Lecture 2 Part 1: Paper Part 2: Reformatting

The Basics All materials are either: Organic- composed of plant or animal materials Inorganic- composed of rock or mineral composition

Organic Paper Leather Plastic (extracted from plant and animal sources) Textiles

Inorganic Stone Glass Ceramic Metal Austrian alabaster book form box; molded metal " book spine" , floral strap hinges on front, metal "pages", wooden interior. 6 1/8"H. x 4 1/4"W. x 2 3/8"D. Crack in stone extends across upper right corner. From http://www.antiquehelper.com/item/316963 Source: http://www.antiquehelper.com/item/316963

Early Writing Surfaces Clay tablets Basalt slat Papyrus Leather Paper types Source: http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Arts/2011/1116/Dead-sea-scrolls-come-alive A scrap of parchment or papyrus from the scrolls is from ‘The Book of War.’ Israel Antiquities Authority

Clay and Basalt: Clay Tablets: Granite: Basalt: Issues: Mesopatamia Very stable but . . . If left to elements, information can erode away.

Papyrus: Primarily Egypt Thick paper-like material produced form the Papyrus plant. Paper-like = cellulose in nature Has the advantage of being relatively cheap and easy to produce. Amatl or amate Organic material used by Meso-Americans, especially Mayans. Used until the 12 Century.

Papyrus (continued): Papyrus is made form the stem of the plant The outer rind is first stripped off and the sticky fibrous inner pith is cut lengthwise into thin strips. The strips are then placed side-by-side on a hard surface with their edges overlapping. Another layer of strips is laid on top at a right angle. Strips are soaked in water. While still moist, the two layers are hammered together into a single sheet.

Preservation Concerns with Papyrus: In a dry climate like Egypt, papyrus is stable, formed as it is of highly rot-resistant cellulose. Storage in humid conditions can result in molds or bugs destroying the material. Is fragile and susceptible to both moisture and excessive dryness. Went out of use, especially as writing took off in moisture-rich climates. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FNtqAkzpuU&feature=related

Skin Materials: Includes leather and parchment Type of animal and processing method determine the quality of the skin material Leather is stable in a slightly acidic environment

Leather: Leather: Produced in Egypt since 4th dynasty Writing on one side Parchment: Writing on both sides of leather Thin almost opaque. Became the staple writing material of the Middle Ages. Made from sheep, goats, calves, deer, any mammal.

Leather: Types Commonly Used in Books: Calf- A delicate, often decorated, leather used until the end of the 18th Century. Goat- Levant- Leather from goat, sheep and seal skins with a characteristic shrunken grain pattern produced during tanning. Morocco- A vegetable-tanned goatskin Suede- A leather finish produced by separating the fibers, giving the leather a nap by abrading with sandpaper or emery wheel. Other: Pigskin, Sheepskin

Preservation Concerns with Leather Red Rot- (as defined by National Archives UK) Red rot is a type of deterioration of the surface of tanned leather occurring when certain (usually vegetable) tannins degrade to a fine red powder. Source: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/preservation/faq/redrot.htm

Preservation Concerns with Leather Leather is naturally acidic Leather produced in the 17th Century may have residual sulphuric acid

Parchment: Parchment tends to be alkaline (as opposed to acidic) Skin of sheep or calf Not as expensive as vellum How parchment is made: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-SpLPFaRd0&feature=related Image: http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2005/10/lithuanian-tidings.html --Crop from letter by the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania 1649

Vellum: Finest parchment Skin of calves and kids Skin of unborn animals Expensive Lime is used in the preparation of Vellum. Once the hair is removed and the skin scraped, the skin is stretched on a frame to dry. After it is dry, it is rubbed with French chalk to create the writing surface. Source: http://ashermorris.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/vellum

Preservation Concerns with Vellum: Should typically be stored in a stable environment Constant temperature and 30% RH If stored in an environment with less than 11% humidity, it becomes fragile, brittle, and susceptible to mechanical stresses If RH higher than 40%, the material becomes vulnerable to fungus or mold growth as well as gelation A brief view of how vellum is made http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2BWc1N9Cqo

Paper “I write down everything I want to remember. That way, instead of spending a lot of time trying to remember what it is I wrote down, I spend the time looking for the paper I wrote it down on.” Beryl Pfizer

Paper: Invention of paper, as we know it today, is often credited to Ts’ai Lun, a Chinese court official Dated 104 or 105 AD The product Lun created was a precursor of the cotton and linen rag paper that dominated Europe and America before the Industrial Revolution He used raw materials from a variety of sources

Precursors to Today’s book? Prior to 5th century – rolls (papyrus) Codex 13th century Monastic scribes 15th Century – Block Books. Papermaking first reached Europe in the 12th century. Demand really took off with the invention of the printing press. Movable type allowed for mass production. Example: Gutenberg Bible (1455)

Prior to 17th Century: Paper made primarily from cotton rags Paper was free from impurities, strong, and long lasting Made by hand, however, it was time consuming and expensive

19th Century: More mechanization in the creation of paper 1860’s wood pulp paper Stress from the machines produced less stable paper with a considerably shorter life than the previous products First use of wood pulp dates to 1872: logs are turned to pulp, bleached, pressed, and coated with acid Acids lead to the destruction of the paper

Organic Nature of Paper: The study of paper degradation is primarily a study based on the study of the deterioration of cellulose

Cellulose Molecule Cellulose is made up of sugars Source: https://chempolymerproject.wikispaces.com/Cellulose-D-TPNR

Paper (continued)

Paper Degradation (continued) The modern standard is cellulose derived from wood Requires aggressive processing to liberate cellulose Suffers damage in the process and becomes less stable Other factors which contribute: Additives Metals Types of Ink

Paper (continued) Is it handmade vs. machine made paper? When/what era in which the paper was made? What kind paper is it and what was used to make it? Groundwood Chemical Recycled Permanent

Coated Paper: This is a multi-layer coated paper. As you can see by this view taken under an electron microscope, a coated paper bearing these qualities can potentially have many preservation issues. For instance, coated papers tend to adhere to each other when they come in contact with water. This is a multi-layer coated paper. Image showing three distinct layers on coated paper. The bottom layer is the paper substrate, the middle layer (21.0µm) a spray coating, and the top layer a final gloss finish (9.39µm). The large holes in the center are indicative of a faulty deposition in the coating process. http:// www.azonano.com/details.asp?ArticleID=2231

Source: http://webworld.unesco.org/safeguarding/en/txt_grap.htm

Causes of Deterioration: Cellulose is degraded by three primary mechanisms: Hydrolysis Oxidation Elimination

Causes of Deterioration: Hydrolysis Caused by contact with acid Most dominant reaction Responsible for most degradation of paper http://www.chemistryexplained.com/Hy-Kr/Hydrolysis.html Hydrolysis literally means reaction with water. It is a chemical process in which a molecule is cleaved into two parts by the addition of a molecule of water. Read more: Hydrolysis - Chemistry Encyclopedia - structure, reaction, water, proteins, examples, salt, molecule http://www.chemistryexplained.com/Hy-Kr/Hydrolysis.html#ixzz0cYAmoNFM

Causes of Deterioration: Oxidation Becomes relevant when cellulose comes into contact with metals or pollutants such as iron gall ink or ozone Oxidation and Hydrolysis work together to accelerate paper aging. They are the processes most responsible for paper becoming brittle and discolored. If you really want to get into the nitty gritty of paper degredation, I suggest: E. Franceschi, D. Palazzi and E. Pedemonte, Thermoanalytical Contribution To The Study On Paper Degradation Characterisation of oxidised paper, Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry, Vol. 66 (2001). Tests were done using Whatman paper which is noted for its exceptional quality and is grained, strong and rigid, without laid lines. It is used often in experiments where paper quality is tested.

Causes of Deterioration: Elimination Triggered by exposure to high pH Generally not relevant in the care of collections Becomes a factor when considering conservation treatments Oxidation and Hydrolysis work together to accelerate paper aging. They are the processes most responsible for paper becoming brittle and discolored.

Metals: Inorganic materials Form salts with nonmetals Rust Some metals, especially iron, copper, and platinum react with cellulose causing deterioration Also cause staining

Adhesives: Substances used to cause one material to adhere to another Can be naturally derived, such as wheat starch paste or synthetically derived, such as polyvinylalcohol.

Cloth: Can be made of natural or synthetic materials Not responsible for many problems in general

Inks: Inks tend to bleed into paper May cause oxidization Iron gall ink is made of iron particles Black and white photographs generally have a metallic imaging compounds and paper supports.

Brittle Paper: In the 1840s a manufacturing process was discovered that could produce paper more cheaply from a variety of sources including wood pulp. However, this process left an acidic content in the paper. This acid gradually breaks down the fibers from which the paper is made. And, with sufficient time, this paper will become so brittle that it will break when the pages are turned.

Brittle Paper (continued) Degree of brittleness also depends upon geography and environmental conditions Testing for brittleness: Abbey pen Double Fold Development of standards for permanent paper Example: In 1990, the federal government mandated the use of permanent paper for its official documents. Degree of brittleness also depends upon geography and environmental conditions: For instance, books, manuscripts and other documents from a highly industrial area may be more brittle than the identical books, etc. in another region due to the pollution levels of the area and the absorption of pollutants in the air by the paper materials.

Hopeless Cases and Indentification: Books that require an unreasonable amount of work to repair Knowing you options: Replacement Reformatting You need to determine when you have a lost cause. If a book is falling apart, the pages are brittle and pieces are missing, then you might have a lost cause.

Replacement: Activities that result in the receipt of a duplicate of the irreparable volume through routine acquisition and gift processing This can include in-print vendors, antiquarian, e-bay, microform publisher Acquire a new copy if possible. When working in some collections, it might be as easy as contacting your traditional book vendor. For special collections and archives, a copy may not be readily available. Cost may be a determining factor when considering replacement.

Reformatting: Activities that involve special efforts to have the text transferred to another medium in order to preserve the text Transfer to paper, microfilm and digital images If the item is not a candidate for replacement, then reformatting needs to be considered.

Brittle Books Programs: Programs are based on a couple of questions: Based upon the library’s collecting policy. Must the book be considered in its original format as a rare book or artifact? Traditional programs using microfilm have gone out of fashion in favor of digitization programs.

Research Questions What treatment decisions should be made? Who should make the decisions? Should preservation staff play a role in the decision. All answers dependent upon type of organization. Base our decisions on a Search Results sheet.

What about Copyright? Law allows for preservation of copyrighted works, “solely for the purposed of preservation and security.” Section 108 Include a notice or disclaimer indicating copy Reformatting is NOT to be used as acquisition Archives – Donor restrictions Copyright is one of those issues that will periodically raise its hand in this class. When discussing reformatting, we do need to consider copyright.

Overview of Microfilm

Why Microfilm? Was used as an important part brittle books programs Predicted long life of up to 500 years Huge infrastructure developed for the creation and viewing of microfilm In 1989, Congress authorized NEH to implement a 20 year initiative to preserve intellectual content via microfilming. This ended in 2009

Why microfilm? (continued) No matter how you feel about microformats it is important to understand the procedures and development of microfilming and preservation facsimiles: Because: As in the case of facsimiles, many patrons still prefer to have a copy in their hands. Libraries & archives must deal with microfilm and any continuing projects in their collection.

Microfilm: Adhere to RLG standards Creation of three generations Preservation copy or archival copy Duplicate Use or service copy Duplicate is what you would make your service copies from .

Microfilm (continued): Silver Halide – silver gelatin microfilm with a polyester base Stable metal Image on silver film is metallic silver Tested lifespan 500 years Scratches easily Archival copy

Microfilm (continued) Diazo Film: Intended for service copies Polyester base Life expectancy of up to 50 years because of possible fading Chemical duplication using Ammonia Blue Black image is produced

Microfilm (continued) Vesicular Film Also intended for service copies Polyester base Life expectancy 10 – 20 years Not vulnerable to fungal growth Duplication by heat and emulsion to emulsion contact White image on blue background

Microfilming Process: Decisions: Outsourced or in-house? Contracts and RFP’s Vendor Question Examples: What are the costs? Do you allow for visits to the facility? Preservation guidelines? Type of film?

Preparation of Material for Microfilming: Bibliographic searching Database searching – record keeping Collation Reel programming

Microfilm Typically get 600 – 900 frames in a reel With books, tend to get 2 pages per frame With oversized documents, 1 page per frame

Evaluation and Quality Control Methylene blue tests to check amount of residual thiosulfates on film 3rd party Technical – cannot allow for scratches unless it is on leader - 6 splices are allowed Quality Index- at what level do you see the “e” and its relation to the linepair Bibliographic – Targets are in order Strongly recommend reviewing the RLG standards for micrographics projects.

Filming Process: Reduction ratio desired: Microfiche – 16 mm, 24:1 Desired is 12:1 or 14:1 Microfiche – 16 mm, 24:1 Density – degree of blackness Image presentation: Cine or comic mode

Digitization The more popular reformatting choice Many projects that used to be done on microfilm have evolved to become digitization projects More grants are now issued for digital projects

Reformatting: Digitization vs. Microformat Still need to collate the items Still need to adhere to current best practices and standards Still need to consider access to the surrogate Still need bibliographic control If the items aren’t unique, investigate if someone else has already done the work