Buying Publishers' Trade Paperbacks versus Hardbacks: A Preventive Conservation Strategy for Research Libraries

1992 ◽  
pp. 127-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randy Silverman ◽  
Robert Speiser
Keyword(s):  
Conservation Strategy ◽  
Preventive Conservation ◽  
Research Libraries

scholarly journals Monitoring pollutant gases in museum microclimates: a relevant preventive conservation strategy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Barbosa ◽  
Teresa Ferreira ◽  
Patrícia Moreira ◽  
Eduarda Vieira
Keyword(s):  
Risk Prevention ◽  
Conservation Strategy ◽  
Gaseous Pollutants ◽  
Preventive Conservation ◽  
Volatile Organic ◽  
Museum Environment ◽  
Poor Ventilation ◽  
Many Sources ◽  
Enclosed Space ◽  
Pollutant Gases

Exposure to an atmosphere rich in volatile pollutants can endanger collections in museums, galleries, libraries or archives. Monitoring volatile pollutants in museum microclimates remains an unusual practice in most institutions. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can be released by many sources, including the artefacts’ materials themselves. The presence of pollutants in an enclosed space with poor ventilation, adding to high temperature and relative humidity levels or significant fluctuations, may increase the risk of damage for the more susceptible materials. The tendency observed in museums to enclose artefacts in vitrines or boxes may contribute to the formation of microclimates with high VOCs concentration. Based on the studies developed in the last decades, this work intends to draw attention to the risks associated with gaseous pollutants in museum environment and outline some recommendations that encourage cultural heritage institutions to implement a pollutant monitoring plan associated with risk prevention.

scholarly journals Design and validation of tailored colour reference charts for monitoring cultural heritage degradation

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Blanca Ramírez Barat ◽  
Emilio Cano ◽  
María Teresa Molina ◽  
Miguel Antonio Barbero-Álvarez ◽  
Juan Antonio Rodrigo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Image Analysis ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Colour Change ◽  
Conservation Strategy ◽  
Accelerated Ageing ◽  
Free Paper ◽  
Preventive Conservation ◽  
Adaptive Calibration ◽  
Oddy Test

AbstractColour changes of cultural heritage objects can be related with degradation of materials, thus a proper colour monitoring system can be used to detect conservation problems. With this purpose, a monitoring methodology for cultural heritage preventive conservation based on tailored colour reference charts and image analysis is proposed.Reference colour charts have been designed and tested for use in museums. Charts containing 64 colour patches have been printed using high-stability inks on 4 different substrates: Acid-free paper SkyLight, Acid-free paper covered with a propylene film, FOREX® and GlassPack. The stability has been studied by accelerated ageing in an UV chamber, and the harmlessness of the materials by Oddy Test. The final selection of material, laminated paper, is a balance between the colour change upon ageing and the performance in the Oddy Test. Using this material and the proposed design, colour change of copper and silver coupons has been assessed using images that are adjusted and calibrated by an adaptive calibration framework employing a given set of reference colours which homogenises the visual information in the supplied images. Thus, regardless of the camera of origin, any processed picture will deliver reliable information of the state of the colour in the metal surfaces at the moment it was taken.Results demonstrate the adequacy of the approach and the design for colour calibration, so these charts can be used to monitor colour change of sensitive materials –metal coupons– using photographs. As colour change of reference metals is a consequence of corrosion by environmental factors this may be used as a measure of air quality in museum environments. This methodology can be used to design a low-cost preventive conservation tool, where colour change of metal coupons –or other reference materials– can be followed through image analysis of pictures taken periodically by conservators or visitors, introducing citizen science in the conservation strategy.

scholarly journals Monitoring pollutant gases in museum microclimates: a relevant preventive conservation strategy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Barbosa ◽  
Teresa Ferreira ◽  
Patrícia Moreira ◽  
Eduarda Vieira
Keyword(s):  
Risk Prevention ◽  
Conservation Strategy ◽  
Gaseous Pollutants ◽  
Preventive Conservation ◽  
Volatile Organic ◽  
Museum Environment ◽  
Poor Ventilation ◽  
Many Sources ◽  
Enclosed Space ◽  
Pollutant Gases

Exposure to an atmosphere rich in volatile pollutants can endanger collections in museums, galleries, libraries or archives. Monitoring volatile pollutants in museum microclimates remains an unusual practice in most institutions. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can be released by many sources, including the artefacts’ materials themselves. The presence of pollutants in an enclosed space with poor ventilation, adding to high temperature and relative humidity levels or significant fluctuations, may increase the risk of damage for the more susceptible materials. The tendency observed in museums to enclose artefacts in vitrines or boxes may contribute to the formation of microclimates with high VOCs concentration. Based on the studies developed in the last decades, this work intends to draw attention to the risks associated with gaseous pollutants in museum environment and outline some recommendations that encourage cultural heritage institutions to implement a pollutant monitoring plan associated with risk prevention.

scholarly journals A Smart Archive Box for Museum Artifact Monitoring Using Battery-Less Temperature and Humidity Sensing

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (14) ◽  
pp. 4903
Author(s):  
Dinesh R. Gawade ◽  
Steffen Ziemann ◽  
Sanjeev Kumar ◽  
Daniela Iacopino ◽  
Marco Belcastro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Power Consumption ◽  
Environmental Monitoring ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Near Field ◽  
Conservation Strategy ◽  
Wireless Sensing ◽  
Fully Integrated ◽  
Preventive Conservation ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
Temperature And Humidity

For the first time, this paper reports a smart museum archive box that features a fully integrated wireless powered temperature and humidity sensor. The smart archive box has been specifically developed for microclimate environmental monitoring of stored museum artifacts in cultural heritage applications. The developed sensor does not require a battery and is wirelessly powered using Near Field Communications (NFC). The proposed solution enables a convenient means for wireless sensing with the operator by simply placing a standard smartphone in close proximity to the cardboard archive box. Wireless sensing capability has the advantage of enabling long-term environmental monitoring of the contents of the archive box without having to move and open the box for reading or battery replacement. This contributes to a sustainable preventive conservation strategy and avoids the risk of exposing the contents to the external environment, which may result in degradation of the stored artifacts. In this work, a low-cost and fully integrated NFC sensor has been successfully developed and demonstrated. The developed sensor is capable of wirelessly measuring temperature and relative humidity with a mean error of 0.37 °C and ±0.35%, respectively. The design has also been optimized for low power operation with a measured peak DC power consumption of 900 μW while yielding a 4.5 cm wireless communication range. The power consumption of the NFC sensor is one of the lowest found in the literature. To the author’s knowledge, the NFC sensor proposed in this paper is the first reporting of a smart archive box that is wirelessly powered and uniquely integrated within a cardboard archive box.

Surely, We’ll Need Backups

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 102-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randy Silverman
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Digital Library ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Preventive Conservation ◽  
Research Libraries ◽  
Historical Material ◽  
Ulterior Motive ◽  
Item Level ◽  
Production Techniques ◽  
Original Production

AbstractFor 20 years the U. S. Newspaper and Brittle Books Programs focused national resources on a singular approach to preserving acidic paper in research libraries—converting printed “information” to microfilm. In many cases, the original historical material was discarded in the process. This method failed to address the root problem that could have been solved more effectively and more economically through preventive conservation. Such conservation was ignored because an ulterior motive to the brittle books “crisis” was to establish a national digital library. A serious consequence arising from this subterfuge is that today mid-sized research libraries are not committed to—and perhaps fail to comprehend the importance of—preserving their general collections. Collectively these diverse, paper-based collections represent a huge swath of the nation’s historical record. Falsely believing digital media will make paper obsolete, and motivated by a need to create space in libraries, today’s vigorous weeding for non-rare, paper-based general collections threatens to destroy evidence that will be required for research and future digitization projects. These materials will be needed as backups to accurately regenerate screen copies; as master copies to augment, enhance, or correct faulty screen copies; and, as authentication to verify original production techniques and determine provenance. Without careful coordination and item-level verification, today’s isolated weeding practices could eviscerate American general collections with devastating results for future scholarship, repeating the mistakes of the U. S. Newspaper and Brittle Books Programs.

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