATURE IS rather casual selection of semi-published causing problems in national libraries, and rapidly deteriorating material in

which have a legal obligation to preserve libraries that work sub specie aeter- Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/47/3/255/2747170/aarc_47_3_l631t82130464n07.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 a nation's literature. Included in the nitatis. The problem also calls for category of fringe literature is casual, or cooperation among librarians and ar- semi-published, material, such as a chivists to decide cases of borderline ac- photocopy of a manuscript, or a type- ceptability in order to avoid a duplication written copy given a booklike appearance of effort as well as the loss of important through modern reprography. Grey material. National libraries, which usual- literature is produced and presented ly must keep what other libraries shed, through other than conventional com- are generally libraries of last resort; but in mercial print publishing channels, and its the case of grey material, the situation arrival at a national library calls for may be reversed. Special libraries and special evaluation. This is seen especially documentation agencies may have to col- in Scandinavian national libraries whose lect what the national libraries shed, in collections are based on legal deposit the interest of Universal Bibliographic from printers. This impression that some Control (UBC).' archival material has acquired a booklike During periods of economic recession, appearance is confirmed through contact there is a tendency to give the national with house printers of state and local museum function lower priority than the government institutions. The amount of functions serving the immediate needs of grey literature that reaches national the user community. Consequently, ar- libraries is probably only the tip of the chivists and librarians have other mutual iceberg, and this raises the question of the interests in addition to similarity of

'Grey literature is vaguely defined as non-conventional or informally published literature. Grey literature developed as a result of modern society's need for speedy information and the development within reprography. Its characteristics were summarized in "Working with Non-conventional Literature," Jour- nal of Information Science 5 (December 1982): 124; N.W. Posnett and W.J. Baulkwill: "The non- conventional document is often physically large, produced for a small group of users and distributed free or under exchange agreements. It is frequently not traced by documentation services, including commercial ones. Accessibility is often difficult even in the country of origin. A non-conventional document may cover any subject. It may be serial or non-serial. Its content may be of the highest (or lowest) quality. ... Many characteristics of non-conventional literature have resulted from one of its major strengths, the com- paratively high speed of production, often associated with in-house printing." The best known type of non-conventional literature, irrespective of discipline, is technical or scientific report literature; but information scientists admit that in practice the term is open-ended. The meaning of the term is relative, depending on the coverage by subject bibliographies, special libraries, and documentation services within a certain subject field, and also on the comprehensiveness and effectiveness of the legal deposit system within a given country. So far, national libraries have not participated much in the lively debate on grey literature, though national libraries in France and Scandinavia, with highly developed deposit systems, are acutely aware of the problem involved in its collection and preservation. Brigitte Picheral, the French delegate at the seminar of legal deposit specialists in Vienna in 1981, stated: "Mais ces problemes, qui concernent la technique de 1' imprime comme sa diffusion amenent a parler du document limite, justement, soumis au depot legal de 1' imprime, celui-la reconnu sous le nom de litterature grise. Creee a la fois par la multiplication des procedes de reproduction et des modes de diffusion, liee a la necessite et au besoin contemporain d' information rapide (theses non imprimees de facon classique, working-papers, rapports techniques, tracts ...) peuvent represented certes, un element fondamental pour la recherche. Mais par ailleurs, les supports de cette categorie de documents sont souvent fragiles, leur con- tenu souvent rapidement depasse par definition, leur existence difficilement reperable. Peuvent-ils reelle- ment entrer dans 1' organisation systematique d' un depot legal centralise? Et ne serait-ce pas plutot le role de bibliotheques de recherche specialisees que de rassembler et de faire connaitre un certain nombre d' entre-eux?" ("Pflichtexemplargesetzgebung" Bulletin/ Ligue des Bibliotheques Europeennes de Recherche 18 (1982): 20. Fringe Literature 257

material. Both are concerned with the jobbing printing of all kinds, diaries, and lack of funds; the need for inexpensive, similar ephemera.3 Others disagree with automated techniques for low-level the old formal objective of preserving all cataloging of single items; and the printed documents and contend that only Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/47/3/255/2747170/aarc_47_3_l631t82130464n07.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 desirability of collective description of the best products of the age and of the aggregations of items. Collective descrip- nation should be preserved.4 In countries tion may be appropriate and even with a different tradition, the choice of preferable for certain types of library reproduction method is thought to be ir- material issued by corporate bodies, and relevant; and literature is defined as the data bases of the future should be publications reproduced in multiple designed to accept both types of descrip- copies, in any form or medium, for sale, tion. The word printed is no longer lease, or free distribution, whether synonymous with the word published. general or limited. Thus, one chief Therefore, librarians may have to adopt characteristic of library material seems to archival practices such as cooperation be its lack of uniqueness, with a few sub- with depositors, sampling, and the prepa- tle exceptions such as a single copy of a ration of disposal schedules. book produced for a special occasion.5 Apart from such exceptions, a book National Library Material usually exists in a varying number of Most national libraries, with varying identical copies; but this has not always degrees of emphasis,2 perform dual func- been so. In the past, books were in manu- tions of preserving the records of na- script form; and traditionally the manu- tional culture and providing an interna- script was included in the national tional collection of high quality. What- library, even if it later ceased to be ever other function a national library regarded as a book. Many libraries still may undertake, the collection of the na- have large holdings of such manuscripts, tion's literature is its primary respon- which they usually shelve and catalog sibility. The depository libraries, which separately. Even the introduction of typ- have as their primary function a legal ing initially caused no great confusion. obligation to collect the literature of the The reproduction of a work in a limited nation, may well be expected to know number of copies probably did not in- what that obligation entails. Opinions duce the librarian to regard it as a vary on this matter, however. Some publication; and even if on occasion he maintain that obviously printed literature decided that an item did not belong in the must be fully covered, although there is manuscript division of the library—as some division of opinion about the value might be the case when a doctoral thesis of the national library retaining such was reproduced in this manner—such items as local newspapers, book jackets, cases could be easily dealt with and clear- 2Donald Davinson, Academic and Legal Deposit Libraries (Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books and Clive Bingley, 1969), p.7. JK.W. Humphreys, "National Library Functions," UNESCO Bulletin for Libraries 20 (1966): 159. 4M. Joborn, "The Function of the National Library in the Hungarian Library System," Libri 23 (1973): 159. 'Some remarkable examples exist, all of which were presented to Danish royalty. In 1578 the illustrious printer Lorenz Benedict produced a book on military science, the only copy of which is possessed by the Royal Library in Denmark. The contents of the book easily explain its uniqueness. Another famous example is a Greenlandic post-incunabula work produced by Hinrich Rink in 1861, with a very circumstantial though modest title, containing samples of Greenlandic drawing. Even in the twentieth century we find an example that defies legal deposit stipulations: a uniquely illustrated edition of Ogier le Dannoys's Roman en prose du XVe siecle was presented to Queen Margrethe in 1967. 258 American Archivist/Summer 1984

ly defined, and exceptions could be made printers were a well defined group; but to the general rule. On the whole, this is no longer true. During the latter librarians are accustomed to regard decades of this century, modern repro-

manuscripts (including perhaps type- duction methods have caused significant Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/47/3/255/2747170/aarc_47_3_l631t82130464n07.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 scripts) as distinctly different from changes in library material. Since modern printed material, published or unpub- printing began with the appearance of the lished. Librarians commonly define Gutenberg Bible, which competed in literary material by its form and acquired grace with any illuminated manuscript, attributes; thus an item with sheets the noble art of printing has degenerated fastened together and provided with a ti- into a varied number of industrialized tle page containing information for bibli- printing methods. The products of this ographic description is considered to be a industry shocked Lauritz Nielsen, the book. venerable Danish librarian, who more Quite naturally, the wording of the than 50 years ago spoke with disgust of laws of legal deposit, which usually em- the industrial products of the printing 6 phasized the external characteristics of presses. Furthermore, with the introduc- library material (publication and/or tion of offset lithography, which is used reproduction method, formerly synon- inside as well as outside ordinary printing ymous with printing), supported the in- establishments, the borderline between clination of librarians to attach more im- printing and other reproduction pro- portance to form than to matter. Later, cesses has been blurred; and the inter- when the art of printing became a less ex- pretation of the acts of legal deposit in clusive industry, especially in countries Scandinavia, and in other countries with where printers and not publishers were legal deposit from printers, has become mainly responsible for the deposit, it was increasingly complicated. thought necessary to make exceptions to Because the old criteria have become the general rule of the laws of legal less reliable, it seems reasonable to ask deposit. The exceptions were greatly in- whether or not they should be supplanted fluenced by the library tradition of by those of an Anglo-Saxon tradition, ac- categorizing a publication by its form. A cording to which only published material few examples of exclusions will illustrate must be deposited. There are several this point. Timetables, for instance, reasons not to choose that solution, might be excluded, whether or not they however. For one thing, neither "pub- contained a whole survey of the national lished" nor "publisher" is a well defined railway traffic, with no considerations term. In how many copies should an item for the needs of future historians. be reproduced to qualify for definition as Popular ditties written for family occa- a publication? Does the term publication sions might be excluded—even those include such materials as research reports written by outstanding authors. Reprints, and conference papers and such semi- regardless of their contents, might also be formal materials as internal memoranda excluded. and files of correspondence, notes of Before the twentieth century, printing meetings, and similar items? According establishments were few, and the printing to a policy statement approved by direc- of a book was a costly affair. The defini- tors of national libraries, the term tion of library material did not concern "publisher" includes not only book the librarian. Until relatively recently, publishers, booksellers, and state

'Lauritz Nielsen, Pligtafleveringen til vore biblioteker (Copenhagen: Hagerup, 1923). Fringe Literature 259

publishing and distributing organizations with forms and reports might be called but also universities, research associa- "papyrolatry." The new media are now tions, academic institutes, professional slowly reaching the national libraries,

bodies, commercial and industrial com- which, unlike the archives, have not been Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/47/3/255/2747170/aarc_47_3_l631t82130464n07.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 panies, film and phonograph record pro- forced into accepting them. More recent- ducers and distributors, microform pub- ly, however, we seem to be moving from lishing agencies, and organizations papyrolatry to paperless. F.W. Lan- publishing in magnetic tape and elec- caster, in his book on paperless informa- tronic form. (This list is by no means ex- tion systems, states that the paperless haustive.7) The broad adoption of this system is intended to provide for elec- publication criterion would only add to tronic access to all types of documents the confusion that already exists. In addi- read for their information value; but the tion, this criterion seems much too system is not intended to replace print on restrictive, especially in small countries, paper for items read solely for recrea- which can afford to have high ideals with tional purposes. Playboy magazine, for respect to preserving the national example, is not likely to be enhanced by literature. By this criterion, the national "soft-copy" display. A reviewer of Lan- libraries would be deprived of much caster's book disagrees, however, not printed material that is now very much in only with the serious intent of demand. Consequently, the traditions of Lancaster's statement, but also with the more than three centuries have been re- lighthearted example; and the reviewer tained, and printer's deposit is still the concludes that entertainment uses may basic principle in the new legal deposit even surpass more serious uses in elec- laws in Iceland (1977), Sweden (1978), tronic dissemination and market develop- and Finland (1980). Printer's deposit is ment as display-screen resolution is im- supplemented by publisher's deposit of proved.8 material produced abroad. Although the age of papers may be a It appears, then, that national libraries transition, this does not eliminate the face two prodigious problems: How are problem of coping with the immediate they to cope with the mass of materials, situation. It does not seem satisfactory to and what is to be regarded as national exclude types of material by introducing literature that should be preserved for value judgments, since little of the new future generations? Viewing the burgeon- material belongs in the category of trivia. ing of paperwork during World War II, More to the point would be a survey of the Washington Post suggested in 1942 the entire Documentation, Library, and 9 that the era might be known as the "age Archives (DLA) area to consider of papers" and that its preoccupation possibilities of cooperation and to ensure

"'The Role of National Libraries in National and International Information Systems," UNESCO Bulletin for Libraries 31 (1977): 12. 'Charles T. Meadow, review of Toward Paperless Information Systems by F.W. Lancaster, Library Quarterly 49 (July 1979): 327. 'The Documentation, Library, and Archive (DLA) area is part of the concept of the National Informa- tion System (NATIS), which comprises all the agencies, resources, processes, and activities involved in the transfer of information in a nation. The task of NATIS is to ensure that all engaged in political, economic, scientific, educational, social, or cultural activities receive information that will enable them to render their fullest contribution to the whole community. This concept was promoted by UNESCO and accepted by the 1974 Intergovernmental Conference on the Planning of National Documentation, Library and Archives In- frastructures. The background of this initiative was the information explosion in the twentieth century. For example, it was calculated that the production and distribution of knowledge accounted for 29 percent of the U.S. gross national product in 1958, 33 percent in 1963, and nearly 40 percent in 1968 (UNESCO Bulletin for Libraries 31 [1977]: 8-12). 260 American Archivist/Summer 1984

that no unnecessary duplication of effort chives. A few of the archives represented takes place. Since national libraries and receive none of these publications, while national archives share the obligation to some receive a selection and others re-

preserve recorded information for the ceive all. It is also noteworthy that some Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/47/3/255/2747170/aarc_47_3_l631t82130464n07.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 future, some attention will obviously of the archives described government focus on the archives. publications individually according to library principles, while others did so col- lectively according to archival What Is Archival Material? principles.10 Archivists and librarians have very dif- The definition of archival material—as ferent approaches to their material. Ar- far as its form is concerned—is obviously chivists usually do not make clear distinc- a rather flexible one. Hilary Jenkinson, tions between printed (even published) the famous British archivist, discussed and unprinted records, and they do not the problems involved in material an- always catalog or shelve them separately. nexed to documents, problems not This is illustrated by a report from an in- unknown to librarians. He illustrated the ternational conference of archivists in problems by a reductio ad absurdum, by which the fundamental differences be- describing the dilemma of a viceroy from tween library and archival material were India sending home to the Secretary of discussed. The question was considered England an elephant with a suitable cover too abstract, and there was doubt about letter or label. Is the elephant attached to the legitimacy of asking it. According to the label or the label to the elephant? the English representatives, the distinc- Jenkinson's own solution to the problem tion was often nebulous, uncertain, and, does not seem to amuse him in the slight- in practice, ignored. The Portuguese est: the administration would be obliged representatives felt it was difficult to base to solve the question of housing and to the distinction between the materials of send the elephant to the zoo long before libraries and archives on rigid principles. the label or letter came into the There was virtual unanimity in the con- archives." clusion that the deciding factor was not New developments have changed the whether or not a document was printed. general appearance of archival records, Even the publication criterion was not ac- as was pointed out in the introduction to cepted unanimously as a determining fac- the 1965 edition of Jenkinson's manual. tor. The question had not been given Ministries and agencies have expanded much thought. Some representatives said and proliferated, with a corresponding the publication criterion was a determin- enormous increase in the quantity of ing factor but added that the rights of the records generated and held for reference. archives always should be reserved. The Moreover, the larger the office the more representatives of The Netherlands re- it must depend upon artificial, rather jected both the publication and the print- than personal, communication and ing criteria and argued that the only ac- memory. The mechanical and electronic ceptable element of distinction was that means of writing, reproducing, record- the archival documents be unique. Gov- ing, and retrieving information, which ernment publications were not excluded have developed to satisfy this need, have from the sphere of interest of the ar- also swelled the archives with material

l°Le Concept d' Archives et les Frontieres de I' Archivistique. Actes de la Septieme Conference de la Table Ronde Internationale des Archives (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale 1963), p.35. "Hilary Jenkinson, A Manual of Archive Administration (London, 1922, reissued 1937 and 1965). Fringe Literature 261

duplicated and circulated on a scale not uniqueness and individuality and are ac- contemplated by Jenkinson. The same quiring many of the characteristics of a office machinery has also produced publication. The process of reproduc- records in new shapes—sound record- tion frequently carries with it certain Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/47/3/255/2747170/aarc_47_3_l631t82130464n07.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 ings, photographic film, punched cards, aspects of a publication, such as title, punched and magnetic tape, and micro- imprint, and sometimes even a table of copies of every kind upon card and film contents. Conversely, often a repro- —which, while they may contribute less duced publication loses finish in the than duplicated papers to the bulk of the making and acquires the appearance of a archives, nevertheless present the ar- hastily produced document. This type of chivist with new and formidable prob- reproduction contains limited and in- lems of storage, handling, and interpreta- complete facts for library bibliographic tion. While the bulk of the records description. The poor quality of many generated in every office thus tends to in- reproduced publications and the increas- crease, so the sources of the national ar- ing lack of individuality in the presenta- chives have multiplied. To records of the tion of the written word may be regret- governmental departments which Jenkin- ted for aesthetic reasons. More impor- son had in mind when writing his manual tantly, the difficulty of distinguishing must now be added those of the enlarged between library and archival material, local government authorities, those of combined with the impossibility of cop- para-governmental bodies such as the ing with the amount of material, reveals British Transport Commission, those of the urgent need for librarians and ar- public corporations such as the British chivists to more precisely define the con- Broadcasting Corporation, and those of cepts of their material. This is true not the great business houses whose activities only of texts on paper, but of informa- and influence have become a powerful tion in the new media as well. (It is national force. The records of the nation hoped, however, that the authors of a have grown in bulk and complexity Finnish report on legal deposit are cor- beyond even Jenkinson's vision in 1937, rect in maintaining that it is fairly easy when his manual was reissued. to distinguish between published and un- published audiovisual material.'2) Similarities and Differences Archivists may not feel the need for Today's busy modern civil servant has precise definition of material, because no time for producing holograph docu- they have never attached as much impor- ments. Rather, he uses every modern tance to form as to matter. Also, they contraption for communication; and have other matters to consider, such as modern democracy—and also evidential value of records (the relation bureaucracy—often requires that multi- of one record to another), which may ple copies of documents be produced for prevent them from discarding items distribution among colleagues, generally considered to be library superiors, other departments, and in- material. One archivist, however, seems terested parties. Two opposite tenden- to have reflected on problems of distinc- cies, therefore, work in the same direc- tion when discussing research in ar- tion, making records (archival materials) chives. Philip C. Brooks contends that a and publications (library materials) look user of archival materials confronts all more alike. Records are losing their manner of typed documents, carbon

^Vapaakappaletoimikunnan Mietinto. Komiteanmietinto 1973 (Helsinki, 1973), p. 128. 262 American Archivist/Summer 1984

copies, mimeographed or offset copies, tive variations between them and publica- punched cards, and printouts of data tions. Unlike publications, records have processing machines which are not con- collective significance primarily in rela- sidered published materials. The distinction to activity and only secondarily to Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/47/3/255/2747170/aarc_47_3_l631t82130464n07.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 tion between written and printed subject.15 materials is becoming less clear with the In recent literature, the organism con- rapid development of facsimile pro- cept has been criticized as belonging in a cesses.13 romantic world, and it has been pointed T.R. Schellenberg, in his classic book out that archives—at least those of the on the administration of archives, stated present day—are the result of rational that, since librarians have often demon- and systematic planning. This does not, strated an interest in the development of however, dismiss the view of the archives the archival profession, archivists should as a totality, held together by many links, reciprocate and take an interest in library according to Swedish archivist Nils techniques. He remarked that a distinc- Nilsson, who also noted that modern tion is made between the techniques of reprographic methods have given certain the two professions on the basis of the records a booklike character and an in- assumption that archival techniques creased mobility. Yet, the possibilities of relate to records and library techniques to a later rearrangement of the archives publications. Such a distinction is possi- seem to be reduced, because, through ble only if it is assumed that archivists modern office techniques, records have and librarians are concerned with dif- been linked in complicated patterns.16 ferent kinds of material, and it is valid There is considerable disagreement be- only if it is qualified by the statement that tween Schellenberg and Robert L. Clark, librarians are concerned mainly with editor of a book on archive-library rela- publications and archivists mainly with tions. Clark's book contains the state- records.14 Schellenberg pointed out two ment that the distinctions between library basic differences between documentary and archival materials are not distinc- (archival) and literary (library) materials. tions of kind but are distinctions derived First, records are source or primary from the method and intent of creation. material. This difference largely accounts The chapter on similarities and dif- for the physical variations between the ferences concludes with the remark that, two classes of material. Since records are except for the quantity of books, there is primary, they have attributes they re- little difference between the kinds of ceived when they were created and they material found in a large library and in a lack the attributes that publications, large archives. The proportions by type which are secondary, acquire in the differ, but the variety of types does not course of their manufacture. These at- differ to any significant degree. There tributes include authorship and imprint. may be differences in the arrangement Second, records are organic material, and description of the materials in that which largely accounts for the substan- the library generally treats each item as a

l3Philip C. Brooks, Research in Archives (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1969), p. 95. ""T.R. Schellenberg, The Management of Archives (New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1965) p.4. "Ibid., p. 119-20. "Nils Nilsson, Arkivkunskap (Malmel: 1974), p.22. Fringe Literature 263

discrete unit to be considered on its own time has come for a new reassessment, merits, while the archives treats each unit not only of the division of respon- in the context in which it was created." sibilities, but also of library methodolo-

The fact that a decade passed between the gy- Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/47/3/255/2747170/aarc_47_3_l631t82130464n07.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 publication of Schellenberg's book and On the whole, literature on archive- Clark's book probably accounts, to a cer- library relations is scarce. In a recent tain extent, for the difference in view- bibliography of archival literature only point. two out of almost two hundred pages are devoted to "Archivists, manuscript Cooperation curators, and librarians, comparisons One may be justified in wondering why and contrasts." According to one of the the problem of coping with the amount contributors to Clark's book, Archive- of material and the possibility of resource Library Relations, an analysis of the sharing should not once be mentioned in items listed in Library Literature for the a book dealing exclusively with archive- period 1961-71 under "archival," "ar- library relations. Since it is emphasized chives," and "archivists" reveals fewer that the distinctions between library and than thirty articles, divided among Col- archival materials are not distinctions of lege and Research Libraries, Library kind, there seems to be no serious impedi- Resources and Technical Services, ment to resource sharing. This is especial- Library Quarterly, Library Trends, ly true because the differences in arrange- Special Libraries, and Library Journal. ment of materials in archives and Nearly half of these articles are news libraries are of recent date. They stem on- notes. ly from the introduction of the principle Possibilities of cooperation are men- of provenance, which was formulated at tioned on occasion in the American Ar- the French National Archives in the third chivist. Philip C. Brooks noted that, decade of the nineteenth century and aside from the obvious fact that many ultimately became a guiding principle for bodies of archives do happen to be in the the arrangement of public records in custody of librarians, there are several Europe. The principle was first given other meeting grounds. One is the rising theoretical justification in a Dutch tide of "near print," "processed," and manual published in 1898. Before then, other types of materials that are pro- records were regarded as discrete units, duced in numerous copies but are not ac- and there was no "respect des fonds." tually published. This tide flows between Records were classified on principles in- more traditional types of archives and spired by library techniques. It is symp- true publications, and it threatens to tomatic that the theoretical reassessment engulf both librarians and archivists. It is of the nature of archives, which took an uncontrolled growth and its conquest place at the beginning of the twentieth will require all the skill of both profes- century, was not only based on a better sions. In recent years, the National Ar- understanding, but was also dictated by chives and the Library of Congress set a insurmountable resource problems iden- fine example of cooperation in their joint tical to those faced by librarians and in- effort to define their fields in areas of formation scientists today. Perhaps the possible competition.18 Werner W. Clapp

"Robert L. Clark, ed., Archive-Library Relations (New York and London: R. R. Bowker, 1976), pp. 33, 35. "Philip C. Brooks, "Archivists and Their Colleagues: Common Denominators," American Archivist 14 (1951): 40ff. Margaret S. Child, "Reflections on Cooperation Among Professions," American Archivist 46 (Summer 1983): 286-92, and Frank G. Burke, "Archival Cooperation," American Archivist 46 (Sum- mer 1983): 293-305, both describe more recent cooperative efforts. 264 American Archivist/Summer 1984

has given a pertinent example of changes ficult to describe, since it represents all caused by the introduction of new types of publications. A great amount of reproduction processes. The mimeo- professional literature will be found in

graphed research report, which has this category, but the choice of reproduc- Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/47/3/255/2747170/aarc_47_3_l631t82130464n07.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 superseded journal publication to some tion method largely depends on personal extent, is requiring heroic efforts by idiosyncracies. There is no telling when librarians to control bibliographically. It an author or publisher will sacrifice would be a pity not to employ the same aesthetic preferences to financial con- controls to manage the same publications siderations and a desire for speedy in the archives. Clapp also has com- publication. Surely the mimeographed or mented on the growing resemblance be- photocopied research report, which has tween the contents of archives and superseded journal publication to so libraries. He concludes that the need for large an extent, belongs in this group. (2) efficiency will force librarians and ar- Material that was formerly reserved for chivists to cooperate in developing biblio- archives and only existed in manuscript graphic control of mutually held or a few typewritten copies. In this group materials." While one can only agree belong a great many documents of na- with the idea of resource sharing, the tional and local governments. Local mere thought of preserving forever the government reform of the 1960s in Den- enormous amount of research reports in mark involved a high degree of decen- two different national repositories rather tralization, which resulted in a flood of boggles the mind. publications from fewer, but larger, local government institutions well equipped to do their own planning. Here also belong Fringe or Grey Literature papers prepared for meetings and con- As a starting point for discussing re- gresses as well as students' examination source sharing, it is necessary to take a papers and theses. (3) Literature that closer look at the new types of material never before saw light. This group in- and to try to analyze the formidable term cludes new books, various forms of pub- grey literature. From the point of view of lished non-book materials (such as sound the national library, the following ques- books or publications in microform or on tions arise: What are the types of tape), paper printouts of automated material? What should be kept forever systems, and educational kits in various and what should the library keep provi- media. This group also includes semi- sionally in its capacity as documentation publications such as fiction and political agency? What should the library consider (grassroots) literature sold in book cafes, to be the responsibility of documentation prepublication reports produced by agencies and special libraries? How can academic institutions, and textbooks, the cataloging burden be reduced, and produced by universities and other educa- what possibilities does new technology tional institutions, which contain both offer for reducing it? original material and some copied from The products of the new reproduction other publications. Modern develop- processes roughly fall into three largely ments have inspired latent talents to ex- overlapping categories: (1) Literature that press themselves in fiction and have pro- was formerly produced by conventional moted new educational theories through printing methods. This category is dif- the production of a greater variety of

"Werner W. Clapp, "Archivists and Bibliographic Control: A Librarian's Viewpoint," American Ar- chivist 14 (1951): 311. Fringe Literature 265

texts for study. This phenomenon is published conference papers. Technical sometimes called looseleaf pedagogics. rules and recommendations and transla- The System for Information on Grey tions probably belong in an ad hoc group

Literature in Europe (SIGLE) project, of documents which the national library Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/47/3/255/2747170/aarc_47_3_l631t82130464n07.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 which is concerned with material related could not, and should not, try to control. to some of the categories listed above, The prolific quantity of grey literature was launched under the auspices of the produced by the EEC itself is a great European Economic Community (EEC) problem for a small member nation like in 1980. The British Library Lend- Denmark. ing Division (BLLD) plays a leading role. No librarian would contest the need to The term grey literature, or its equivalent acquire information inherent in the adop- non-conventional literature, is defined as tion of the Universal Availability of literature that is not issued through con- Publications (UAP) measures, but the ventional commercial publication chan- national library can do this only in nels. Examples include reports (both cooperation with special libraries and from the public and private sector) con- documentation agencies. It should not try taining scientific, technical, economic, to compete with them. The primary func- and social information; theses; con- tion of the national library is to preserve ference papers not published in commer- the cultural heritage of the nation, cially available proceedings; technical though in its dual function it may choose rules and recommendations; translations to go beyond that responsibility. (other than those published commercial- ly); articles printed in certain journals Suggested Criteria for Selection (e.g., non-commercial society journals or It is possible to draw four conclusions local level journals); official documents about what should be included in the na- (e.g., documents issued in limited tional library. First, a publication issued numbers by government bodies); and in- by a commercial publisher and offered 20 dustrial advertising literature. These ex- for public distribution must be preserved. amples closely resemble the three Second, material issued by non- categories of products of new reproduc- commercial bodies may or may not be tion processes outlined above. appropriate for the national library. In countries with highly developed There are no completely safe criteria for legal deposit systems, much of the selection of this type of material. Third, material in question cannot be called "printed" is no longer synonymous with grey. The Royal Library in Copenhagen "published." Fourth, value judgments receives, through legal deposit or through do not apply. Thus, there is no alter- recently instituted voluntary deposit from native but to try to exclude archival state and local government authorities, material from the national library. As has many research reports, doctoral theses, already been shown, there are no formal journals disregarded by abstracting and criteria for distinction between library indexing services, official documents, and archival material. The physical varia- and industrial advertising literature. The tions mentioned by Schellenberg are not primary types lacking and much in de- always present, though in certain cases mand are undergraduate theses and un- we may exclude material that is clearly

20J. M. Gibb and E. Phillips, "A Better Fate for the Grey, or Non-Conventional Literature," Journal of Research Communication Studies 1 (1978/79): 225-34. Also published in French in Bulletin des Biblio- theques de France, in German in Bibliothek Forschung und Praxis, and in Italian in Bolettino d' Informa- zioni AIB in 1979. 266 American Archivist/Summer 1984

provisional, incomplete, lacks fundamen- distributed to institutions and libraries. tal information for bibliographic descrip- The distinction is difficult.) Lecture notes tion, carries journal or reference numbers of a university faculty member may be

for internal housekeeping, or is not in- evaluated according to the same prin- Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/47/3/255/2747170/aarc_47_3_l631t82130464n07.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 telligible to the uninitiated. The statement ciples. Since his work is not only part of that the distinctions are not distinctions the history of the university and the of kind, but rather are derived from the history of his own activity, but may also method and intent of creation, probably be original research of independent comes close to the truth. This view is value, the question arises whether or not supported by Adolf Brenneke, the Ger- his work should be regarded as a product man archivist, who contends that the of purposive action. Some archivists may essential difference between literary and disagree with the idea of regarding a archival material is a difference of pur- university faculty member's work as pose. Archival material is of a legal or an primarily part of the history of the administrative nature, while library university. This view was expressed, material has a literary purpose, with the however, in a recent article on faculty intention of providing information, in- papers and special-subject repositories. struction, or edification.21 According to Just as they contribute to the record of Schellenberg, records are accumulated to the school's activities, faculty papers are accomplish certain functions, and the ac- themselves understood more fully in the quisition of subject content is only in- context of that record. Individual collec- cidental to the accomplishment of an ac- tions of faculty papers are often seen as tion.22 He also says that records are pro- distinct, unrelated units, separable from ducts of activity, of purposive action.23 the papers of other professors in the same Clearly, it is easy to find arguments department or from the official records against the practical use of such defini- of the institution itself with no loss in tions and reject them as belonging in an meaning or perspective. They are, abstract world of ideas. Nevertheless, however, best appraised, processed, and librarians in a legal deposit department used in the context of the academic com- must make decisions every day, and it is munities in which they were created. That better to make those decisions on the a discouraging number of university ar- basis of difficult selection criteria than to chives do not consider the papers of proceed by instinct. The problem faculty and research staff to be their col- becomes more apparent in the light of the lecting responsibility is probably not ex- products of purposive action. These in- clusively an American problem.24 clude: papers prepared for congresses An author may be the best judge of his (compared with the published congress own work, and his attitude will often be report after the event); theses prepared evident in his willingness or reluctance to for academic degrees (the best of them acknowledge his work as fit for deposit in may be published at a later stage); and a library. We may have to rely on his prepublication research reports that are judgment, if the act of legal deposit only circulated to individual research leaves us no other alternative. Certainly workers (compared with reports that are the selection of government publications !'Adolf Brenneke, Archivkunde. Bearbeitet . . . und erganzt von Wolfgang Leesch (Leipzig: Koehler& Amelang, 1953), p. 34. "Schellenberg, p. 68. "Ibid., p. 66. Note also that the Danish word "akt" (act) is equivalent to "document." "June Wolff, "Faculty Papers and Special-Subject Repositories," American Archivist 44 (Fall 1981): 349-50. Fringe Literature 267

should also be made in close cooperation preservation later. This can be done by with the issuing institutions, because only flagging the item in the catalog. Modern they can know if a marginal item such as technology can assist the library in doing a committee report is intended for this as well as in checking the frequency Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/47/3/255/2747170/aarc_47_3_l631t82130464n07.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 publication or should be considered as a of loans and in withdrawing the item working paper to be placed in the ar- from the collection. Such procedures chives. Such cooperation is a long- should not be considered to be in conflict standing tradition in the archives and with the legal deposit acts, which general- may even be a legal obligation,25 but it is ly imply a legal or moral obligation to rather foreign to the librarian. keep everything that is deposited.26 The Royal Library in Copenhagen has Librarians of national collections and had some experience of cooperation with archivists have several mutual concerns. depositors through the voluntary deposit They both have difficulty in controlling from state institutions and local govern- the masses of material; and, by defini- ment authorities. This voluntary system tion, their collections are not select. They was instituted in the 1970s because the contain much material that is not of Danish legal deposit act was considered topical interest; but it may become im- inadequate. The voluntary deposit was portant in a remote future, often to a started on a rather tentative basis without small group of researchers. That is why, strict guidelines, the intention being to in an economic recession, there is a form a general idea of what was pro- tendency to give the national function duced by more or less private printers. In- lower priority than is given those func- itially, the library was overwhelmed by tions which serve the immediate needs of the flood of publications; but it soon a large community of users. Consequent- became evident that it was quite easy to ly, the national repositories badly need sort out provisional or incomplete efficient and economical methods of ob- material. The principal problem was the taining bibliographic control. Schellen- alarming number of materials that berg remarked that the library profession seemed to qualify for permanent reten- has become a precise and well-defined tion. discipline while the archival profession, Even if the national library takes great in contrast, is in a formative stage.27 The care in selecting the right material for technical perfection attained by librarians permanent retention, there is always a has both advantages and drawbacks, possibility that a working paper may because the best is sometimes the enemy become well known and widely dis- of the good. Serious backlogs are often tributed. Since wide distribution is the the price of high ambition. Librarians first attribute of a publication, the item should join archivists in their present ef- should be preserved by the national forts to modify the new technology and library. Mistakes are inevitable; and the make it compatible with their methodolo- national library should be authorized to gies. The archivists are correct in being claim an item for deposit at a later time, wary of adopting the Anglo-American even if that item was initially rejected. Cataloging Rules (AACR II), which are The library may also wish to keep an supposed to ease their way toward the use item provisionally and decide about of automated systems, and of becoming

"Nilsson, p. 48. "Cfr. recent discussions regarding the first draft of "Guidelines for Legal Deposit Legislation" prepared by Jean Lunn (Paris: UNESCO, 1981). "Schellenberg, p. 61. 268 American Archivist/Summer 1984

locked into library networks that cannot and a similar workload, one may find handle hierarchically arranged archival that they are quite differently staffed. data. The fact that provenance provides a Often the privileges of a certain depart- high level of access to documents is often ment may be traced back to a former Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/47/3/255/2747170/aarc_47_3_l631t82130464n07.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 completely ignored by librarians.28 They chief who was both powerful and head- usually can think of only one way to deal strong. According to Parkinson's laws, with library material: cataloging discrete the department easily succeeds in occupy- items, even when such action is futile ing its many officers. Cataloging work, because an item lacks the rudimentary ironically enough, is not balanced against elements for cataloging or is of only the use of catalogs. Rather, it tends to modest interest if isolated from the con- become an end in itself; and catalog text in which it was created. Librarians perfection is not at all dictated by the de- should not use a steamroller to crack mand from outside but rather is man- nuts! The change in library material, the dated by the librarians. This mandate has problem of coping with the masses of been codified at international con- material, and the lack of resources are all ferences and in voluminous collections of factors that call for simplification and rules. Sanner mentioned that new pro- differentiation of library techniques of cedures might even improve information arrangement and control systems. The retrieval. Many Scandinavian research data bases of the future must be designed libraries supply multiple access by per- to accommodate the techniques of sonal and corporate authors, but often describing both single items and groups provide no access by title.29 Automation of items. will solve this problem. Another alternative method is the input of information Library Methodology: Time for a Review relating to book history, or provenance in Through sheer force of inertia, the the library sense of the term. Much im- priorities given to the various activities of portant information, which scholars will a library tend to remain conservative, and have to dig out at a later stage, is com- library methodology remains sacrosanct. pletely lost in our perfect catalogs, while Lars-Erik Sanner, in a brief but highly it lies hidden in our library archives. suggestive article on library goals in prac- It is not the number of data elements tice, highlighted the problem of balanc- prescribed by AACR II—now used in all ing the conflicting demands for staff be- Scandinavian national libraries—that tween the service and processing units— makes cataloging so time-consuming, at the external versus the internal functions. least as far as monographs are concerned. He properly questioned the rationality of For serials, one has to consider the con- library practices. Sanner cited as ex- stantly changing nature of this type of amples of lack of rationality the belief publication and reduce the number of that service should be maintained even to data elements as much as possible. This the detriment of other functions and the fact was realized by the founders of the persistent belief that quality of books is International Serials Data System directly proportional to quantity. When (ISDS), which, unfortunately, conflicts one compares departments in different with AACR II. The editors of AACR II libraries that have roughly identical work should not be praised for disregarding the

"Richard C. Berner, "Toward National Archival Priorities: A Suggested Basis for Discussion," American Archivist 45 (Spring 1982): 166, 168. "Lars-Erik Sanner, "Bibliotekens malsattning i praktiken" in Levende Biblioteker. Festskrift til Palle Birkelund 29 januar 1982 (Copenhagen: Biblioteks centralen, 1982), pp. 112-14. Fringe Literature 269

existence of ISDS, which is the only material issued by corporate bodies, worldwide system for the registration of especially government agencies. The serials. The worst problem in AACR II is problem of dealing with material fun- damentally different from usual library the intricate set of rules for presentation Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/47/3/255/2747170/aarc_47_3_l631t82130464n07.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 of data elements. One may well ask material is clearly reflected in the history whether the pigeonholing of data and of the Scandinavian depository libraries endless possibilities of output and com- with legal deposit from printers. The bination of search elements made possi- futile effort of including in subject ble by modern electronic data processing catalogs, which were specifically designed do not render superfluous much elabo- for the analysis of subjects, items that rate cataloging, such as the speculative had only an organic significance as col- choice of main entry: personal or cor- lective units was almost pathetic; but, porate author or title.30 Paradoxically, it with the development of the art of print- is one of the editors of AACR II, Michael ing, the effect was simply disastrous. The Gorman, who has had the courage to tell classification systems, especially under librarians that, in this world of practical the social sciences subject headings, were use of machine-readable bibliographic inadequate; and scientific and technical records, the cataloging codes and stan- literature was submerged by literature dards that defined our work in the pre- reflecting human activity, more or less ar- machine age are becoming marginal or tificially classified. Description became even irrelevant.31 more and more complicated, and the The change in library material may re- number of devised titles increased in the quire a more radical change in our highly catalogs. Eventually it became necessary refined library methodology than that en- to establish special collections of sum- visaged by Gorman; and the possibility of marily cataloged material, mainly con- using archival techniques of arrangement sisting of such materials as statutes, and collective description— the tech- reports and accounts, house journals, niques of covering aggregations of catalogs, and programs issued by cor- documents in simple description en- porate bodies. These collections also con- tries—should be seriously explored for tained such material as separately printed material of the record type. True enough, poems, which, because of their large archival finding aids cannot help the quantities, were thought impracticable to searcher find specific items to the extent catalog. Almost all such materials were that library catalogs can, providing those included in the Bibliotheca Danica 1482- individual items are homogenous in sub- 1830, but they were left out of the later ject matter and can be described from in- Danish national bibliography. The formation readily available on a title material is arranged in classified order on page. This is often not the case with the shelves according to a system that

!CF. Wilfrid Lancaster and Linda C. Smith: "Compatibility Issues Affecting Information Systems and Services" (Paris: UNESCO, September 1983 [PGI-83/WS/23]), p. 43. "In traditional library practice, the main entry in a catalogue is usually the entry appearing under the name of the person (or organization) that appears to be chiefly responsible for the authorship of the document. In other cases the main entry may ap- pear under the title. The term main entry is actually used in two ways in the literature of library science: 1) to refer to that one entry in the catalogue in which full information on the document may always be found (added entries may give shortened information only), and 2) to refer to the access point under which this entry is filed in the catalogue, usually the name of an author, less frequently a title. In a computer-based system the whole idea of a main entry is redundant: a complete bibliographic record is stored once and all access points provided—by subject, by author, by title, by language, or whatever—are merely pointers to this record." "Michael Gorman, "New Rules for New Systems," American Libraries (April 1982): 241. 270 American Archivist/Summer 1984

combines library and archival methods. the system.32 The fact that archival There are about a hundred subject methodology is considered by some to be groups. Within the hierarchy, each in- less sophisticated than that of librarians, stitution, association, or firm is arranged and to be still in a formative stage, may Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/47/3/255/2747170/aarc_47_3_l631t82130464n07.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 according to the general purpose of its ac- explain why archivists seem to be more tivity. If the activities are too diverse to receptive to the change in material and be contained in one group, they are new developments in technology, placed in two or more. All material is ar- especially in the United States, where ranged in hierarchical order according to "chronology inevitably is a factor in provenance; and with the help of a survey dealing with archives, and where the of the classes and a subject index, it is problem of volume of modern records usually surprisingly easy to locate an in- has replaced the problem of deciphering dividual item or to satisfy a subject in- medieval charters."33 quiry that is not contrary to the system of The author of an article on social arrangement. The user who wishes to be history and archival practice noted that informed of all the activities within a cer- archivists are all aware of the scorn ex- tain region may, however, have to go pressed for the nineteenth-century through an enormous amount of materi- crypto-librarians who cataloged and al. Regrettable though it is, in this case classified records as if they were books. we should perhaps try to combat the Archivists may wonder whether, a hun- equal-for-all syndrome—the tendency to dred years from now, their successors will treat all material as if it were of equal think the same of twentieth-century value, which obviously it is not—de- crypto-records managers who retain scribed by Sanner. records as if they were still in actively The Scandinavian collections of small used files. Provenance should be print may serve as models for library col- understood more as a technique than as lections of the new material. They may the intellectual basis of a profession. The even be extended to include such point is not to abandon it, but to go 34 material. It is a curious fact that, in prin- beyond it. The author concludes by say- ciple, the main forms of library method- ing that his article rests on the assump- ology—description and classification— tion that archival practices and principles remain virtually unaffected by a highly are not immutable. The understanding of developed technology, even though historical research has changed, as have shrinking budgets and increasing society and technology. It is now time for amounts of material call for reevalua- archivists to reevaluate the conventional tion. Rules for description have not wisdom of their profession and to discard changed radically for over a century, and what has become outmoded, to reorder in classification we are still tied to what priorities, and to retain only what re- Brenneke describes as "the Procrustean mains useful. There is reason to believe bed of ten numbers." He criticizes the that library practices are not immutable Dewey Decimal Classification System for either. Michael Gorman certainly realized its lack of elasticity. The system can only this when he opened his article by citing be enlarged through subdivisions, not in Thomas Carlyle: "Today is not yester- breadth. The archivist is not able to day, we ourselves change; how can our foresee all functional developments works and thoughts, if they are always to within administration in his planning of be the fittest, continue always the same?"

"Brenneke, p. 82. "Ruth W. Helmuth, "Education for American Archivists: A View from the Trenches," American Ar- chivist 44 (Fall 1981): 296. "Fredric M. Miller, "Social History and Archival Practice," American Archivist 44 (Spring 1981): 122.