Project facts

Duration: 2005-08-01 - 2008-07-31
Project coordinator: National and University Library of Slovenia
Project consortium: Bibliotheque Nationale De France; European Commission on Preservation and Access; Koninklijke Bibliotheek; Nationaal Archief; Nederlandse Organisatie Voor Toegepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek - TNO; Riksarkivet; Russian State Library; Slovensky Narodny Archiv; The British Library; Univerza v Ljubljani; Uniwersytet Jagiellonski
Funding bodies: 6th Framework Programme
Subject areas: Conservation, Materials, Technologies - Scientific processes, Threats
Budget: € 1 400 000
Website: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/6584

Presentation

Alum-rosin sizing for paper, which came into commercial use in 1835 caused a shift of pH of paper from pseudo-neutral to acidic regions, which dramatically decreased permanence of paper. As a result, decay of library and archival holdings are reaching catastrophic proportions, with about 25% of the books in the general library collections brittle while additional 60% are endangered. In order to prevent the decay of paper induced by acids, a variety of mass deacidification techniques are available on the market. While a number of comparative evaluations of the treatments were performed in the past, the processes are continuously changing, while additional three were developed in recently.

Impacts & Results

The proposed project aims to:

- Develop standard model materials and evaluation criteria, in order to enable superior evaluation of existing processes and ease in assessment of emerging ones - comparatively evaluate immediate and long term effects of treatments

- Develop quality control criteria and evaluation techniques

- Address environmental and health aspects.

The objective of extensive dissemination is to incorporate the most suitable mass treatment into the preservation policy of European libraries and archives.

 

Cover image "Vanishing" by timtom.ch is marked with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.