Copies of Scrolls Will Be Made Available to Libraries : Religion: Move by the Huntington virtually assures worldwide public access to the historic texts.

Worldwide public access to the Huntington Library’s prized collection of Dead Sea Scrolls photographs was virtually assured Monday by the announcement that scholars can soon request that a microfilm copy be sent to a local library for individual inspection.

The move further erodes the 40-year monopoly a select group of scholars has exerted over the texts.

Huntington Director William A. Moffett had announced Sunday that scholars would be given unrestricted access to the photographs at the San Marino library.

The microfilmed copies that can be loaned to libraries for use by scholars are not supposed to be copied, Huntington officials said. But most large libraries have equipment for making prints.

“Once someone makes a copy outside of this place,” said the Huntington’s chief photographer, Robert Schlosser, “then there’s no end (to who can see it). It’s so easily and cheaply duplicated.”

Schlosser, who took the photos 11 years ago in Jerusalem, said the entire collection of 3,000 negatives is on two microfilm reels and that a reel can be copied for “about $10.”

But Amir Drori, director of Israel Antiquities Authority, which until now has maintained control of the 2,000-year-old documents in Jerusalem, is threatening legal action. Release of the photos by the Huntington would be “both a breach of contract and of ethics,” he said Sunday.

Moffett sent a three-paragraph letter to Drori late Monday defending the library’s position not to back down from its decision. The contents of the letter were not disclosed.

“It’s up to Israel to make it public and respond,” Moffett said through a spokeswoman.

There was a flurry of phone calls and media attention Monday at the usually placid library, although scholars weren’t lined up at the gates of the immaculately kept grounds waiting to examine the photos. But the “phones were ringing off the hook,” according to office workers unaccustomed to all the excitement and the presence of representatives from major news organizations at the internationally known research institution.

“A lot of people are wanting to know why there’s been so much secrecy and what they are trying to hide,” said Deborah Moffett, the director’s wife, who was helping out as a volunteer in the busy library office.

Other callers included people who wanted to know when or how they could see facsimiles of the prized documents, groups wanting to publish translations and media members requesting interviews with Moffett.

While a New York television show called “The God Squad” was asking for “stock photos” and an NBC photographer was waiting to snap the scroll negatives--which have been sequestered in a vault at the Huntington since 1981--Moffett was dashing to an interview with National Public Radio in Los Angeles.

A few scholars also called Monday.

Those who want to view the scrolls on microfilm must apply for “reading privileges” at the Huntington. For college and university faculty who hold a doctorate in the field of their proposed research, it’s easy: They simply present a faculty identification and signature verification, according to an information brochure at the library.

Others with “a legitimate purpose” for using the collection must file an application “supported by two letters of recommendation from scholars in good standing.”

A library worker told would-be viewers who telephoned Monday that they could either come to the library or request that a microfilm copy be sent on loan to their local library.

The general public may eventually be able to view a display of some of the photos at the Huntington, Moffett said.

The Dead Sea Scrolls, one of the most important archeological finds of modern times, contain the books of the Hebrew Bible as well as parchment and papyrus manuscripts chronicling the social and religious background of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

The scrolls include about 800 documents, some intact and others in fragment form. They were discovered between 1947 and 1956 by Bedouin shepherds in what is now the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The actual scrolls are stored in two Jerusalem museums.

Scholars now in charge of the official project, which was originally placed under the control of seven Western scholars in 1953, say that the photographs possessed by the Huntington are in fact stolen and rightfully belong to the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center in Claremont. The scrolls are to be used only by those scholars assigned to work on the mammoth translation project, according to John Strugnell of Harvard University, who until last year was in charge of the official research team.

Between 70% and 80% of the negatives at the Huntington are from shots Schlosser made of negatives that had been previously filmed before 1960. The rest are photos of the scrolls themselves, Schlosser said.

Elizabeth Hay Bechtel, the late philanthropist who founded the manuscript center at Claremont, arranged for Schlosser to travel to Israel to make the photographs. He took most of them during a three-week period in 1980, he said Monday. The negatives are numbered and indexed, but until now the index has not been available to scholars outside the so-called cartel.

“Betty (Bechtel) always felt very strongly that they should be made public--and she felt they would be,” Schlosser said. “I knew from the outset that I would make one set of photographs over there and duplicate it here. The original was to go to the (Claremont) center and the duplicate set was to go to a safe storage location.”

While Bechtel talked about placing the security set--made in case the Claremont copies should be destroyed or stolen--in a bomb vault at Tahoe City in Northern California, they have in fact always been at the Huntington library, Schlosser said.

A rift developed between Bechtel and the Claremont Center, and after Bechtel’s death in 1987, the Huntington acquired legal ownership of the negatives, according to Moffett.

“I think Betty would have approved,” Schlosser said of Moffett’s decision to release the texts to all scholars. “I fulfilled my contract. I was paid to make those negatives and for 10 years I have looked after them here.”

“No damage has been done to anyone by providing access,” added Moffett. “We are calling on the Israel Department of Antiquities to join with us in the spirit of intellectual freedom and not to impose further barriers to scholarship.”