Salvaging and recovering wet library collections

Salvaging and recovering wet library collections

By Rosa Widyawan

JAKARTA (JP): Most disasters in a library involve water, either from the water used to extinguish a fire or from flooding.

When rain drenched Jakarta in January, the resulting floods destroyed more than 7,000 volumes of research reports, 250 journals and 250 bound books owned by the Center of Scientific Documentation and Information of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI). The flood also soaked dozens of books at the ICMI library which is located on Jl. Kebon Sirih, Central Jakarta.

Disasters are likely to strike libraries at night or during weekends or public holidays, when they are unattended or have only a skeleton staff. The fire on a Sunday at the Leningrad library of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1988 is a case in point. Defective wiring turned the library into a flaming inferno which raged for 19 hours before it could be extinguished. A fire razed the National Library of Australia, Canberra on a Sunday at 7 p.m. in 1985.

The worse disaster in library history occurred in 1966 when floods hit Florence in Italy. Water from the overflowing Arno River damaged a million volumes in Florence's Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale. This disaster accelerated the development of library conservation.

Considering the intellectual content of the damaged journals and research reports, the January loss suffered by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences was huge. The center has been collecting and disseminating information on Indonesian science and technology for more than three decades. The collection is critically important in monitoring science and technology indicators in Indonesia. And it plays an important role as a reference for academics and research and development personnel in industry for analysis and planning.

Level of damage

The first step is to identify the level of damage. Then the frequency of a specific item's use and its intellectual content should be defined to determine the importance of a particular volume. This will be easier in a library with good circulation and shelving administration than in a disorganized one. Ideally, one should be able to consult printed or computerized catalogs, bibliographies, indices and abstracts.

The second step is deciding what to do. Although a variety of methods of drying materials have been developed, natural drying is considered the most cost-effective. Drying material in the sunlight in open air is a method widely used all over the world. It works best with damp books rather than completely soaked ones. The books can be stood upright and their pages opened.

The LIPI library used hair driers and electric irons to dry its collection. Work was carried out done carefully, with controlled heat, taking ink tolerance into account. The durability of paper and binding materials should be considered too. These methods are tedious, labor-intensive and time- consuming.

In the United States people have been using freeze-drying since 1972 for drying paper-based materials. Wet books are put into a plastic bag and placed spine down in a box. They are then frozen to a temperature of 21 degrees Celsius or less. The frozen books are then placed in a vacuum chamber in which the boiling point is lowered, and the moisture can be spirited away. However, it is a slow process, with drying runs taking from one and a half to three weeks.

Microwaving is also possible, but this method is still being debated because no-one really knows the effects on paper and binding materials.

When a collection has been recovered the problems are far from over. There will be threads of mold, because the water marks increase humidity and accelerate mold growth. Mold control can be done during freeze-drying. The vacuum chamber can be flooded with CO2 (carbon dioxide) which removes the oxygen necessary for mold growth.

The final step is establishing and carrying out a program to restore the damaged materials. A conservator is badly needed. An evaluation of available conservation options and an estimate of costs should be made. It is important to consider whether a particular collection should be replaced, copied, or transferred into a microfiche or optical media.

Disaster planning

Libraries are always threatened with disasters. It is therefore necessary for decisionmakers in libraries to plan for any eventuality. This can be done by anticipating disasters whenever possible; by making sure that emergency workers understand the nature of library collections and their priorities; and to establish normal conditions after disasters quickly.

A so-called Disaster Response Team (DRT) whose trained members are available at the time of an emergency is useful. A DRT should consist of members who have a sound knowledge of the library collection; senior staff who can make major decisions in a disaster, and improvise solutions from resources at hand should be part of this team.

It is true that salvaging and recovering water damaged collections are important regardless of their intellectual content. However, it is wise to lessen potential damage by planning, so that we can leave our knowledge for future generations. Prevention is better than cure.