Preservation Census: An Examination of the Bibliography/Rare Books Collection in the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library.

A preservation census was conducted of selected Dewey ranges of the volumes located in the mezzanine area of the Social Science Department of the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library main branch. This collection is housed in a non-circulating, semi-supervised stack area and includes approximately 500 volumes in the fields of bibliography and rare books and manuscripts. The unusual nature of this collection in a mid-western, medium-sized public library was verified by bibliographic searching and tabulation using the OCLC bibliographic data base. A short narrative history of the collection's development was developed using archives and interviews. Information gathered during a de visa examination of the collection was used to generate statistics relating to the history of the collection's development and its present physical condition, and was used to report the data in a usable, informative manner for use in planning for future preservation efforts. Four appendixes contain: Interview Questions; Acquisition Numbers by Years; Herbert Sewell Staff Memorandum; and Field Examination Form. Fourteen graphs and eight tables summarize and illustrate the findings of the study. (Contains 40 references.) (Author/ALF)