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Digital
Copiers and Scribal Musings
Fred Stielow
Walter P. Reuther Library
ai6050@wayne.edu
A funny thing happened while shopping for photocopiers for the Walter
P. Reuther Library of Wayne State University. They are apparently
becoming obsolete—going the way of the phonograph record, punch card,
and fountain pen. The industry is quietly converging on digital scanning
and the microchip. This new technology goes beyond a simple replacement.
It has significant implications for the future of libraries and archives
along with interesting echoes from their past.
Historical
Framework
Libraries and archives have long reflected the information technology
of their times. Ancient librarians were experts in reprography. Their
duties centered on the recording and recopying of information, including
specialized skills for sealing Sumerian cuneiform and the manufacture
of secret inks for Egyptian papyrus. In the Dark Ages, the focus was on
parchment codices and copying cycles to preserve the knowledge of the
ancients. This was the Opus Deum—or God's work—that defined
the scribal librarian.
Figure 1:
A scribe in his study. Valerius Ma imus, "Faits et dits mémorables."
Bruges, 1479
Gutenberg's invention altered the job. Archives
branched off into a parallel institution for hand-written materials. Librarians
largely abandoned the hands-on skill of the copyist. They lost control
of the means of production. Arguably the world's first capitalists, publishers
appeared on the scene to decide what would appear in print and, incidentally,
they redefined librarianship. Publishers made reading portable and developed
the crucial trappings for the modern book—e.g., the title page, tables
of contents, indexes. The new industry also helped spawn the concept of
authorship and the concomitant need to protect the right to profit through
copyright (1).
Library involvement with reproduction techniques returned to a degree
at the turn of the twentieth century. A new profession had just appeared
in response to the rise of mass culture, which followed the introduction
of wood-pulp paper and advances in the printing press. The first generation
of college-trained librarians benefited from printing advances for their
professional tools, especially the Library of Congress's (LC) introduction
of inexpensive catalog card sets. The typewriter with supplementary mimeographs
and carbon copies also entered the consciousness of information specialists.
These technologies encouraged the development of new descriptive tools,
especially the invention of archival finding aids at LC's Manuscript Division
(2).
Figure
2: Taken from the Atlantic Monthly Advertiser in The North American
Review. / Volume
82, Issue 494 from Cornell's Making
of America Collection
Reprography blossomed anew in the 1960s. The
advent of photocopiers brought unexpected change. "Xeroxing"
became a new verb in short order. We could do away with messy mimeographs
and carbons. The ability to make facsimiles helped repositories to deter
theft and mutilation, as well as assisting with preservation. Photocopiers
even impacted the law. They joined the cassette recorder as the technical
impetus for the 1976 Copyright Act: Title 17 US Code. The largely unfettered
"right of sale" was revised to protect authors, but still give
libraries and archives reasonable abilities to make copies. Section 107
established the principle of "Fair Use." Special dispensation
was granted in Section 121 to reproduce for the blind or others with disabilities.
Most importantly, Section 108: Reproductions by Libraries and Archives
gave the institutions the authority to make preservation copies and allow
users to make their own copies on their premises. In exchange, the law
called for clear procedures, postings, and rights management policies
(3).
Technology and repository interests moved forward. The first generation
of specialized "wet" papers and awkward processing matured to
plain paper copiers. Machines added production capacity and ever more
bells and whistles. Repositories developed the copy center—a new
business service and revenue stream. The new equipment brought many institutions
face-to-face for the first time with the intricacies of repair contracts
and licensing arrangements. In the 1980s, an onslaught of facsimile machines
pushed toward the provision of electronic means of distribution. Although
somewhat constricted by the danger of viruses and copyright implications,
many libraries also responded to the delivery potentials of downloading
to computer disks and in the 1990s to e-mailing through the Internet.
Coming Impacts
The most recent advance in reprography is the move from analog photographic
process to digital scanning. This is a robust and differentiated marketplace
with competition among Bell & Howell, Cannon, Ricoh, and 3-M. The
Reuther Library is considering three types of equipment. One is a volume
machine replete with a hopper feeder, collation bins, and automatic stapler.
Secondly, our reference room will trade in its microfilm reader/printer
for a significantly enhanced product. Third, the conservation lab will
get a "Cadillac." The new machine has an oversize scanning area
and can cradle delicate materials. Its microprocessor will correct for
curvatures in the page and remove the image of a finger holding down the
page. The technology offers other equally intriguing prospects and implications:
- Although
the first copy is slower than with analog machines, warm-up time is
shorter.
- The "scan
once, print many" feature reduces the physical scanning for large
jobs and allows for efficient storage for recurring jobs.
- Storage
is in the computer's temporary RAM (random access memory) as standard
TIFF files, which offer crisp and exact output (utilizing non-lossy
compression).
- Identifying
marks and time stamps can be automatically embedded in the image. You
may also be able to embed electronic watermarks or signatures.
- Files
are available for faxing or e-mailing.
- Machines
can be tied into a local area network for remote control and collective
action; e.g., several copiers could be tied together for large jobs.
- The printer
is separate and can be networked into a LAN as a remote station for
a variety of jobs.
- Use can
be monitored and for the first time we can actually capture or identify
the images being scanned.
- Images
can be exported for fine-tuning by imaging software, converted to text
by optical character recognition (OCR) systems, saved as PDF files to
preserve the original layout, or to JPEGs for posting on the Web.
Policies,
Law, and Copy Centers
Like photocopiers before, digital copiers usher in concerns. The first centers
on the law. Legal may be more significant than economic factors and have
become more prominent in response to the Web. The Digital Millennium Copyright
Act (DMCA) of 1998 brought implied challenges to Fair Use and Section 117
exclusions for computer programs. I predict that digital copiers will heighten
the tension. They will likely stimulate direct attacks against archival
and library exceptions under Section 108. And, the additional kinds of management
tools available with the equipment may lead to calls for heightened policing
and screening of users (4).
Copying policies thus need to be dusted off and reconsidered. On one hand,
repositories must insure that the increased ability to monitor does not
inadvertently jeopardize users' rights to privacy. On the other, a proactive
stance on copyright protection is in order. Even if the repository is only
concerned with replacing existing photocopiers, it must be on guard. Its
policies should clearly proclaim:
- Scanning
files are temporary, a one-shot application to reproduce an in-kind
copy on paper.
- Patron
copy stations are limited to printed output.
- In-house
duplication services, especially for items in copyright, are similarly
print only.
I doubt that
we will be able to stop at one-time duplication. Digitization and "scan
once, print many" features are simply too powerful to curtail. The
service bureau would lose the economies of storing files for subsequent
uses; e.g., for the production of course packets. Direct user access to
scanned files offers great possibilities, but would need to be carefully
handled for copyright clearance. Moreover, successful legal challenges to
Fair Use exemptions could even force our institutions to use the monitoring
capacities of digital copiers to assist with the collection of royalties.
Management
Other administration topics come to the table. Management must look at the
bottom line. At present, digital equipment is more expensive than analog.
But we can expect that prices will decline. Per-item charges appear to be
lower, and the new machines are touted as more reliable. Although I have
become fond of our copier repair people, the thought of not seeing them
so frequently is interesting. You may want to pull out your spreadsheets,
monitor prices, and consider delaying or phasing in purchases.
Digital copiers offer interesting synergies. For example, the duplication
of newspaper clippings and the like for vertical files automatically becomes
a scanning exercise. Instead of a dedicated project, local treasures of
archival materials are copied and stored as byproducts of duplication orders.
As the inevitable cycle of replacing old copiers proceeds, every repository
gains the technology to build its own digital archives. This change brings
different copyright questions. Do you want to protect the institution's
ownership, especially when publishing to the Web? You could choose to embed
an ownership mark in the image or a digital watermark (Note: digital signatures
or watermarks in the original TIFF file may be lost or degraded in transit
to a JPEG or PDF on the Web). Photographic and pictorial images add to the
mix. While one could mount detailed images for downloading, most institutions
may be comfortable with JPEG thumbnails. These provide users with serviceable
access to the image, but not high-quality reproductions.
Given the lure of the Web, management will need to consider allied formatting
questions. One can argue that a letter from Thomas Jefferson demands a faithful
reproduction. Adobe's PDF format presents a different option for duplicating
a page image and helping to insure the authenticity. Yet, many researchers
are only looking for online searching without regard to original layout.
Are there justifiable reasons for maintaining an in-house genealogy collection,
archival finding aids, or guides to area resources in print view? HTML or
XML documents will likely suffice. You may also want to ask:
- How much
do you put on the Web?
- Is the
aim complete public access or to tease people to research in-house?
- Are there
financial prospects to be examined and are you afraid to "give
away the store?"
- Are there
privacy, legal, or political factors that mitigate against mounting
certain materials?
Preservation
processing with digital copiers leaves us on murky ground. The purist understands
that reformatting is for access and not true archival preservation. Results
are without artifactual values such as by-products of aging, aesthetics,
physical features (like bindings) along with the autographs or provenance.
Digital images are also not directly readable by humans and will not last
as long as their paper alternatives. Still, digital copiers have preservation
management implications. They insure that some version will persist and
reduce wear and tear on the original documents.
Digital preservation schemes for published materials
are blossoming. The U.S. Government is pushing for digital preservation
through the Portable Document Delivery Format and Federal Information Processing
Standard. Discussions rage on metadata standards and the implications of
XML and RDF. OCLC and RLG are looking at long-range retention through NASA's
OAIS (Open Archival Information System) reference model. The call is sounded
for elite "trusted" repositories (5).
What will happen to the preceding scenarios with the advent of digital copiers?
Will digital copiers democratize preservation and disburse it among thousands
of local initiatives, much like the haphazard legacy of the scribal era?
Will the process of saving the documentary heritage become the province
of the copy center? Will users find the documentary heritage through Web
software search engines, which do not pay attention to the Dublin Core or
other specialized preservation tagging?
Concluding Thoughts
In sum, the onset of digital copiers opens a number of questions. This quiet
invasion surely demands that all repositories examine their preservation
and copying policies. History seems to offer some helpful perspectives from
the introduction of the photocopier. But, I am most struck by the potential
for digital archives. A new technology in the Web era may even restore librarianship
with a scribal mission, which it lost in the print revolution.
Footnotes
(1) Elizabeth
Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, 2 vol. (New York:
Cambridge, 1979) remains the key volume on the Guttenberg revolution e.g.,
See: "How Revolutionary was the Print Revolution, American Historical
Review, 107 (February 2002): 84-128. (back)
(2) The mass culture and nationalization thesis was put
forth in my article, "Censorship During the Initial Phase of Library
Professionalization," Journal of Library History, 18 (1983): 37-54.
(back)
(3) Copyright:
Title 17 US Code (back)
(4) Library of Congress Copyright Office, Study
Required by Section 104 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 2001. (back)
(5) JSTOR;
Making of America, http://moa.umdl.umich.edu/
& http://moa.cit.cornell.edu/moa;
OAIS; Kizer
Walker, "Integrating
a Free Digital Resource: The Status of Making of America in Academic Library
Collections, RLG DigiNews, Feb 15, 2002; Robin Dale & Meg
Bellinger, "Collaboration
between RLG and OCLC With Digital Archiving Initiatives," RLG
DigiNews, Dec. 15, 2001; OAIS.
(back)
Publishing
Information
RLG DigiNews
(ISSN 1093-5371) is a newsletter conceived by the members of the Research
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