National Library collection turning into dust: Dutch expert

National Library collection turning into dust: Dutch expert

JAKARTA (JP): About 75 percent of the collections of old books
and manuscripts at the National Library in Central Jakarta are in
such bad condition that they need immediate restoration, a Dutch
expert said on Tuesday.

The head of document restoration at the Amsterdam-based
Rijkmuseum, P.M. Poldervaart, said he predicted that within the
next 100 years, hundreds of thousands of the books and
manuscripts would be totally destroyed unless the management took
immediate action.

"I can understand that restoring all the collections at
present would need a large amount of money, but at least the
library's management should set a constant temperature in the
rooms where the collections are, so not to avoid further damage,"
said the visiting restorer who has worked at the Rijkmuseum for
35 years.

Poldervaart said he had witnessed that almost all of the books
and manuscripts at the library were acidified, crumbling or had
fallen apart.

"They will certainly deteriorate further because of the
changing temperature. Everyday the air-conditioning at the
library is turned off after 4:00 p.m. However, in order to
maintain the collections perfectly, they should be put in a room
with a constant temperature of 18 degrees Celsius and 50 percent
humidity," he said.

Poldervaart has been working at the National Library since
January this year, restoring 18th century drawings of Indonesia
and several other countries, which were drawn by Johannes Rach
(1720-1783), a Danish military officer who worked for the Dutch
East Indies Company (VOC).

The library, under the coordination of the Rijkmuseum, plans
to display 50 out of 176 Rach works belonging to the library
sometime this year.

Poldervaart said he was shocked when he saw the poor condition
of the invaluable works by Rach.

"The color of the paper has turned brown due to acidification
and decay," he said.

The works were restored after a two and a half months of work,
led by Poldervaart, along with some of the library's employees.
The process included bathing the works in four different
chemicals.

The restoration was carried out after receiving financial
assistance from the Dutch government, which amounted to about
20,000 guilders (US$8,615) and was spent on equipment alone.

The National Library is home to 1.2 million printed materials
and manuscripts, some 10,000 of which are extremely valuable
because of their age and exclusivity.

"They are old and unique as no copies of these works can be
found anywhere else," the head of the National Library,
Hernandono, said.

"I truly understand that these invaluable collections are in
danger of being totally destroyed, but we can do nothing due to
our low budget," he said, referring to the Rp 11 billion
allocated for the operation of the library from the 2000 state
budget.

He said that with the low budget it would be impossible to
provide the constant temperature required for maintaining the old
collections.

"It would cost us too much if we kept the air-conditioning on
after 4:00 p.m. My staff has even informed me that we have yet to
pay the electricity bills for the last three months," he said.
(ind)