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.