Group members:

 

Jeffrey Zarate

Email: jzarate@kent.edu

 

J.B. Collier

Email: thejabernaut@hotmail.com

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The definition of conservation and preservation from the Online Dictionary of Library & Information Science:

 

CONSERVATION

Physical or chemical intervention to ensure the survival of manuscripts, books, and other documents, for example, the storage of materials under controlled environmental conditions or the treatment of mildew-infected paper with a chemical inhibitor. Non-invasive techniques are preferred as a means of preserving items in their original condition. In a more general sense, any measures taken to protect archival or library collections from damage or deterioration, including initial examination, documentation, treatment, and preventive care supported by research. Current ethical standards require respect for the historical integrity of the item. A person educated, trained, and experienced in such procedures is a conservator. Click here connect to COOL (Conservation OnLine): Resources for Conservation Professionals, a project of the Preservation Department of the Stanford University Libraries. See also: conservation binding, conservation center, and conservation survey.

 

PRESERVATION

Prolonging the existence of library and archival materials by maintaining them in a condition suitable for use, either in their original format or in a form more durable, through retention under proper environmental conditions or actions taken after a book or collection has been damaged to prevent further deterioration. Former Yale University conservator Jane Greenfield lists the factors affecting the condition of books as light, temperature, relative humidity, pollution, inherent vice, biological attack, human error (including improper storage and handling), deliberate mutilation, and disasters (The Care of Fine Books, Nick Lyons Books, 1988).

 

Online Dictionary of Library & Information Science

 

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Background Information on Preservation and Conservation

 

 

It is important to point out that people have been recording and saving information for centuries in many different forms. We can look back 32,000—40,000 years ago with cave paintings, followed later by hieroglyphics on stone tablature, followed by old manuscripts on papyrus, and parchment, and followed by the invention of the Gutenberg printing press—all of which made getting information a lot more accessible through the centuries. But in today’s age, we have computers, the Internet, as well as digital media on which we store our information.

 

 

Over the course of history as we humans record information about our lives, our past, our knowledge and our culture, we want to save it, and pass it on to future generations. However, not everything gets saved. A lot of information over the centuries has been lost and will never be recovered, but our hope is that a great deal of it does get saved. This is where preservation and conservation comes into play.

 

 

Most of the information we keep today is on paper, which, of course, is what books are made of. Up until the 1830’s and 1840’s, paper was made of linen and cotton rag, which contained cellulosea fibrous material used in the manufacture of paper. However as more and more people were becoming literate, creating the demand for printed material, the demand for more paper rose. A cheaper alternative to linen and cotton rag appeared which was wood pulp. This contained the necessary ingredient of cellulose, and there was an abundant supply. It would seem that the crisis had been averted, but there was a problem with this new form of making paper.

 

 

It was discovered by William J. Barrow in the 1930’s that paper made with wood pulp was very acidic and deteriorated over time. Subsequently, Barrow also came up with a way to remedy the problem with a process called alkalization. Alkalization helped slow down or stop the effects of acids deteriorating the paper. Even though he pointed out this problem, doing anything about it at the time was not seen as an important priority. Bigger problems such as the great depression, and World War II seemed to come to the forefront, and taking action against deteriorating books was put on the back burner.

 

 

It was not until the 1980’s that the brittle book crisis became a national issue. Some books were brittle to the touch and the paper would just crumble. Many agencies, groups and task forces were formed to deal with the problem at hand. The Council on Library Resources (CLR) created the Committee on Preservation and Access in 1984 which addressed these issues. They sought to assess the status of the collections around the country  and formulated three strategies:

 

1) convince publishers and printers to use alkaline paper

2) explore the feasibility of deacidification

3) preserve the body of printed information in a master copy format

 

In 1988 of the 305 million volumes in Academic and Research libraries, 25% were brittle. (Abby Smith, Future of the Past: Preservation in American Research Libraries.)

 

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Pioneers in the Field of Conservation and Preservation

 

William J. Barrow (1904-1967)

Barrow is considered to be an innovator in preservation and conservation of printed material. He is best known for his discoveries and inventions relating to paper chemistry. He is credited with discovering the cause of paper deterioration and claimed to have invented the process called alkalization (a highly effective means to de-acidify paper, which would slow its deterioration).

 

Paul N. Banks (1934-2000)

Banks raised awareness of preservation and conservation in libaries and archives. He created a preservation program in the field of libray science at Columbia University. He sought to provide education and training for preservationists and conservators. He created an award which was an annaual grant of $1500 recognizing contributions in the field of preservation and conservation.

 

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Deterioration factors: Things that effect the deterioration of paper (George M. Eberhart, The Whole  Library Handbook).

 

Acids - belong to a class of chemicals that have different strengths and properties but which all have a pH value of below7.0. Acids will accelerate the deterioration of paper and photographs. 

 

Acid Migration - is the transfer of acidity from one document or photograph to another either from physical contact or acidic vapors. 

 

Environment - the external infuences which chemically alter the composition of paper and, thus, accelerate their deterioration.

 

Insects - eat away at the pages of the books.

 

Lamination - is an inherently destructive process that reinforces paper through enclosure between two sheets of chemically unstable plastic by sealing it with heat or acidic adhesives. 

 

Lignin - is an organic bonding material found in wood fiber. The acidic properties of lignin have a deteriorating effect on paper and photographs.

 

Natural Diasters - floods and fires also have caused damage to books over time.

 

Mechanical pulping - (ground wood pulp) is a process that involves grinding wood into short-length fibers. Mechanically pulped paper retains most of its wood based impurities and processing chemicals and therefore, tends to be weak and chemically unstable.

 

Mold - micro organisms that attack th structural stability of books.

 

Ultraviolet Radiation (UV) - is a short-wave light spectrum that alters the chemical composition of paper and photographs.

 

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The Future of Preservation in the Digital Age, and Learning From Our Past

 

 

     The problems we faced with the brittle book crisis, due to rapid paper deterioration are important to consider when designing the future. The acidic qualities of paper made from wood pulp robbed us of our past. The question of whether or not we will repeat our past mistakes in the digital age is something that we are still unsure about. The longevity of digital media has not been determined and issues related to funding, preserving technology and constant changes in technology weigh heavily on the minds of preservationists and conservators. New discoveries, ideas, events and important works written or otherwise have a huge impact on how we as humans live and contribute to our history and our cultural heritage. Scholars depend on authentic evidence in their research  and if we lose this connection to the past at any point in our history, humanity as a whole suffers. This is why prudent judgement in how we preserve is imperative in the decisions we make for the future. Some of the issues that are being taken into account when considering digital longevity according to the Northeast Document Conservation Center Handbook for Digital Projects (Maxine K. Sitts, Andover, Mass., 2000) are:

 

1) Refreshing  involves periodically moving a file from one physical storage medium to another to avoid the physical decay or the obsolescence of that medium.  Because physical storage devices (even CD-ROMs) decay, and because technological changes make older storage devices (such as 8" floppy drives) inaccessible to new computers, some ongoing form of refreshing is likely to be necessary for many years to come.

 

2) Migration  is an approach that involves periodically moving files from one file encoding format to another that is useable in a more modern computing environment. (An example would be moving a WordStar file to WordPerfect, then to Word 3.0, then to Word 5.0, then to Word 97, and so on.)

Migration seeks to limit the problem of files encoded in a wide variety of file formats that have existed over time by gradually bringing all former formats into a limited number of contemporary formats.

 

3) Emulation  seeks to solve a similar problem that migration addresses, but it's approach is to focus on the application software rather than on the files containing the information. Emulation backers want to build software that mimics every type of application that has ever been written for every type of file format and thereby enable them  to run on whatever the current computing environment is. (So, with the proper emulators, applications like WordStar and Word 3.0 could effectively run on todays machines.)

Both a migration approach and an emulation approach require refreshing.

 

       Computers have made accessing information easier which is extremely beneficial to anyone with immediate information needs. However, the problem of continued availabilty of access to that same information is what needs to be solved. Until this is settled, relying on older, more trusted ways of preservation will have to act as a scaffolding for our history and culture to be preserved responsibly.

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Book Care informational video produced by the preservation department at the University of Florida. http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Newspapers, magazines, and government documents (geneological records such as marriage, birth, and death records). Early forms include Nitrate film (flammable) and cellulose acetate (prone to fading and blemishes). The technology used to utilize microform has remained stable in the last fifty years. Comes in both roll and sheet formats and positive and negative exposures. Microfilm can last up to 300 or more years and is a very stable medium. Possible down sides are that microfilm requires the user to acquire outside information such as dates, general knowledge of the time period first before a search as microfilm is not searchable. In addition, color microfilm is very expensive, so color documents are preserved in black and white.

 

If the human race has produced since the invention of movable type a total record, in the form of magazines, newspapers, books, tracts, advertising blurbs, correspondence, having a volume corresponding to a billion books, the whole affair, assembled and compressed, could be lugged off in a moving van. (Vannevar Bush July 1945 Atlantic Monthly)

 

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Looking down into a Bookkeeper deacidification treatment cylinder. Books are mounted on racks and gently agitated in a milky suspension of magnesium oxide. They are only submerged for about 25 minutes. - Kenneth Harris

 

Image Source: www.acmebook.com

 

 

 

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Optimal environmental temperatures for storage of archival materials or rare books vary between 62 degrees and 52 degrees Farenheit, depending on the facility. This environmental conservation method is most common in academic and special libraries and archives. Unfortunately, not all libraries have the funds available to provide adequate environmental conditions for aging materials.

 

 

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Facsimiles are a digital representation printed and binded to provide continued access to a given item not in any condition to be handled by library patrons. The process involves scanning the original document, printing at a relatively high resolution, hole punching the printed sheets, and fitting them into the appropriate binder for public access.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Compact Disc Repair

Innovation in the digital age has produced a new medium of storage more durable than it's predecessors--the compact disc and the digital versatile disc. Although in many cases more durable, the compact disc is also susceptible to damage from handling. Scratches, cracking, and heat make the laser reader unable to read the data from the disc, and  poses a real threat to the longevity of these media. Machines that repair, or refinish the damage sensitive under side of the CD/DVD prolong the shelf life of the digital storage device.

 

 

Source http://www.rtico.com/ecojr/librjn.html

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The use of technology and particularly digital technology has affected nearly every aspect of library and museum services, from the automation of internal cataloging and management systems to the digitization of physical collections, and from the acquisition of new “borndigital” works of art and library publications to the use of technology to present collections and engage audiences. Digital technology enables the full range of holdings in our museums, libraries, and archives—audio, video, print, photographs, artworks, artifacts, and other resources—to be cataloged, organized, combined, and made accessible to audiences in new ways. It provides the public with new pathways to access museum and library collections and brings them “face-to-face” electronically with librarians, curators, scientists, artists, and scholars. By using technology, rich scientific, historical, aesthetic, and cultural resources can be presented with contextual information that enhances educational value. Source: Institute of Museum and Library Services

 

 

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Preservation Policy

 

 

 

Preservation and conservation policies are closely tied to collections managemant in that the first step is determining what to conserve and how to preserve it.

 

 

Preservation does not exist in isolation. It needs to take account of:

• the aims and objectives of the library,
• its collection development policy,
• its strategic and operational plans,
• the needs of the users,
• the significance of the individual items.
• the place of the library within the local national, and international framework
• Before a preservation policy can be developed and implemented, it is first necessary to have a realistic collection development policy. The publishing of the Library's Collection Development Policy has enabled the production of a written preservation policy where decisions on the preservation and retention of any material can be directly related to its importance to the Library's collections and, through the distributed national collection, to library collections Australia-wide.

 

Source: National Library of Australia

 

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Institutional Implementation

 

 

Pbs Nova program on saving our National Treasures

 

 

Contentdm

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Implications for the Field of Library and Information Science

 

 

Issues & concerns

 

 

• Digital preservation provides increased access

   

• Storage capacity and wider dissemination of material

   

• Optical character recognition for full text searchability 

   

• Continuity of materials

   

• Cost

   

• Storage media in a state of constant change

   

• Migration issues, longevity

   

• Funding, commitment

 

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 Useful links on Conservation and Preservation:

 

Brittle Books Reports of the Committee on Preservation and Access

 

The Future of the Past: Preservation in American Research Libraries

 

National Preservation Institute

http://www.npi.org/

 

Conservation Online

http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/

 

A bill to provide federal formula grants to every state for projects

that preserve historical records and make them more accessible.

http://www.archivists.org/pahr/index.asp

 

Preservation tips from the Library of Congress:

Caring for your collections

 

Damaged CD and DVD repair article from the Library Journal:

To Repair or Not to repair

 

Digital Preservation

Digital Library Federation

 

Case Western Reserve, Kelvin Smith Library

Preservation Department

 

Preservation Policy for the National Library of Australia:

National Library of Australia

 

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