COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2001 Columbia will receive $143,990 from the New York State Program for the Conservation and Preservation of Library Research Materials for a two-year cooperative project to microfilm approximately 1,560 brittle business serial volumes published in New York City since 1870. This is the third phase of a project which began in 1997. Columbia will manage the project; the New York Public Library will contribute volumes to fill out incomplete runs. Among the titles to be filmed are Chain Store Age, Daily Metal Trade, Financial Review, and Daily Financial News.

Columbia will receive $67,900 for a one-year cooperative project to photocopy brittle reference materials. This is the second phase of a project that began last year. Columbia will manage the project and will contribute approximately 40 volumes amounting to over 36,000 pages. The New York Public Library and the University of Rochester together will contribute a further 100 volumes. Among the titles to be photocopied are Grande Enciclopedia Portuguesa e Brasileira, Larouse Mensuel Illustre, and the New York Social Register.

In addition to these projects, Columbia will be participating in a New York State project managed by the New York Public Library. This third project will fund deacidification of 1,700 acidic-paper Urdu volumes from Columbia's collection in each of the next three years. Once deacidified the paper should last for hundreds of years without becoming brittle.