440/ LRTS 37(4) Wright, Demos, and Cybulski


2. Definitely worth preserving: funds
 permitting, should be preserved as
 part of this project.
 3. Worth preserving at some time if pos-
 sible, but of lower priority.
 4. Not worth preserving.
 Reviewers were asked to give their best
judgment on unfamiliar titles based on the
subject, author, title, publisher, period,
genre, etc.
 In addition to the four scholarly re-
viewers, Sam Demas (Project Director)
also evaluated the lists from the point of
view of a bibliographer in the major New
York State agricultural research library.
While the evaluation criteria used by
Demas were essentially the same as those
used by the scholars, we felt a practicing
librarian could contribute a broadperspec-
tive on how the materials are used by stu-
dents and scholars in many disciplines, and
a sense of the relative scarcity of the pub-
lications.

RESULTS OF THE REVIEW PROCESS
The reviewers returned the lists in about
six weeks. Each reviewer had rated every
title on the list. We compiled the results of
the evaluation by averaging the rating as-
signed by the reviewers to each title (see
table 1),
 After analyzing the results, ranges were
 assigned to sort the ratings Into logical and
 manageable priority groups, Titles that fell
 into tlhe 1.0-1.5 range became the #1, or
 core, titles; titles that fell Into the 1.6-2.0
 range were rated as second priority.
 There was remarkable similarity in the
way the historians viewed the literature. A
random sampling of the ratings showed
that the four reviewers rated each title
either the same or one rating apart more
than 90% of the time. In only 1% of the
cases did they completely differ (meaning
that one reviewer rated a title a #1 and
another a #4).
 We have begun the work of preserving
 the #1 and #2 rated serials and mono-
 graphs. Not surprisingly, we are finding
 that many of these titles have already been
 preserved by commercial vendors such as
 UMI and Research Publications in re-
 gional and local history microform sets. We


 TABLE 1
 SCHOLARLY RATINGS OF NEW YORK
 STATE AGRICULTURAL LITERATURE
 Range % of Tides No. of Ttles
Mon(pi;tphs
 1 1.0-1.5 19 108
 2 1.6-2.0 28 159
 3 2.1-2.5 32 179
 2.6+ 52 405
Serials
 1 1.0-1.5 2 17
 2 1.6-2.0 12 91
 3 2.1-2.5 34 265
 2.6+ 21 119


expect to preserve all of the first- and sec-
ond-priority monograph and serial ties
that we can locate during the course of the
project. Funding permitting, we will then
select titles in the third-priority range. The
bibliography will continue to serve as a guide
in selecting the most significant titles for
preservation treatment should additional
funding become available in the future.
 While the participating libraries' col-
lections were a primary source of refor-
matted materials, an important function of
this project is to look beyond the holdings
of individual collections to reformatting
core titles regardless of where they are
housed. One of the problems we have en-
countered is locating copies of titles that
are not held by either of the participating
institutions. This includes missing serial
volumes or issues and, more importantly,
core titles that neither library owns. Be-
cause we are Interested in reformatting the
literature ofa discipline and not the collec-
tions in our individual libraries, we have
gone to extensive lengths to borrow these
titles for filming. Land-grant and research
libraries, state agricultural societies, and
county extension offices have assisted us in
locating missing materials and materials
not owned. The state agricultural societies
and extension offices have facilitated locat-
ing this material by allowing us to place
notices in their newsletters explaining the
project and requesting loans,


 CONCLUSION

 The core-literature approach to preserva-
 tion selection emphasizes the analysis,
 evaluation, and rating of a large body of
 literature prior to the physical treatment of
 titles. We have tested this approach at A.R.
 Mann Library as part of the New York
 State Agriculture and Rural Life Preserva-
 tion Project. The most important benefit
 of this technique is that it will ensure the
 preservation of the most significant mate-
 rials that document the history and
 development of agriculture in New York
 State-literature that is fundamental to
 any study of New York State's history.
 The task of setting preservation priori-
 ties for a given literature is greatly
 simplified by first compiling authoritative
 lists of materials to preserve. For the New
 York State project, 1,348 titles were iden-
 tified as potential candidates for preserva-
 tion treatment. This figure represents the
 entire 2,890 citations in the bibliography
 minus pamphlet and theses citations and
 those titles already filmed or reprinted (a
 combined tbtal of 1,542 citations). The ma-
 jority of the theses on the list have already
 been filmed. We are investigating filming
 the balance of this material. We hope to
 obtain additional funding to preserve New
 York State pamphlet material as a separate
 preservation project. Of the 1,348 re-
 viewed titles, 782 were serials. At an aver-
 age of 11 volumes per serial title, the total
 number ofvolumes (monographs and seri-
 als) tinder consideration for preservation
 treatment is 9,168 volumes. \e have suffl-
 cient funding to reformat only 2,289
 volumes (or 25% of the total literature)
 over the course of the four-year project.
 The rated bibliography ensures that the
 most important materials will be refor-
 matted first. These volumes, together with
 volumes already reformatted by commer-
 cial vendors and other libraries (344 titles,
 2,014volumes, 22% of the total literature),
 constitute 47%, or nearly half, of New York
 State's agricultural literature that is now
 reformatted (or will be at the conclusion of
 this project). In addition, priorities for pre-
serving the remaining historical record that
cannot be treated in this project have been
established with the rated bibliography.


 Setting preservation priorities for an
 entire discipline or subject area, even with
 a specific state-level focus, is labor inten-
 sive. However, it need be done only once,
 and the results willbenefitall libraries with
 an interest in the literature of that discip-
 line. One very thorough bibliographic and
 scholarly evaluation project can objectively
 and authoritatively set preservation priori-
 ties for an entire discipline. Prioritized
 lists, sorted by subject, period, or genre,
 can serve as the basis for defining specific
 preservation projects. Individual projects
 may, be undertaken at various institutions
 but will contribute to a larger coordinated,
 cooperative preservation effort, By refor-
 matting in a medium that allows for dis-
 tribution of preservation copies to all par-
 ticipating libraries, a complete set of the
 preserved record maybe housed in a num-
 ber of libraries throughout the state. When
 viewed In this light, the time-consuming
 task of compiling and evaluating the bibli-
 ography is actually a cost-effective method
 of selection for preservation.
 For this project the three authors, over
 the course of one year, collectively devoted
 about 0.5 FTE to compiling the bibliogra-
 phy, preparing for its distribution, and an-
 alyzing the results. Assuming a half-time
 pay rate of $15,000 peryear plus $1,800 for
 the bibliographers'honoraria ($450 per re-
 viewer), the total cost to produce the New
 York State bibliography was $16,800. At
 $1.38 per volume (12,130 total volumes in
 the bibliography, including unranked
 material, with an average of 11 volumes
 per serial title) or $1.83 pet volume for
 only those titles reviewed (9,168 volumes),
 we believe this is a relatively small price to
 pay for such a thorough, well documented
 approach to preservation selection. This
 initial critical analysis of a large body of
 literature prior to preservation treatment
 ensures that the allocation of scare preser-
 vation dollars will be based on intelligent,
 justifiable priorities. An additional benefit
 of this project is that scholars will now have
 access to a comprehensive bibliography of
 1820-1945 New York State agricultural
 publications-the first such work of its
 kind in this area of research.
 A manual is currently in progress that
will consist of a complete listing of the


LRTS 37(4) 9 Notes on Operatrions /4411