Unfortunately, the condition of collections will deteriorate anticipated to a combo of elements such as: limited and careless use and handling of the documents; terribly manipulated environmental conditions; and incorrect storage. Additionally, many modern materials are less durable (e. g. newspaper and bindings created after about 1850, manuscripts, photographs). A good preservation insurance plan must guarantee access to the info and minimize record deterioration. Thus, preservation is a main responsibility of all archival and collection services possessing documents of countrywide heritage importance.
Also preventive conservation is vital as it aims to reduce risks of deterioration: environmental control; regular maintenance and security of the series by using appropriate treatment, anti-theft devices and creating surrogate documents for heavily-used original documents.
Causes of deterioration may be internal or external, external causes fall under several categories:
Mechanical Forces
The origin of these causes may be natural (earthquake), accidental (collapse of an roofing or a shelf), or real human (handling, but also vibrations from a active road near by).
Mechanical deterioration is most frequently triggered by poor handling of documents while they are really being moved, distributed around viewers, photocopied or photographed.
These risks are normally handled by the security service. Fraud, like vandalism, can lead to the total lack of the object or document. Works of war can be included in this category.
Fire
Fire is a danger for all choices, but organic and natural materials are particularly vulnerable. Fires cause wide-spread damage and substantial losses.
Water
Water is a serious threat to collections. The destruction may be credited to: leaking pipes, leaking roofs, flooded waterways, hurricanes, and fire-fighting. Once the water damage is not uncovered with time, or when rescue measures are insufficient for the size of the disaster, then further harm is generally caused by mould.
Biological Agents
Gaseous pollutants catalyze chemical type deterioration of materials by oxidation and hydrolysis, former mate: sulfur dioxide or nitrous oxides and ozone from automobiles and industry, and formaldehyde escaping from certain materials (real wood, textiles, papers) found in exhibitions or for storage.
Solid contaminants cause mechanical deterioration by abrasion and encourage the spread of mould and pests, ex: soot, dust particles and debris.
Light
Light options, daylight as well as electric equipment and lighting, all emit in variable proportions electromagnetic waves that are unseen to us. On either side of the noticeable spectrum there are ultraviolet and infrared radiations. Ultraviolet radiation is of higher energy than obvious radiation and triggers photochemical deterioration. Infrared radiation causes deterioration by heating system of matter itself or of its immediate environment specifically by affecting the amount of relative humidity of the environment. Visible rays itself carries certain risks, as it still bears enough energy to cause changes at molecular level.
Temperature and relative humidity are associated parameters. Comparative humidity is thought as the relationship between the quantity of normal water vapor covered by a given volume of air at confirmed temperature, and the utmost quantity of water vapor which this same size can contain at the same temp.
The levels and fluctuations of relative humidity have a much higher impact on the majority the different parts of library and archive documents.
Because of the interdependence of temperature and relative humidity it is vital to always control both parameters simultaneously.
Excessively high relative humidity: over 65 %) brings about the proliferation of mould and rapid corrosion of metals.
Excessively low comparative humidity: leads to dehydration of organic materials which then become delicate.
Fluctuating relative humidity: they lead to mechanical stresses of differing degrees (expansion, shrinking).
Excessively low temperature: make plastic material materials delicate and boosts RH.
Excessively high temperature: increase the deterioration of unpredictable materials (acid newspaper, nitrate motion pictures, cellulose acetate videos and color movies).
Preservation of Different Archival Materials
Graphic Materials Preventive Measures
Light: its power and composition:
Light intensity must not exceed 50 lux, IR excluded, duration of lamps must not go beyond three months for a screen period of 8 time a day at 50 lux. Which is applied in the showcases of the manuscripts museum.
Climate Control:
Temperature of 20 C +/- 2 C, relative humidity of 50 % +/-10 % recommended.
Combating pollution and biological agencies: Guarded against polluting of the environment, never to bring organic materials like foodstuffs, unauthorized cardboard packaging material into storage areas, regular inspection and precautionary treatment of the building (cleaning, sampling, etc. ).
Handling, moving and using documents:
Documents should not be shelved too securely or too loosely mutually, and force should never be used to place a doc or a pot on a shelf.
Metal coated cabinets are more suitable over solid wood ones due to the acidic vapors that go up from some types of real wood.
Books must be put upright and placed firmly constantly in place, they should not be put on the backbone or on the fore-edge, and Literature in boxes must be laid even for transportation.
For deteriorated manuscripts with weakened spine if indeed they were located upright this might lead to more tearing and deterioration, so we are running a task to put our assortment of about 5000 manuscripts after their cleaning and paperwork of their deterioration conditions in acid-free containers horizontally to protect them in a much better way.
The researcher must be up to date of the fundamental rules for handling documents.
Microfilms Preventive Measures
Climatic control:
The humidity level is kept above 25 percent25 % and below about 60 %60 % and heat at 16 C +/- 2 C.
Combating air pollution and biological providers.
Handling, moving and using microfilm materials.
Monitoring System
On an everyday bases the temps and relative humidity are measured and modified with the building management system (BMS) and any deviation in the readings is handled instantly, to be able to ensure our collection is in the right storage space and display environmental conditions.
Objects are checked out for apparent fungal disease.
Settle plates are opened up for one hour in the storage area and screen areas, and arbitrary swabs are used.
Silica gel is used to maintain RH in the showcases of the Manuscript Exhibition Gallery which is regenerated 4 times a year.
Biological Agencies: Inspection and Treatment
The materials of which collection and archive choices are composed, specifically paper, parchment, palm leaves, birch bark, leather and adhesives found in bookbinding, are vunerable to two main kinds of deterioration. Is biological deterioration induced by insect attack and/or fungal growth, and the other form of deterioration is caused by adverse environmental conditions such as extremes of dampness or large fluctuations in relative humidity associated with large variations in day and night temps, light and atmospheric pollutants. These two forms of deterioration are interconnected because humid conditions favor the progress of fungi and accumulations of dust and mud will attract insects.
Where there is condensation or moisture credited to high wetness, there's always the occurrence of biological growths such molds or fungi, insects and rodents causing infestation. Biological brokers attack newspaper and other organic materials when both temps and dampness are uncontrolled. Also, man's negligence also favors the progress and proliferation of bugs. The following manifests such negligence:
- Accumulations of dirt and particles from poor or careless housekeeping methods;
- Introduction of foodstuff to storage and display areas;
- Entry of insect-infested items into the collection;
- Open glass windows, air vents or improperly sealed windows and doors;
- Unattended roof structure leaks and cracks in a deteriorated building; and,
- Poor venting.
Rodents and bugs are the worst foes of literature and other organic materials that are cellulose in nature. The materials contain proteins and carbohydrates in the form of sizing, paste or starches, and other organic substances attractive to insects. The nature and level of the harm hinge not only on the insect and materials, but also about how promptly the infestation is learned and controlled. Harm may vary from a few holes to complete destruction.
Insects
The most frequent types of insects that attack paper objects, literature components or generally archival materials in every its different forms are:
Termites, Silverfish, Firebrat, Cockroaches, Booklice, Moths, Beetles, Weevils
Stabilization
Using a temperatures fluctuating incubator: Freezing and home heating kills insects securely and effectively generally, temperature is fluctuated between -20o c to 48o c, this fluctuation does not give the insect an opportunity to adapt to the encompassing environment heat range as the temp maintains changing and these leads to its loss of life.
Microorganisms
Microbes are ubiquities in all environments and a catalogue is a potential variety for many different kinds of microorganisms that are moved by guests and personnel to the historical things and vice versa resulting in both an infection of things and a health threat to catalogue, archive staff creating to them several conditions, e. g. sensitive diseases, mycoses, or toxicity.
Egyptian climate creates advantageous environmental conditions for the expansion and proliferation of a wide range of cellulose degrading fungi and bacteria because of the relatively high humidity and heat range. So if literature or manuscripts were put through these conditions they are most likely to be infected by microorganisms.
When dealing with a microbial infestation the next steps are done:
Microbiological Inspection
We start by examining the archival material first aesthetically for obvious microbe infections, then by isolation on culture mass media for non-obvious infections in order to plan the technique of treatment.
Fungi Static Procedures
Infected literature & manuscripts are put in a great temperatures incubator (except those with parchment binding) at -10 to -20o c for five days. This step puts a stop to the progress of mainly all living organisms on condition they are stored or shown in the right conditions soon after for preventing microorganisms from growing back. These conditions are 18-22oc and 40-60% of heat range and comparative humidity respectively.
A sample is taken over a nutritive media to identify and quantify the bacteria and/or fungi infecting or contaminating the archive material to help make a decision the way of treatment and then for further clinical tests.
After sampling, the plates are incubated for seven days under advantageous environmental conditions.
After incubation, evaluation is done by means of stereomicroscope and compound microscope and identification is made predicated on morphological qualities.
Microbiological Treatment
Dry pre-cleaning of the archival materials is done for safer handling & to avoid going out of stains in paper if the treatment is done without removal of fungal particles and spores.
This step is an essential as it makes the archival materials more safe for even more handling by chemists and restorers to protect them from the damaging allergic ramifications of fungal spores caused by their touching and inhalation.
After dry pre-cleaning the disinfection or treatment method is recommended as you of two ways:
- An aqueous disinfection for non-bleeding inks by an extremely low concentration of an hypochlorite solution followed by de-chlorination to remove excess chlorine and also to stop its result.
- A non-aqueous disinfection for bleeding inks using diluted alcohols that are applied by spraying or by natural cotton swabbing.
Chemical Inspection And Treatment:
Physical diagnoses of the book or manuscript is essential to determine the degree of harm and the type of treatment, usually chemical deterioration is discovered then the e book or the manuscript (archive) goes through pretreatment types of procedures and chemical substance treatment.
Chemical Deterioration:
Due to the hydrogen ion present in the archival materials (external or internal factors), the archive have problems with acidity which in turn causes deterioration of many valuable rare catalogs and manuscripts and business lead with their complete damage Thus, neutralization of the acid solution content of the archival materials is essential. That is done by treating the archive with basics. The base varies according to the material composition.
Chemical inspection entails pretreatment steps and chemical Treatments.
Spot testing
It is a test in which a really small amount of chemicals is utilized to identify materials present in the artifact (paper fiber or advertising) only on a tiny microscopic sample. Recognition depends on noticeable color change, precipitate formation or gas evolution to recognize the sample to be able to predict the perfect way of treatment.
Chemical treatment:
- Paper chemical treatments
- Leather chemical substance treatments
- Parchment chemical treatments
- Disinfection
Paper chemical treatments
- Aqueous treatment
- Washing
- De-acidification
- Drying & sizing
- Non-aqueous treatment "manuscript treatment"
- Spraying for delicate papers
- Cotton swabbing application
Aqueous treatment
Washing
Placing paperwork in a tepid to warm water bath.
Fragile paper de-acidification
Direct immersing of acidic, oxidized newspaper in alkaline solution may cause some breakage of cellulosic fibers.
Short immersing of the same paper in a concentrated neutral sodium solution, Efficiently neutralizes the paper sheet where an ion exchange occurs as acidic hydrogen ions H+ in the cellulosic materials exchange with the cation until equilibrium is come to.
Alkaline rinse is followed to remove extra salt and complete de-acidification going out of an alkaline reserve.
Disinfection
Disinfection is put on papers (books or manuscripts), leather and parchment in case of fungal strike. A disinfecting chemical dissolved in either liquor or drinking water is applied to destroy the micro-organisms. The answer is prepared according to the nature of the materials attacked (newspaper, leather or parchment) and the type of the ink ( printed out, carbonic or flat iron gall ink). Leaf Casting
Leaf casting can be an automated repair process which is employed for printed documents by using acid-free sterilized pulp in order to complete holes and programs made by bugs in newspaper and mend tears and reductions.
The concept of leaf casting machines is the suction of your determined amount of pulp dissolved in water which complete the empty areas.
These machines were produced and produced by the leaf casting team, in several sizes to be suited to the restored materials (for example a large machine is essential to restore an enormous map), except for the original the one which emerged as a donation from Gomaa El-Maged Middle. Also, the pulp used is prepared by the leaf casting team.
The chemistry and microbiology of conservation of archival materials is a fresh developing science which have several dimensional prospects. For one to are a conservator he will need well knowledge of inorganic, organic and natural and analytical chemistry, microbiological checks and identification skills, environmental sciences and conservation principles.
So we categorize our training system into two main categories, the first is for particular students that contain a scientific qualifications and one for non specialised students. Specialized students will have the capacity to comprehend the mechanisms of every step of treatment and screening, while non specialized students is only going to understand the overall concept minus the technicality that lies within every step.
Based on that people have to know the area of expertise of the trainees and their potential to understand ideal to start to decide the type of training they will receive. This is done by evaluating their C. V. and making an inquiry to help us make a decision. For that we have well prepared a series of lectures and a program of useful training for both categories.
