First Steps: Basic Preservation Techniques and Strategies

10/5/1998
NELA Annual Conference
Providence, RI

Presented by the New England Technical Services Librarians (NETSL) at the New England Library Association's Annual Conference, Providence RI

Jane Hedberg, Serials Librarian and Preservation Administrator, Wellesley College Library, presented an informal but thorough talk on basic preservation strategies applicable to libraries of all types. She first gave definitions of "preservation" and "conservation" as the terms are currently understood in the United States:

"Preservation: The overarching term for all the activities which contribute to extending the useful life of library materials. This includes the activities that affect whole collections (environmental control, disaster preparedness, etc.), as well as conservation treatments for individual items. Conservation: The general term for treatments which extend the useful life of individual items. For general collections, the term collections conservation refers to the treatments which are appropriate for items which have little or no artifact value (book repair, commercial binding, etc.). For special collections, conservation refers to the treatments which stabilize and strengthen, while changing the object as little as possible."

These concepts are contrasted with restoration, which involves returning an artifact to its original condition. This activity is probably not appropriate for most items in library collections, as we rarely try to hide the fact that that they&39;ve "lived a life."

Ms. Hedberg gave the "Prime Directive" for any preservation effort: that it should fit the mission of the institution. In other words, although certain basic procedures are generally recommended for all collections, there is no generic "preservation plan" that must be followed by every library. With that said, she outlined four strategies to consider in developing efforts for local collections.

Strategy I: "An ounce of prevention worth at least two pounds of cure." It is simpler, cheaper and more efficient in the long run to forestall problems than to deal with them once they arise. The first strategy includes care and handling practices, disaster preparedness, and environmental control.

A. Sound care and handling practices involve taking steps to avoid damage in the movement and physical processing of materials. Alkaline materials are preferred for processing, although this isn&39;t crucial for temporary items such as routing slips. When moving materials around the library (in-library transit), one should take care not to overload book trucks or your own arms, since dropping books jars the text block away from the book cover. As for book drops, they're an "invention of the devil." If they must be used, you can mitigate the bad effects by cushioning the fall or shortening the distance. (This brings to mind the case, not mentioned by Ms. Hedberg, of the book drop where returned items plummeted to the staff rest room floor.) Book drops should also be located away from the building, since they attract arson, the major cause of library fires.

Shelved books should stand upright and be supported on both sides. Books that are hung on their foredges will pull away from their hinges. Bookends should be wide enough that shelvers and patrons will see them, rather than "knifing" pages with the bookend. For photocopying, the use of edge photocopiers is encouraged, so books are opened at an angle rather than mashed flat on the glass. As for interlibrary loan, the basic guideline is simply not to loan anything at risk, and to take care that items are packaged and shipped safely.

B. Disaster preparedness does not necessarily mean gathering reams of data, but is primarily a matter of having an educated staff who know the strategy to use in a given situation. Building risk assessment, scanning the environment for nearby hazards, is the first element in a disaster plan. Risks to look for include sources of water, fire, and contamination (from factories, trains, airports, etc.). Weather and geologic risks, such as snowstorms and hurricanes, are also important considerations. Collections risk assessment involves looking for hazardous locations inside the building, including plumbing, skylights, basements, and HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) ducts. The risk of fire, incidentally, is much higher if a building is under construction. If you cannot move the collection away from the construction area, then you need to mount a fire watch every day.

Once the risks to building and collections are assessed, a disaster plan will include steps for mitigating them, or minimizing their potential to cause damage. Special or particularly valuable collections should be moved to safer locations, and fire protection and suppression systems should receive regular maintenance. Priorities should be set, to determine what sections of the collection should be saved first. This has to be decided in advance, not in the heat of the moment. Document these decisions as part of your plan, which also should include telephone contacts. (In New England, the Northeast Document Conservation Center should be first on the telephone list, at 978-478-1010.) Finally, train and then re-train staff. Many people in the organization must be involved in a disaster plan. Key staff may very well be absent or unreachable, and those on the scene must be able to move ahead in their absence.

C. Environmental control concerns include light, temperature and humidity, and air quality. Light is a catalyst for oxidation, which leads to fading and weakening of materials. Ultraviolet (UV) light is the most dangerous in this regard. UV filters are recommended, as well as the use of drapes or shades, or any strategy that limits exposure (including shutting off the lights when nobody is using a stack area). Fluctuations of heat and humidity also accelerate deterioration, including mold growth. Temperatures should not rise above seventy degrees, as measured with a real thermometer, not an often unreliable thermostat. Humidity levels should remain between 30 and 50 percent. These are the recommendations for paper, and will differ for other formats, which makes it difficult to store mixed collections. Since HVAC systems don't adjust humidity, a humidifier/dehumidifier may be necessary. Air quality is important because particulates abrade materials, as if mini-sandblasters were being used, and air pollution contains gases which may catalyze acids. Damage can be reduced here through vacuuming and dusting, and a regular change of HVAC filters. Photocopiers generate ozone, and should be located away from collections.

Strategy II: "Win friends and influence people." This is a call for patron education, since most damage to materials comes from library users. Staff training is important here again, so that everyone realizes that preservation is everyones job and takes place all the time. Libraries can be creative here with publicity efforts, such as producing bookmarks with preservation information, and small steps, such as providing plastic bags to patrons during the rain.

Strategy III: "Don't neglect the small stuff." This addresses what you can do to help preserve individual items. Bindings should conform to Library Binding Institute standards. To enhance the visual appeal of bound books, the original jackets can be saved and reused. Some binders can scan the cover image and include it in the binding itself. Simple book repairs, which include hinge tightening, and fixing paper tears and damaged jackets, can hold off the need for complicated, expensive repairs later on. The type of tape used for paper tears will depend on the needs of the collection: high-circulation items which are likely to be soon replaced can be fixed with household adhesive tape, whereas volumes that are intended to last should be repaired with wheat starch paste and Japanese tissue.

Regarding the question of whether to copy or reformat materials for preservation, a variety of strategies are available, depending again on the nature of the collection and patron base. These range from simply purchasing a reprint of the item to preservation photocopying. Some vendors are now publishing out of print items on demand, bypassing the need for older materials to come back into print. As for digital copying, at present this strategy is good for access but more problematic for preservation. Relatively high cost, combined with the rapid obsolescence of technical platforms, make this option risky.

Strategy IV: "Preservation is a management problem." A well-conceived preservation effort will mean that several important decisions must be made at the start. The first efforts should be those that 1) affect large parts of the collection at once, 2) solve major problems, and 3) show quick success. Beginning with problems that are intractable, for physical, political, or staffing reasons, will mean the likely failure of a preservation initiative. Always ask two questions: How much difference will this make (the impact question)? How likely is it to work (the feasibility question)?

Ms. Hedberg began her talk by noting the gratifying attendance at this program, as compared with sparsely-attended programs in the 1980s. It seems that preservation is a topic which has entered the technical services mainstream. She concluded with a quotation from Yogi Berra, which can serve as a preservation guideline for libraries of all types: "You can observe a lot just by watching."

David Miller
Levin Library, Curry College
Milton, Mass. 02186

RESOURCES FOR PRESERVATION
compiled by Jane Hedberg

For Information on Almost Any Preservation Topic:
Conservation Online (CoOL)
Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC)

Care & Handling Practices
[Sherelyn Ogden], "Storage Methods and Handling Practices," in Preservation of Library and Archival Materials: A Manual, ed. Sherelyn Ogden, rev & expanded ed. (Andover, MA: Northeast Document Conservation Center, 1994). 3rd ed. will be available in Feb. 1999 on the NEDCC website.

"Living Through Loans: Guidelines for Preserving ILL Material." (Newton, MA: NELINET, 1996). Available on NELINET website.

Disaster Preparedness
[Sherelyn Ogden], "Security From Loss: Water and Fire Damage, Biological Agents, Theft and Vandalism," in NEDCC manual (see above).

Beth Lindblom and Karen Motylewski, "Disaster Planning," in NEDCC manual (see above).

Environmental Control
[Sherelyn Ogden], "Temperature, Relative Humidity, Light and Air Quality: Basic Guidelines for Preservation," in NEDCC manual (see above).

"Low-Cost/No Cost Improvements in Climate Control." Northeast Document Conservation Center Technical Leaflet.

Staff & Patron Education
Jeanne Drewes and Julie Page, Promoting Preservation Awareness in Libraries: a Sourcebook for Academic, Public, School and Special Collections (Greenwood Press, 1997).

Binding
Paul A. Parisi and Jan Merrill-Oldham, eds., Library Binding Institute Standard for Library Binding (Austin: Library Binding Institute, 1986).

Jan Merrill-Oldham and Paul Parisi, Guide to the Library Binding Institute Standard for Library Binding (Chicago: American Library Association, 1990).

Book Repair
Check NELINET training calendar for beginning and intermediate book repair sessions.

Dartmouth College repair manual