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Caring for America's Library

Preservation Directorate, 1989-Present

In 1989, the Preservation Office became the Preservation Directorate, under the Associate Librarian for Collections Services. The Directorate consisted of five offices, each having a specific area of preservation responsibility but cooperating closely with each other. In a 1995 Library reorganization, Collections Services was abolished; the Preservation Directorate became one of six directorates in Library Services, a new service unit, which brought together all national library functions. Deanna Marcum is the current Associate Librarian for Library Services.

The Directorate was reorganized the same year, and the preservation offices were redesignated as divisions. The National Preservation Program Office, where preservation informational and reference services as well as coordination of many domestic and international preservation activities had been handled since 1977, was integrated into the Office of the Director; and the Photoduplication Service became an organizational unit of the Preservation Directorate. For the past two decades, the Director for Preservation position has been held, successively, by Peter G. Sparks, 1981-89; Kenneth E. Harris, 1990-94; Diane Nester Kresh, 1994-2000; Mark S. Roosa, 2000-2004; and Dianne van der Reyden, 2005 to present.

The Preservation Directorate Today

Overview: The Library's preservation program is administered by the Director for Preservation, who is responsible for planning, coordinating, and directing all activities of the Preservation Directorate. The Director reports to the Associate Librarian for Library Services, who, in turn, reports to the Librarian of Congress. The Directorate coordinates and oversees all activities throughout the Library relating to the preservation and physical protection of Library materials.

The directorate works actively with other national and international research institutions and organizations in developing and implementing immediate and long-range library preservation initiatives; plans and coordinates preservation education and information programs for Library staff and patrons that will raise preservation awareness; provides reference and information services as well as emergency response and recovery assistance to other libraries, outside agencies, institutions, and individuals on matters involving preservation, conservation, and physical custody and care of library materials, including materials affected by vandalism and theft or damaged by fire, flood, or other catastrophes; and provides technical liaison between the Library and other government agencies and scientific and professional organizations.

Mission: The Library's Preservation Directorate is the largest library preservation and conservation facility in the world. It is the most extensive and oldest operation of its kind in the United States, has the largest conservation laboratory, and was the first program to include a materials science research and testing component. The mission of the Preservation Directorate is to assure long-term access to the intellectual content of the Library's collections, either in original or reformatted form. This mission is accomplished directly through the provision of conservation, binding and repair, housing, reformatting, materials science and preservation research and development, and staff and user education; and indirectly through coordinating and overseeing all Library-wide activities relating to the preservation and physical protection of Library materials.

Range of Activities and Collections: The Library of Congress uses the full range of traditional methods of conservation and binding as well as newer technologies such as the deacidification of paper and the digitization of original materials to preserve its collections and make them more accessible to users. These measures include maintaining materials in the proper environment, being prepared for emergencies such as water leaks, ensuring the proper care and handling of the collections by both staff and researchers, and stabilizing fragile and rare materials by placing them in alkaline buffered or pH-neutral containers to significantly retard deterioration and thus prolong their useful life.

At the Library of Congress, preservation program management poses many challenges. The collections of the Library are vast and varied, much of it the iconography of more than two hundred years of our nations' struggles and triumphs. In no other library can one find such diverse and important documents and artifacts as the contents of President Abraham Lincoln's pockets the night he was assassinated, President Thomas Jefferson's drawing of a macaroni machine, the corporate records of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), photographs of migrant workers during the Great Depression, television episodes of "I Love Lucy," Pierre L'Enfant's plan for Washington, D.C., the Washington Haggadah, and the Gutenberg Bible. The collections are also in diverse formats, including leather, vellum, palm leaves, papyrus, paper, nitrate film, CD-ROM, wax cylinders, vinyl discs, and magnetic tape.

Outreach Programs: The Preservation Directorate has a strong national and international outreach program and provides information about preservation to the Congress, government agencies, other libraries, institutions, and the general public. The office has played a key role in organizing and hosting preservation planning meetings for U.S. institutions as well as preservation science symposia that have been both national and global in scope. As indicated below, the Directorate's Conservation Division administers an active professional internship program through which it provides advanced training in specialized conservation skills to interns who come to the Library from around the world.

Following the 1986 creation of the Preservation and Conservation Core Program (PAC) of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), the Directorate served as the organizing and coordinating focal point, managing the organization's preservation activities during the initial five years of PAC's existence. Since 1992, the Library has continued to serve as the PAC Regional Center for the United States and Canada, one of five such centers that serves preservation interests in a particular global geographic area. In both capacities, the Directorate has supported cooperation with the other PAC regions through specific preservation activities involving seminars, conferences, education and training, publications such as International Preservation News (the IFLA/PAC newsletter), the creation of various types of preservation standards, and through hosting Robert Vosper IFLA Fellows to produce preservation publications of interest to the library community at large. Along with several other leading U.S. libraries, LC has also sponsored Mellon Fellows, who have received advanced training in preservation administration through assignments in various divisions of the Preservation Directorate.

PAW demonstrationSenior Book Conservator Lynn Kidder sews the pages of a book in a book sewing frame

The Directorate provides programs for Library staff and patrons that raise preservation awareness and increase the level of knowledge about the Library's preservation policies and practices. For example, a day-long Preservation Awareness Workshop, usually held in the Library each year in conjunction with National Library Week, provides general information services about preservation and conservation to the public.

Publications Program: The staff of the Preservation Directorate at the Library of Congress has made noteworthy contributions to the literature of library, archival, and cultural preservation. In leaflets, annuals, scholarly and scientific articles, proceedings, bulletins, newsletters, books, and slide presentations, authors from A (Albro) to Z (Zimmermann) have taken a close look at the challenges of the preservation, conservation, and materials science professions and have sought to lend practical advice, share expertise, re-visit, compile, establish, teach, and wonder aloud. Some of these written accomplishments are reflected in a bibliography that can be obtained from the office of the Director for Preservation.14 Many relevant publications are available at the Preservation Directorate's web address, http://www.loc.gov/preserv/.

Preservation Security Planning: Preservation Directorate staff have participated actively in the recent development of a Preservation Security Plan that provides a framework for identifying the Library of Congress' minimum standards for preservation controls that are essential for securing the collections for future generations. Incorporating preservation needs into the Library's security plan acknowledges risks posed by a failure to protect collections. Control measures depicted in this framework provide an integrated, comprehensive preservation approach, addressing the needs of Library materials on both the collections and individual item levels.

Program Components: The Preservation Directorate has seven basic organizational components, including five divisions and two special programs that are administered out of the Office of the Director:

The Binding and Collections Care Division manages the Library's program for binding, repair, routine housing, and preparing for the shelf items from the Library's permanent research collections.

The Conservation Division manages the Library's program of providing conservation treatment and preventive conservation, as well as specialized housing, for materials that are high priority and at risk and for rare and intrinsically valuable collection materials in the permanent research collections.

The Preservation Research and Testing Division conducts in-depth research to benefit preservation of the Library's collections and to establish specifications, acceptable practices, and testing protocols for conservation and storage materials, conditions, and treatment processes that may have a direct or indirect impact on the lifetime of Library materials.

The Mass Deacidification Program, administered through contract management in the Office of the Director for Preservation, ensures the longevity and availability for research use of important, at risk, paper-based library materials such as books and manuscripts. This is achieved through safe chemical treatment that neutralizes in paper the acids that would otherwise contribute to its embrittlement and loss. Deacidification of large quantities of valuable collections materials is an example of preservation cost-avoidance, in that relatively inexpensive chemical treatment of endangered items today greatly retards rapid deterioration that would necessitate reformatting of the same materials in the future at many times the cost of deacidification.

The Preservation Reformatting Division manages the Library's program to convert at-risk Library materials to a new preservation format and recommends repair, replacement, or storage of deteriorating, damaged, and mutilated materials.

The U.S. Newspaper Program, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and jointly administered by NEH and the Library through the Office of the Director for Preservation, is an activity aimed at locating, inventorying, cataloging, and selectively preserving through reformatting important newspapers that have been published in the United States and its territories since colonial times.

Binding and Collections Care Division

Established in 1900 as a branch bindery of the Government Printing Office under the Chief Clerk with Arthur Kimball in charge, the binding program was the first unit created by the Library to support preservation activities. Mr. Kimball retired in 1932 and was succeeded by George Morgan as head of the GPO-operated Binding Division.

When the Administration Department was created in the Library in 1940, the Binding Division became the Binding Records Section of the Supply Office. The Reading Room Binding Unit and approximately twenty other binding units of the Reference Department prepared and transmitted material to the Binding Division. In 1941, David Wahl conducted a survey of all binding activities in the Library. As a result, in 1942 the Binding Office was created, absorbing the Reading Room Binding Unit and the Binding Records Section of the Supply Office. Wahl was named Binding Officer, and the office was transferred to the Reference Department under the direction of the Keeper of the Collections.

To coordinate binding activities more closely with other processing units, the Binding Office was transferred to the Processing Department in 1943. Ruth Kline was designated Binding Officer under the Director of Processing. Concurrently, the binding activities that had been operating more-or-less independently in twenty or more units were transferred at this time to the Binding Office. George Smith was Binding Officer, 1944-1967, with Harriet Woodring and Henrietta Mierke serving as Assistant Chiefs.

From 1950 until 1969, there was a transition away from an onsite (GPO) bindery to the use of contract services provided by commercial library binders. The GPO, however, continued its relationship with the Library in the role of contract management. For a brief time, the Binding Office reported to the Subject Cataloging Division in the Library's Processing Department, then it was incorporated into the new Preservation Office in 1967. George Smith was succeeded in 1968 by August Domer, who served as Binding Officer until the following year. As previously mentioned, Matt Roberts served as Binding Officer from 1970-1989, with William H. Underdue as Assistant Binding Officer. Underdue succeeded Roberts in 1990 and served as Binding Officer until he retired in 1993. Debra McKern was Acting Binding Officer until 1995, when she was appointed as Chief of the renamed Binding and Collections Care Division.

The Binding and Collections Care Division is responsible for the care of the Library's permanent research collections that are in bound formats, performing treatment on a large scale in a cost-effective manner. In fiscal year 1999, the division processed (bound on contract, labeled, repaired or boxed) about 30,000 items per month. Responsibilities include binding preparation and contract management; book repair; in-house binding, such as pamphlet binding; housing; and shelf preparation.

Collections Care SectionA book undergoing repairs in the Collections Care Section.(Photo by Carrie Beyer.)

The Division provides a strong line of defense in ensuring that new holdings are adequately protected from possible damage during handling and use and that those books already in the collections that have been subjected to extensive use and require rebinding or repair receive suitable attention. The Division supports the care of special collections through the construction of custom-fit protective enclosures, using an automated box-making machine. Rare books that require treatment of their bindings, however, are handled by the Conservation Division.

There are two organizational units within the Binding and Collections Care Division (BCCD) -- the Library Binding Section and the Collections Care Section. Binding and Collections Care staff work closely with other Library staff members, in particular the collections maintenance staff in the custodial divisions who identify retrospective collection materials in need of treatment and the cataloging staff who indicate when items require special attention.

Library Binding Section: This section is responsible for binding and labeling. Formed as a branch bindery under GPO in 1900, it provided the foundation for the Library's future preservation program. The Library has always required that general collections materials acquired as paperbacks receive library binding as a way to safeguard them. The only exceptions to this policy are multiple copies, items that receive minimal level cataloging, or those which are unsuitable for binding due to their format. This has been particularly important as publishers' use of hot-melt adhesives, cross-grain paper (i.e. paper with grain running at right angles to the spine), and burst binding has increased, causing many text blocks to fail before cataloging is completed. Further, all original signatures are retained either by sewing through the fold or recasing (providing a new buckram cover for an intact text block). This improves openability and enhances the longevity of the book.

The Library has been closely involved in standards setting for library binding, through the efforts of successive Binding Officers working with the Library Binding Institute (LBI) and the American Library Association (ALA). In 1997, the Library sponsored binding research to support the work of the NISO/LBI Standards Committee ZZ to set performance specifications for library binding. This work is included in the ANSI/NISO Z39.78 Standard for Library Binding.

Currently the binding program relies upon three binding contracts to handle the nearly 240,000 volumes commercially library-bound annually at a cost of approximately $1.4 million. The focus of the program in recent years has been on the installation of automation equipment and software to speed up the work of the section and improve accuracy of data entry. Until 1994, Library staff used typewriters to process materials for binding. Now it is possible to download author, title, and call number information from the Library's catalog directly to BCCD's binding automation system, LARS (Library Automated Retrieval System). BCCD has expanded use of the LARS system to the Serial and Government Publications Division, the European Division, the Law Library, the Hebraic Section of the African/Middle Eastern Division, and the Geography and Map Division for decentralized binding preparation. It is particularly helpful to decentralize in cases where the custodial division has resident expertise in vernacular languages or format. The Serial and Government Publications Division, which began using LARS in 1996, has built up a LARS database of over 30,000 serial binding records to date.

The Library Binding Section also has responsibility for shelf preparation -- the labeling and property stamping of publisher-bound volumes. The labeling program has changed dramatically over the years. First, the Library used labels that were preprinted with classification letters (e.g., AP); then a staff member would write the rest of the call number in ink below. These were affixed to the spine with wheat paste. Then for many years the Library used Se-LinŽ heat-activated labels, which required ironing to set the adhesive, making it very labor-intensive.

In 1996, BCCD began using a laser-printed, pressure-sensitive label based on specifications developed by the Preservation Research and Testing Division (PR&TD). At the same time, BCCD implemented a new software program that allows author, title, and call number information to be extracted from the Library's catalog and formatted for a spine label. A portion of the labeling activity is now done in the Cataloging Directorate using these new procedures, thereby reducing the time an item takes to reach the shelf. In fiscal year 1998, over 155,000 volumes were labeled in BCCD.

The spine label specification is just one of many collaborative efforts between BCCD and PR&TD to improve the quality of products used in processing materials for the shelf. Others include testing of security devices, bar codes, labels, book plates, and marking inks.

Collections Care Section: The collections care program provides in-house repair and binding for items in the general and reference collections and produces custom-fitted boxes

for general and special collections materials. Repair may include tip-ins, recasing, new covers, page mending, consolidation of text blocks, or spine repair. In-house binding may include pamphlet binding or stiffening.

boxmaker machineAutomated box-making machine. (Photo by Carrie Beyer)

By having these capabilities in-house, BCCD is able to serve the reading rooms who cannot afford to be without materials for the five weeks required for commercial library binding.

Housing provides custom-fitted protective enclosures for materials that require physical support or cannot be bound, repaired, or otherwise physically treated. Examples include protective enclosures for Bernstein scrapbooks in the Music Division, unbound serials in the American Folklife Center, and books with accompanying CDs in the Humanities and Social Sciences Division.

The Collections Care Section was created in 1995 to expand the range of treatment options for preservation of the original. Previously there was a Book Repair Unit, created in 1983, but staffed with only one technician. Thus, for many years, there was only one choice for materials from the general or reference collections -- the Binding Office could rebind the item in ruby buckram.

Today, instead, the collections care program aims to: (1) get materials back in circulation as soon as possible, (2) perform the minimal amount of treatment necessary to stabilize the item, (3) retain components of 19th and 20th century books with potential artifactual value, and (4) provide options such as constructing protective enclosures where binding or reformatting is inappropriate or costly. Staff from the Collections Care Section serve as members of liaison teams to the Library's custodial divisions. They work closely with other preservation staff, especially with the key professional conservators from the Conservation Division, who serve as the primary preservation liaisons with the special collections divisions, to provide the full range of treatment options for the collections.

Conservation Division

The Library of Congress was the first library in the United States to establish a conservation office (originally titled the Restoration Office) staffed by professional book and paper conservators. The Conservation Division is responsible for examination, documentation, treatment, and preventive care of intrinsically valuable manuscripts, prints, drawings, photographs, maps, and rare books that must be retained in their original format. This work requires the skill of book, paper, collection level, and photograph conservators whose special abilities are developed through academic and intern training. In specially-equipped laboratories, conservators treat (stabilize and restore) rare and special collections materials, to minimize further deterioration. In addition to treatment, conservators advise custodial divisions on the care of library materials.

Development of a professionally trained conservation staff did not occur overnight. Traditional restoration activities had been performed since the early 1900s by the original GPO restorer staff (called Bindery Workers). In the late 1960s, Frazer Poole convinced Library management that it was important to professionalize the approach to conservation management and practice. After he experienced some difficulty trying to recruit a qualified U.S. citizen to head up the new Restoration Office, he obtained permission to try to hire a laboratory manager and other experienced conservators from other countries.

Poole hired Peter Waters from England on contract in 1969 and worked closely with him for two years to plan the development and staffing of the new Office. Waters moved to Washington to accept the full-time position as the Library's Restoration Officer in 1971. On Waters' advice, Fraser Poole hired two other British conservators who were also critical to the early development of this program -- Donald Etherington, who joined the office in 1970 and served as training specialist for ten years, and Chris Clarkson, who for five years was head of the Rare Book Conservation Section. Poole hired this team of conservation managers due to the reputations they earned in part through their professional involvement and experiences in disaster recovery operations following the Florence Flood of 1966, as well as their book conservation training experience under Roger Powell and Sydney Cockerell, two well-known English book conservators.

Building a professional book and paper conservation staff was a high priority for the new management team. It took about a decade to achieve this goal. Even before Waters was hired, Frazer Poole had decided, due to the dearth of qualified artisans and the lack of conservation training schools in the U.S. at that time, to attempt to recruit someone with an appropriate academic background and seek specialized training for them.

In Margaret Brown, he found a young person with a good formal education and work experience in art restoration who was interested in paper restoration. The Library then arranged for her to receive specialized training for several months in the paper restoration shop of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Later she learned relevant paper testing techniques at the Barrow Research Laboratory in Richmond and studied fiber microscopy at the Institute of Paper Chemistry. Poole also hired Marilyn Weidner, a highly skilled paper conservator, as a consultant, who came to the Library one or two days a week to offer advanced conservation training to Ms. Brown and to provide advice on difficult treatment problems. In this manner, the Library thus developed its first conservator, largely through apprentice training.15

During the 1970s and later, the professional staff of paper and rare book conservators, and eventually "phased conservators," was built up, partly by hiring experienced personnel from other institutions and from the new conservation training schools in the U.S., with the result that a full complement of conservators eventually consisted of both apprentice-trained and program-trained (i.e. with graduate degrees) personnel. Many of the early hires and interns who have received advanced training in the Library's conservation labs now hold prominent positions in other major institutions and conservation businesses around the world.

The Conservation Division has provided leadership in the development of the profession of library conservation as we know it today. Many innovative treatments have been developed in its laboratory over the years. The Division is known worldwide for its development of new concepts, products, techniques, and procedures for the conservation and preservation of library and archival materials.

Working with the Preservation Research and Testing Division, and in coordination with other offices as appropriate, the Conservation Division establishes criteria and standards for supplies and techniques used in the Library's conservation, housing, and storage activities. The Division works to ensure that all collection materials are displayed, housed, and stored under appropriate environmental conditions. It oversees the preservation needs of all Library materials that are exhibited by the Library or by borrowing institutions, domestic or international.

Since the 1980s, the Division has offered internship opportunities to third year conservation students from the conservation graduate programs in the U.S., as well as foreign advanced or mid-career students. These internships, traditionally in book or paper conservation, have now been expanded to include advanced training in photograph conservation and preventive conservation.

Solvent treatmentUsing solvent to remove adhesive residue from an art work

The Division functions in a manner similar to that of a museum operation where preservation priorities are determined by custodial division managers and subject-matter experts in collaboration with professional staff of the Conservation Division, who prepare treatment proposals and condition reports and, in their capacity as "conservation liaisons," advise the divisions about conservation options that can be properly carried out within manpower constraints. Conservators advise the divisions on a broad range of collection issues, such as the selection of housings during processing, proper handling guidelines, environmental concerns, and staff training. As with most preservation operations within institutions that have sizeable collections that span a long period of time, there is only sufficient time and personnel to carry out work budgeted for in any given year.

In order to better plan the treatment schedule for the various special collections in LC, a time management system called the "point system" was initiated in the Conservation Office in the 1980s by Peter Waters, its first chief. The Library's custodial divisions are assigned a "budget" of a specified number of points in a given year, one point being equivalent to one hour of conservation work. With the custodial divisions receiving roughly equivalent numbers of points for treatment in a given year, these divisions pay close attention to the selection of important collections materials for which either collection level or single item treatment is requested.

In 1995, the Conservation Office became the Conservation Division and was reorganized from three sections (Rare Book; Paper; and Phased) into two: the Book and Paper Conservation Section and the Preventive Conservation Section.

Book and Paper Conservation Section: The Book and Paper Conservation Section is responsible for the examination, documentation, and treatment of rare, intrinsically valuable, bound and unbound items in the Library's collections. These include, but are not limited to, incunabula and other rare books, unbound maps, atlases, globes, manuscripts, prints and drawings, posters, photographs, and related materials.

Treatment options are diverse. By performing thorough examinations and carefully documenting the existing condition of items, and taking into account their future use, conservators can make professional decisions about performing appropriate treatments ranging from minor surface cleaning and physical stabilization to interventive, complex restoration activities. The types of treatment are selected to be compatible with the period of the artifact, and optimal quality materials are always used for repair and rehabilitation measures.

Hand sewingHand sewing a rare book

The necessity for full treatment varies for bound materials; but book leaves may be washed and cleaned, and rare book bindings may be repaired or replaced with new materials sympathetic to the original period and style of binding. Flat or unbound paper-based materials may be chemically stabilized and mended; poor quality adhesives and coatings or previous repairs and treatments may be removed; individual leaves may be washed or cleaned; and media may be consolidated to avoid future loss.

Materials may also be conserved by such means as leafcasting, which repairs documents by filling in voids and missing margins with pulp that is compatible with the original; and they may be physically supported in boxes, folders, mats, or by enclosure (encapsulation) in clear, chemically inert polyester film. Section staff provide advisory and consulting services to the Library's curatorial and custodial divisions. Conservators are also responsible for serving as liaisons to custodial and curatorial divisions in the selection of materials for treatment each fiscal year.

Phased Box housing Customized housings prepared in the Preventive Conservation Section for fragile Library materials.

Preventive Conservation Section: The Preventive Conservation Section is responsible for developing and applying conservation strategies, i.e. treatment and housing solutions, for collections or portions of collections in the Library. Section staff carry out individual and batch treatments of rare and special collections materials, as identified in consultation with the curatorial divisions and in collaboration with other units of the Preservation Directorate. Staff are also responsible for coordinating the selection of materials to receive conservation treatment for the coming fiscal year. An important theme in the work of the Section is the prevention of damage and methods that will enhance preservation through the selection of materials for housing that provide appropriate physical support and chemical stability, correct handling in use and storage, optimal environment, early conservation treatment, and preparedness to minimize the impact of disasters.

It has primary responsibility for developing and maintaining the preservation components in the Library's overall disaster plan.16 This role is a natural outgrowth of the work performed over the years by the Library's conservation staff in support of recovery from fire and water disasters at other cultural institutions throughout the world. These efforts stemmed largely from experiences following the noted Florence flood in the 1960s and the Library's sustained assistance to the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg after the tragic fire that occurred there in 1988.

"Phased conservation" was a concept first introduced by Conservation Officer Peter Waters in the mid-seventies. The idea behind "phased" work was a focused conservation strategy whereby collections or single items were treated in stages, i.e., phases, over a period of time according to a planned and logical sequence of priorities and procedures. The main emphasis was on large treatment and rehousing projects that could achieve economies of scale. In the present program, this concept has evolved into collection level treatment, which includes the mitigation of deterioration and damage to collections materials through the formulation and implementation of policies and procedures for the following: appropriate environmental conditions; handling and maintenance procedures for storage, exhibition, packing, transportation, and use; and emergency preparedness and response.

The Preventive Conservation Section utilizes many creative collection stabilization techniques based on the type of use the collection receives or will receive, its inherent value, and its physical vulnerability.17 Its activities include providing protective care and preventive activities such as environmental control, improved housekeeping, cleaning, single item deacidification and mending, encapsulation, boxing and construction of custom-designed enclosures. Doris Hamburg, the first head of the recently formed Preventive Conservation Section, has inaugurated the Library's program to monitor and optimize environmental conditions for the full range of collections at various Library sites. Section staff work with curatorial units and with the Library's facilities staff as well as with the office of the Architect of the Capitol to monitor and effect changes as needed.

Specifications based on ASTM and ISO standards are developed and used by staff to facilitate the purchase of materials to house collections. Conservation Division liaisons work with curators and specialists in Library custodial divisions to determine the most appropriate housing solutions. Procurement of these materials is then carried out by the Conservation Division to insure that all housing supplies meet rigid Library of Congress specifications.

In addition, this section responds as needed to emergency incidents in the Library that require conservation intervention, and assists in training of other staff in disaster response techniques. A 24-hour response team of trained conservators and other Preservation Directorate staff, using beepers and cellular phones, is on call to respond to emergencies. The emergency response procedures have been developed in conjunction with Library Policy and the Security Office. Emergency supplies are stocked and strategically located in Library stack areas and in other key locations in all three buildings on Capitol Hill as well as in off-site locations.

Preservation Research and Testing Division

In 1965, Librarian L. Quincy Mumford committed the Library to establishing a preservation program "which would specifically include a research laboratory." The Preservation Research and Testing Office, a unique and distinctive feature of the newly created Preservation Office, was established in 1971 to begin a rigorous in-house research effort designed to develop lasting solutions to problems that had long confronted librarians and archivists.

Its essential mission is to provide scientific and technical support for the Library's preservation program and to seek solutions to complex technical problems for the benefit of the entire library and archival community. As a result, the Library of Congress is the only research library in the country that has an in-house scientific research laboratory dedicated to the support of its preservation activities. Today's Preservation Research and Testing Division (PR&TD) evaluates existing and future preservation strategies. Staffed with a dozen research scientists and other technical experts, the PR&TD facility consists of a spacious main laboratory and three smaller, specialized laboratories equipped with state-of-the-art scientific equipment.

The Division's scientists initiate and conduct fundamental research, testing, and technology assessment to establish preservation practices and specifications for a variety of materials, including paper as well as non-paper-based media such as motion picture film, still photographic materials, magnetic tape, wax cylinders, cellulose acetate discs, and CD-ROMs. The PR&TD staff also participates extensively in standards setting bodies to safeguard the long-term preservation interests of the Library of Congress and the library community. The unit's work has a significant impact on the general practice of preservation in libraries and archives throughout the world.

Performing MIT fold endurance test on a paper samplePerforming MIT fold endurance test on a paper sample (Photo by Marita Clance.)

While the Binding and Collections Care Division helps preserve library materials by what is essentially a preventive maintenance operation and the Preservation Reformatting Division transforms information from a deteriorated material to a more stable medium, the Preservation Research and Testing Division focuses on developing and evaluating new materials and methods that could extend the lifetime of our intellectual heritage. Thus the Preservation Research and Testing Division undertakes scientific and technical research to advance and support Library preservation. For example, studies in deacidification techniques aim at preserving these materials in their original format. Research also is conducted that is directed toward gaining a better understanding of deterioration mechanisms. This knowledge, in turn, may enable more appropriate treatments for degraded items to be formulated.

Topics for study include paper permanence; longevity of digital, photographic, magnetic, CD-ROM, and other contemporary media; adhesives behavior; storage conditions; binding methods; deacidification; preservation of digital collections over time; and other problems affecting the preservation of the diverse materials in the Library's collections.18 The Division also tests supplies and materials to ensure that items purchased for use in conservation treatment, binding, housing, and storage of Library materials meet appropriate standards of quality.

The Preservation Research and Testing Division works closely with the Conservation Division in establishing criteria and specifications for supplies and techniques used in the Library's conservation, housing, and storage activities, in coordination with other offices as appropriate. The two divisions collaborated, for example, in extending earlier research on the effects of cellulose acetate lamination (created in the 1930s by scientists at the National Bureau of Standards as a method of reinforcing brittle paper19) and subsequent development and adoption at the Library of an alternative, now widely-accepted method of providing physical support to fragile paper artifacts -- i.e. polyester encapsulation.20 The scientific Division also works with the Conservation Division, with other offices of the Library, and with the Architect of the Capitol's office to assure that all collection materials are displayed, housed and stored under appropriate environmental conditions.

PR&TD communicates the results of its research to other research facilities that conduct similar or related investigations (both in government and private agencies) and to the preservation community of libraries, archives, and museums. Some recent research and development initiatives are described below.

Accelerated Aging Test For Paper: Aging tests are at the heart of future projections and comparisons of relative effectiveness of deacidification treatments, environmental conditions, assessments of paper quality, and other important issues that are an essential part of the decision making process in management of library collections. Accelerated aging tests that are presently available for paper are arduous and require expensive aging chambers to implement; their resemblance to the natural aging process has been questioned repeatedly in published research. Chandru Shahani and his scientific staff have recently developed a new artificial aging test for paper that involves using glass tubes containing pre-conditioned paper samples, which can be aged in dry ovens that are much less expensive and more reliable than humidity-controlled aging chambers. This test can be accomplished more economically and in much less time than can currently available tests; most importantly, the new test has been proven to closely approximate the natural aging process. Since this test has the support of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), as well as that of several paper manufacturers who supported its development, it is hoped that the new test will gradually gain national and international acceptance as a measure of the long-term stability of papers.

Preservation of Digital Media: Preservation of digital media, including CD-Audio, CD-ROM, CD-R, digital tape, and magneto-optical disks, is an issue of increasing importance in the library community. Because the size of the Library's digital media collections has grown explosively over the past few years (and will probably continue to do so), we urgently need to learn about the preservation problems that these new media may experience in the future.

A testing and monitoring program for CDs was initiated in 1995. Program objectives include developing guidelines for storage conditions that would maximize the useful life of CDs and estimating the lifetime of CDs in LC collections using an accelerated aging procedure. By determining the rate at which optical and physical changes occur, the Library can anticipate when discs in the collections need to be reformatted so no information is lost. Aging of CDs under natural as well as artificially accelerated conditions is under study. In the natural aging study of CDs, the objective is to monitor periodically the condition of samples from LC's CD collection.

cd testingLaboratory longevity testing of CDs (Photo by Marita Clance.)

This program, which is expected to continue for at least a decade, will establish benchmarks of the current state of the collection first. It will then continue to monitor the condition of the discs in order to determine any optical and physical changes over a period of time. The data gathered will provide information about when discs should be reformatted for preservation. It will also provide important data on the natural aging of CDs. The artificial aging study, which complements the natural aging study, will be initiated in FY 2000. However, its findings will be available much earlier than the natural aging study and will also extend to other digital media.

Security Marking and Labeling of CDs: The attachment of anti-theft devices to secure library items has become an integral part of contemporary library practice. However, some security devices can potentially have an adverse influence on the longevity of the media they are intended to protect. A prime example is security labels for CDs. Pressure-sensitive adhesives from these labels can over time seep through the thin coating on the title (label) side and compromise the long-term stability of the CD. Also efforts to mark CDs can have a similar effect because inks or solvents from markers can degrade the disks. PR&TD staff identified a laser engraving machine similar to the one used by CD mastering companies for safely imprinting identification information on the hubs of CDs as they are received in the Library by the Copyright Office. Transparent, full-face security labels for CDs that cover the entire CD on the title side were also tested under accelerated aging and found to have an adverse effect on the life of some of the CDs. At present a dialog is in progress with manufacturers who are developing security labels that will fit the hub of CDs, where no data can be compromised.

Other Materials Science Initiatives: Additional recent research developments include completion of risk assessment studies on motion picture film and magnetic tape; development of new chromatographic techniques for quantitative measurement of aging of paper that are much more sensitive than other available techniques; conclusive proof that the rate of aging of acidic paper accelerates with time, which further demonstrates the urgency of preservation actions such as deacidification and reformatting; and refinement of quantitative methods for optimization of the storage environments for preservation of library collections.21

Mass Deacidification Program

The Challenge: Acid Paper: An important outgrowth of the Library's materials science activities is its mass deacidification program to save books and other paper-based materials on a large scale and extend their useful life. The primary reason modern books and other paper artifacts often deteriorate significantly within fifty to one hundred years is that they are acidic -- a condition brought about largely by the introduction in the mid-nineteenth century of alum-rosin compounds that were used as sizing agents in the paper.

brittle bookLoss of valuable information can be avoided by employing mass deacification to ensure the longevity of paper-based materials

Since the late nineteenth century, paper deterioration was further hastened by the introduction of mechanically-produced ground wood pulp in the papermaking process. These products, frequently not chemically purified, resulted in weaker paper and in additional formation of acids and peroxides that promote the aging process. Other factors contributing to the deterioration of paper include atmospheric pollutants, high temperature and humidity levels, light exposure, insects and rodents that feed on paper and book bindings, and microorganisms such as mold and bacteria.

Acidity in paper undermines the use and long-term preservation of library collections and archival materials. Chemists now know that acid deterioration can be minimized by deacidification and simultaneous impregnation with alkaline buffering agents. Millions of deteriorating books and documents in libraries and archives throughout the world attest to this problem. Mass deacidification retards embrittlement of paper and is, therefore, a preservation treatment appropriate for books that are acidic and at risk of irreversible deterioration if no action is taken.

Research and Development Initiatives: The Library of Congress - with strong support from the U. S. Congress - has provided leadership over several decades in research and development efforts that have encouraged the success of mass deacidification technologies that are finally being used in several countries to ensure the long-term useful life of paper-based materials. A Mass Deacidification Action Plan approved by Congress is making it possible for the Library to mass deacidify significant quantities of acidic books each year from the general and special collections.

Deacidification has been an important area of research and development. Several approaches involving aqueous and non-aqueous systems were developed for single-sheet deacidification. Vapor phase (gaseous) mass deacidification using the diethyl zinc (DEZ) process received major research and engineering emphasis after the Library's scientists patented this technology in the mid-1970s. By 1978, the first series of tests were carried out on 1,600 disposable volumes, using a vacuum chamber at General Electric's Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, facility. Beginning in 1981, tests of the DEZ process were conducted in a vacuum chamber at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, with the assistance of Northrup Services, Inc., a NASA contractor.

A scaled-up testing program in late 1985 and early 1986 that resulted in two DEZ-related fires caused a temporary setback for development of this technology. At a pilot test facility subsequently built near Houston and operated for the Library by Texas Alkyls and its successor Akzo Chemicals, Inc., LC conducted 31 small scale DEZ tests to perfect the process. After completion of 12 more experimental DEZ runs in 1993 and 1994, which resulted in resolving two remaining problems with the DEZ process, Akzo chemicals announced that it was getting out of deacidification for business reasons and subsequently closed down the Texas DEZ plant. Fortunately, a technical evaluation committee reported almost simultaneously to the Library, encouraging the institution to work with Preservation Technologies, Inc., to enhance and hopefully utilize its promising Bookkeeper mass deacidification technology.

LC's Deacidification Treatment Program: The Bookkeeper method deacidifies paper when it is immersed in a dispersion of extremely fine magnesium oxide suspended in a fluid. The process takes two hours from the time books are placed in the treatment cylinders until the volumes are ready to be packed for return to their home library. All steps in the process, from selection to reshelving, are monitored to ensure that the intended results are achieved. The process meets the Library's basic preservation requirements by: (1) raising the pH level of treated paper to the acceptable range of 6.8 to 10.4 pH, (2) achieving a minimum alkaline reserve of 1.5%, and (3) extending the useful life of acidic paper (measured by fold endurance after accelerated aging) by at least 300%.

Early in 1995, Congress approved a two-year action plan in which the Library proposed using this new book deacidification technology. As a result, the Library awarded a limited production contract in 1995 to utilize the Bookkeeper deacidification process to neutralize the acid in books. The primary focus of this initiative was to ensure uniform, effective deacidification treatment of processed books and to enhance work flow, including book handling, storage, packing, and transportation procedures.

Deacidification chamberBooks are mounted in treatment cylinders where magnesium oxide is introduced to neutralize acid in the paper

Through a competitive process, the Library in 1997 negotiated a second contract for mass deacidification. The contract was again awarded to Preservation Technologies, Limited Partnership (PTLP) of Pennsylvania, which is providing book preservation services to the Library with their Bookkeeper mass deacidification process for four more years. By late-1999, the Library had deacidified a quarter of a million books from its general and law collections.

Selection Criteria: Deacidification treatment is reserved for books that are acidic and at risk of loss if no action it taken. Due to its role as the national library and the official library of the U.S. Congress, the Library is focusing primarily on selection of "Americana" for early treatment under the mass deacidification program, emphasizing the selection of endangered volumes from collections that are central to the Library's mission.22

Quality controlQuality control lab tests verify the effectiveness of treatment (Photo by Marita Clance)

The Future: LC's Thirty Year Plan: Various deacidification technologies continue to be developed throughout the world. Institutions and companies are actively commercializing, developing, or initiating programs to create mass deacidification and related mass preservation technologies in other countries such as Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, South Korea, and China.

In the summer of 2000, Congress approved a Library proposal to establish mass deacidification as a permanent preservation program activity and to commence work on a one generation deacidification program. The plan calls for scaling up deacidification over the next few years in order to save and greatly extend the longevity of a large volume of unbound paper-based materials as well as all retrospective (existing) and prospective (to be acquired) books that will benefit from mass deacidification treatment.

Preservation Reformatting Division

The Preservation Reformatting Division (PRD) preserves materials that are on unstable media, such as groundwood paper, so their content will be accessible and usable. In 1967, the Council on Library Resources funded a Brittle Books Project at the Library through the Association of Research Libraries. Although the Library began microfilming materials in the late 1930s, the Preservation Microfilming Office was not established until 1968, as a result of the pilot Brittle Books Project. The unit establishes internal microfilming requirements for the Library.

This unit ensures adherence to national standards and recognized guidelines for reformatting and conversion, such as those promulgated by the Association for Information and Image Management International and the Research Libraries Group. Along with these technical and bibliographic standards, the reformatting program collaborates with other preservation staff in developing a coordinated array of preservation services to assist custodians of the collections in making informed decisions for preserving individual items and discrete collections.

The Preservation Reformatting Division staff assist custodians and curators of paper-based collections in making condition assessments of library materials and in determining the most appropriate reformatting method -- microfilming, preservation photocopying, or digitizing. The staff conduct searches to identify replacement copies in paper or other formats of items which must be replaced because they are on fragile media that will not remain usable. They evaluate the quality of replacements in microform available from other sources. PRD compiles and delivers this information to custodians and then advises them on options to preserve the content of materials through replacement or provision of surrogates.

PhotoDuplication NewspapersLibrary staff and contractors collate materials and prepare them for reformatting (Photo by Marita Clance.)

If custodial and preservation staff decide to reformat fragile items, staff or contractors determine the completeness of the originals based on an inventory and a page-by-page collation. The staff orders missing materials through interlibrary loan or arranges to borrow it from other institutions. Once a complete job is assembled for reformatting, the staff or contractors create finding aids and other internal information to facilitate use of the works that are being reproduced.

In microfilm, targets may include guides to contents, dates of issues for periodicals, missing page identifiers, or technical information that facilitates quality review in accordance with international standards. Technicians must program reels if the work exceeds the Library's maximum of 90 feet of frames on a 100 foot roll of 35mm film. Finally, librarians provide catalogers with the information about a title or collection that is ready for the cameras so that the Library will have an accurate bibliographic record of the newly created work.

Library staff inspect newly created microfilm to assure that it is readable, represents as complete and as accurate a version of the original as possible, and meets technical preservation standards. PRD tightened these standards to generate microfilm that can be digitally scanned at high quality in the future to facilitate improved access.

For twenty-five years, the preservation reformatting staff could provide only one option -- microfilming -- to replace fragile material without great intrinsic value as artifacts (such as telephone directories) or to create surrogates for valuable original items that would be damaged by use (such as George Washington's papers). Preservation microfilming matured during this period, not only through the development of stringent preservation microfilming standards, but also with improvements in equipment. Library clients grew more accepting, if reluctantly so, of microfilm as a useful medium that facilitated long-term access and preservation, in part because of improvements in reader-printers and due to interlibrary loan programs.

In 1992, the Library began creating paper-to-paper replacements by contracting for preservation photocopies of items such as reference works that were not suited for microfilming. Illustrations with gray-scale images are captured digitally and printed out on preservation quality paper. All volumes are bound according to Library Binding Institute standards.

In the late 1990s, the Preservation Reformatting Division began to establish a program using digitization as a method of reformatting. The preservation community responded to end-user enthusiasm for digital images due to accessibility of images when distributed on the World Wide Web, rapid improvements in scanning and delivery equipment, and the ability to capture and deliver materials in color. Though the Library has not fully accepted any existing digital format as a preservation medium, it acknowledges the value of providing highly accessible digital surrogates for fragile materials. The initial work selected for digitization in this program was the first full run of a serial to be distributed on the World Wide Web -- Garden & Forest, a horticultural newsletter, which was published weekly from February 29, 1888, through December 29, 1897. The project includes establishment of guidelines for selection, preparation, indexing, search and retrieval, as well as presentation and archiving of digital images for preservation and access purposes.

Photoduplication Service

The Photoduplication Service is a cost recovery operation that provides expanded access to the Library's collections through a wide variety of fee-based reproduction services, using photographic, photocopy, digital, and document delivery technologies. These services are designed to assist scholars, publishers, and members of the public who visit the Library and use the Library's collections in the reading rooms.

Before 1938, photoreproduction facilities at the Library were wholly inadequate for the public, with the result that the collections were available to a comparatively few people who were able to visit Washington, or whose professional connections made them eligible for interlibrary loan. In February of 1938, the Librarian of Congress announced the acceptance of a Rockefeller Foundation grant of $35,000 to establish the Photoduplication Service. This fee-for-service, self-sustaining operation does not receive any appropriated funds.

PhotoDuplication MicrofilmingMicrofilming Library materials. (Photo by Marita Clance.)

In 1938, the Photoduplication Service had three employees and generated revenues of $1,233. Today, the Photoduplication Service has 78 positions and generates revenues in excess of $5 million per year -- evidence of increasing demand for the services of this unit. The objective of the service is to provide exceptional service to Congress, its constituents, and the larger world of scholars by furnishing the highest quality photoreproduction, duplicating, and imaging products and services to ensure timely access to the Library's resources and collections.

This Library service organization provides a myriad of products and services to a variety of customers. Some of the products and services are photographic reproductions which include exhibition quality prints, slides and transparencies, microform (both roll film and fiche), and black and white as well as color photocopies. The microphotographic section of the Photoduplication Service is responsible for actually filming many of the Library materials that are collated and prepared by the staff of custodial divisions and the Preservation Reformatting Division (see above); for many of these prepared materials, PRD also contracts out microfilming to commercial vendors. A special services section of the Photoduplication Service maintains in low temperature and humidity storage the Library's master negative microform collection, totaling nearly 400,000 microfilm reels and more than 240,000 microfiche sheets, and reproduces copies of these microforms for a fee.

U.S. Newspaper Program

The United States Newspaper Program (USNP) is managed in the Library's Preservation Directorate by Robert Harriman. This is an effort, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), which is jointly coordinated by LC and NEH to locate, inventory, catalog, and selectively preserve all newspapers published in the United States and its territories since colonial times.

US NewspaperSelection of United States newspapers. (Photo by Marita Clance.)

Project teams are established in each state to survey collections in libraries, archives, historical societies, and publishers' offices; inventory and catalog those collections; and preserve on microfilm important newspaper collections discovered as a result of project activity. Initiated in 1983, it is expected that this comprehensive newspaper preservation work will be completed by 2007.23

Notes:

14. Remarks by Diane N. Kresh in the Foreword to Carole Zimmermann (comp.). Material Published by Members of the Library of Congress Preservation Directorate: A Bibliography. Washington, D.C.: Preservation Directorate, Library of Congress, 1994.

15. Frazer B. Poole, "The Research Library and Book Conservation," in Bollettino dell'Istituto di Patologia del Libro Alfonso Gallo, Anno XXIX (Gennaio-Dicembre 1970), Fasc. I-IV, pp. 99-122. Roma: Fratelli Palombi Editori, 1970.

16. See: Peter Waters. Procedures for Salvage of Water-Damaged Library Materials. 2nd ed. Washington, D.C.: Preservation Office, Library of Congress, 1979.

17. See: Peter Waters, "Phased Conservation" in The Book and Paper Group Annual, Vol. 17, pp. 113-122. Washington, D.C.: The American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, 1998.

18. For general overviews of preservation research undertaken by this and other laboratories, See: (1) Chandru J. Shahani and William K. Wilson, "Preservation of Libraries and Archives," American Scientist, Vol. 75 (June 1987) ; and (2) Kenneth E. Harris, "A Review of Recent Research Findings on Preservation and Conservation of Library and Archival Materials," in Proceedings of the Pan-African Conference on Preservation and Conservation of Library and Archival Materials, Nairobi, Kenya: 21-25 June 1993 (IFLA Professional Reports: 43). The Hague: Headquarters of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, 1995.

19. See: William K. Wilson and B.W. Forshee, "Preservation of Documents by Lamination" (NBS Monograph 5). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce, National Bureau of Standards, October 30, 1959.

20. See: "Polyester Film Encapsulation." Washington, D.C.: Preservation Office, Library of Congress, 1980.

21. Chandru J. Shahani, Frank H. Hengemihle, and Norman Weberg, "The Effect of Fluctuations in Relative Humidity on Library and Archival Materials and Their Aging within Contained Micro-Environments," in Proceedings of the Pan-African Conference on Preservation and Conservation of Library and Archival Materials, Nairobi, Kenya: 21-25 June 1993 (IFLA Professional Reports: 43). The Hague: Headquarters of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, 1995.

22. See: Kenneth E. Harris, "A Paper Chase: Saving the Written Word at the Library of Congress," in proceedings of the international conference "Preservation Management: Between Policy and Practice, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, 19-21 April 1999." The Hague: Headquarters of the European Commission on Preservation and Access (ECPA), 2000. See also: Carole Zimmermann, Bibliography on Mass Deacidification. Washington, D.C.: Preservation Office, Library of Congress, 1991.

23. See: Robert Harriman, "The United States Newspaper Program" in The ALA Yearbook of Library and Information Services: A Review of Library Events 1989, Vol. 15, pp. 230-231. Washington, D.C.: American Library Association, 1990.

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