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Term: Physical replica

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Term: Physical replica

Definition:
A physical copy of the original item, most often used for books. For many years, library and archive preservation programs made what were called preservation photocopies. In the first years of book scanning at Cornell University (circa 1990-95), the same outcome was sought: the digital images were printed back to paper and rebound, producing a paper book to replace an embrittled original. In today's digital context, this approach has largely been set aside in favor of virtual replicas presented on the Web, typically conjoined with searchable texts.

No clear line demarcates work-a-day replicas from museum-quality facsimiles. Nevertheless, specialists in the field have developed terminology to signal their intentions. At the Library of Congress, for example, the staff of the Geography and Map Division state that their digital reformatting activities produce research quality images (good enough to use to produce a physical replica) but not facsimiles (images good enough to produce a museum-quality facsimile).
Category:
General
See also:
Virtual replica; Museum-quality facsimile or print; Copy negatives and transparencies; Interpositives, duplicate negatives and transparencies