4. Plan of Work--Project Administration


Head of Collection Development and Preservation at the Albert R. Mann Library at Cornell University.
Demas has directed six different preservation projects at Albert R. Mann Library, each of them of two to
four-year duration, resulting in the reformatting (via filming and/or scanning) of over 11,000 volumes
since 1986. In this capacity he established project standards, maintained contact with the funding
agencies, and supervised project staff. Three of these projects were cooperative (RLG CPMP and NYS
Coordinated Preservation Projects). Mr. Demas was closely involved with the effort to develop a National
Preservation Program for Agricultural Sciences Literature and is committed to the advancement of this
cooperative, discipline-based preservation plan. He has built on the groundbreaking work of Wallace C.
Olsen in systematic identification of core historical literature, extending and adapting the selection
methodologies in the subjects of entomology, state and local level agriculture and rural life literature (as
part of the National Preservation Program for Agricultural Sciences Literature), and local and regional
natural history literature. Demas has organized conference programs, spoken in various forums, and
published articles to encourage the movement towards a cooperative, disciplinary approach to
preservation.

4.2.1 Project Coordination

As Project Coordinator, Wallace C. Olsen will be responsible for the management of the project on a one-
half time basis for two years. He is currently Project Coordinator for the Phase I project. He will
coordinate the work of the ten participating institutions, serving as resource person for the institutional
project managers and maintaining regular contact to resolve problems and issues and ensure that work
proceeds in a timely manner. He will oversee the development of quarterly production goals for each
project, monitor progress towards meeting the goals, recommend approval of payments to participants,
and draft quarterly progress reports to NEH for review and approval by the Project Director.

Wallace Olsen has worked in the agricultural library community for twenty-five years and is an authority
on land grant libraries. Over a period of nearly twenty years at the National Agricultural Library, he held
positions as liaison officer to the land grant and USDA field libraries, deputy director for public services,
deputy director for technical services, and officer for special programs. He was responsible for efforts to
create an agricultural libraries network involving land grant libraries and the libraries of the USDA. Mr.
Olsen served as Project Director for the NAL/land grant cooperative microfilming project, involving over
thirty participating libraries, which resulted in the filming of 1.4 million frames of experiment station and
extension service publications. In this capacity, he organized the agreements and "sold" the project to
land grant librarians, obtained the funds at NAL, set the technical standards with Peter Scott of MIT, and
managed the finances, project organization, and quality control. More recently, Mr. Olsen has served as
Project Director of the Core Agricultural Literature Project since 1990. He has identified the
contemporary and historical core literature of seven disciplines comprising the agricultural sciences. The
core historical literature is a key component of the National Preservation Program for Agricultural
Literature. Mr. Olsen will receive The Oberly Award for Excellence in agricultural bibliography for his
work as editor-in-chief of the 7-volume set The Core Literature of Agricultural Science (Ithaca, NY:
Cornell University Press, 1991-96). Mr. Olsen brings to the job of Project Coordinator years of
administrative experience, profound knowledge of the agricultural literature, complete familiarity with
land grant libraries, and experience in managing a large cooperative microfilming project in the land
grant community.

4.2.2 Project Management

Each of the ten participating institutions has appointed an institutional Project Manager or Project Co-
managers who will be responsible for the implementation of their library's and state's participation in the
project. Project managers will attend the two project meetings, implement the plan of work, supervise
project staff, establish local work flows, oversee contracts with vendors, assure that all procedures and