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Microform Standards and the “LC Specs” of 1964

A slim, paper-bound, rather faded document rests on my desk, hastily dug out of the bookshelves. It confirms a recent observation by MR editor Thomas Bourke that I found difficult to believe. The date on the title page is indeed 1964, however, so Tom must be right: the LC Specs—more properly, the Specifications for Library of Congress Microfilming—are now twenty-five years old. Tom's suggestion that I write a brief recollection of the background and circumstances of its publication brings back a variety of memories: from the trivial—the "sight gag" by the Library of Congress staff in choosing the color of the cover (salmon)—to the serious—the state of standards development in the microform industry in 1964.