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Copyright of Studies in Conservation is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A continued challenge for preservation is objective data to make informed collection decisions. When considering a shared national print system, this challenge relates to decisions of withdrawal or retention since catalog partners may not have data regarding the condition of others' volumes. This conundrum led to a national research initiative funded by the Mellon Foundation, "Assessing the Physical Condition of the National Collection." The project captured and analyzed condition data from 500 "identical" volumes from five American research libraries to explore the following: What is the condition of book collections from 1840-1940? Can condition be predicted by catalog or physical parameters? What assessment tools might indicate a book's life expectancy? Filling gaps in knowledge about the physicality of our collections is helping identify at-risk collections and explain the cases of dissimilar "same" volumes based on the impact of paper composition. Predictive modeling and assessment tools are also used to improve the understanding of what is typical for specific eras. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the findings of the first multi-analytical investigation of the Book of Uí Mhaine, one of the largest Gaelic Books surviving from the medieval vernacular period. A combination of protein analysis, point X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), multispectral imaging (MSI), point Fiber-Optic Reflectance Spectroscopy (FORS) and point Raman spectroscopy was used to perform a systematic investigation of the Book of Uí Mhaine's constituent materials, including parchment, inks and pigments. The analysis revealed that the parchment was made of calfskin, both blunt tools and Pb-containing materials were used for ruling the pages throughout the manuscript, and iron-based inks were used to write the content of the book. The decoration was restricted to the initial letters and rubrication across the body text. The decoration color palette was limited to yellow and red, comprising arsenic-, mercury- and lead-based pigments. A copper-based green pigment was found only on one folio. The scientific knowledge acquired through this multi-analytical approach complemented a substantial corpus of knowledge already built by Gaelic scholars, paleographers, codicologists and conservators. This work not only allowed for the consolidation of existing information on methods and materials used for the production of medieval Gaelic manuscripts but also laid the basis for future comparative work with other contemporary traditions in Ireland and Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of the Institute of Conservation is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses integration of advanced imaging and processing capabilities in libraries, archives and museums. This requires systems to ensure a process for large amounts of digital data including storage, archiving, processing and linkage to other data. It notes that the U.S. Library of Congress is developing preservation and verification tools as part of a larger study of scientific preservation, processing and research. It provides a nondestructive tool for research into paper, parchment and photographic object within the Library by means of an integrated hyperspectral imaging system.

Historical alkali silicate glass is prone to deterioration over time due to the uptake of atmospheric water and subsequent hydrolysis of the silicate matrix. Recent studies of historical glass have provided insight into the mechanism of alteration; however, few techniques can assess early onset glass alteration noninvasively. Herein, we present fiber optic reflectance spectroscopy (FORS) as an invaluable tool to analyze historical glass alteration. We study a series of artificially aged model potash glasses and assess the nature of the alkali‐depleted alteration layer by microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive spectroscopy, and FORS. We find that the model glass FORS spectra demonstrate peaks associated with hydroxide, liquid‐like water, and bound water. FORS was able to detect an alteration layer as thin as 0.66 µm. The model glass data were then used to generate a hydration thickness prediction curve in order to predict the alteration layer thickness of twenty‐one 19th‐century glass flutes of similar composition. In the one case that an actual flute sample was available, the predicted value was in good agreement with previous SEM measurement. The results indicate the ability of FORS to noninvasively assess glass deterioration and to understand the nature of absorbed water in historical glass objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today the long-term conservation of cultural heritage is a big challenge: often the artworks were subjected to unknown interventions, which eventually were found to be harmful. The noninvasive investigation of the conservation treatments to which they were subjected to is a crucial step in order to undertake the best conservation strategies. We describe here the preliminary results on a quick and direct method for the nondestructive identification of the various interventions of parchment by means of direct analysis in real time (DART) ionization and high-resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometry and chemometrics. The method has been developed for the noninvasive analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls, one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. In this study castor oil and glycerol parchment treatments, prepared on new parchment specimens, were investigated in order to evaluate two different types of operations. The method was able to identify both treatments. In order to investigate the effect of the ion source temperature on the mass spectra, the DART-MS analysis was also carried out at several temperatures. Due to the high sensitivity, simplicity, and no sample preparation requirement, the proposed analytical methodology could help conservators in the challenging analysis of unknown treatments in cultural heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In the context of evidence-based management of historic collections, a damage function combines aspects of material degradation, use, and consideration of material attributes that are important for satisfactory extraction of benefits from user interaction with heritage. In libraries and archives, it has been shown that users (readers and visitors) are mainly concerned with loss of textual information, which could lead to degradation being described as unacceptable, at which an object might become unfit for use and therefore damaged. The contribution explores the development of the damage function for historic paper based on data available in the literature. Results: We have modelled the dose-response function taking into account 121 paper degradation experiments with known T, RH of the environment, and pH of paper. The function is based on the Arrhenius equation and published water absorption isotherm functions for paper. New isoperm plots have been calculated and isochrones have been developed. These are plots linking points of equal expected 'lifetime', i.e. time until an object is expected to reach the state of threshold fitness-for-use. We also modelled demographic curves for a well-characterised research collection of historic papers, exploring the loss of fitness for use with time. Conclusions: The new tools enable us to evaluate scenarios of management of the storage environment as well as levels of access, for different types of library and archival paper. In addition, the costs and benefits of conservation interventions can be evaluated. The limitations of the function are the context of use (dark storage and reading), exclusive focus on the properties of an average paper type, and de-prioritised effect of pollutants; however, the latter can be considered separately. This work also demonstrates that transparent and publically accountable collection management decisions can be informed, and challenged by, effective interaction with a variety of stakeholders including the lay public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As a result of use of library and archival documents, defined as reading with handling in the context of general access, mechanical degradation (wear and tear) accumulates. In contrast to chemical degradation of paper, the accumulation of wear and tear is less well studied. Previous work explored the threshold of mechanical degradation at which a paper document is no longer considered to be fit for the purpose of use by a reader, while in this paper we explore the rate of accumulation of such damage in the context of object handling. Results: The degree of polymerisation (DP) of historic paper of European origin from mid-19th-mid-20th Century was shown to affect the rate of accumulation of wear and tear. While at DP > 800, this accumulation no longer depends on the number of handlings (the process is random), a wear-out function could be developed for documents with DP between 300 and 800. For objects with DP < 300, one large missing piece (i.e. such that contains text) developed on average with each instance of handling, which is why we propose this DP value as a threshold value for safe handling. Conclusions: The developed model of accumulation of large missing pieces per number of handlings of a document depending on DP, enables us to calculate the time required for an object to become unfit for use by readers in the context of general access. In the context of the average frequency of document use at The UK National Archives (Kew), this period is 60 years for the category of papers with DP 300, and 450 years for papers with DP 500. At higher DP values, this period of time increases beyond the long-term planning horizon of 500 years, leading to the conclusion that for such papers, accumulation of wear and tear is not a significant collection management concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In heritage science literature and in preventive conservation practice, damage functions are used to model material behaviour and specifically damage (unacceptable change), as a result of the presence of a stressor over time. For such functions to be of use in the context of collection management, it is important to define a range of parameters, such as who the stakeholders are (e.g. the public, curators, researchers), the mode of use (e.g. display, storage, manual handling), the long-term planning horizon (i.e. when in the future it is deemed acceptable for an item to become damaged or unfit for use), and what the threshold of damage is, i.e. extent of physical change assessed as damage. Results: In this paper, we explore the threshold of fitness for use for archival and library paper documents used for display or reading in the context of access in reading rooms by the general public. Change is considered in the context of discolouration and mechanical deterioration such as tears and missing pieces: forms of physical deterioration that accumulate with time in libraries and archives. We also explore whether the threshold fitness for use is defined differently for objects perceived to be of different value, and for different modes of use. The data were collected in a series of fitness-for-use workshops carried out with readers/visitors in heritage institutions using principles of Design of Experiments. Conclusions: The results show that when no particular value is pre-assigned to an archival or library document, missing pieces influenced readers/visitors' subjective judgements of fitness-for-use to a greater extent than did discolouration and tears (which had little or no influence). This finding was most apparent in the display context in comparison to the reading room context. The finding also best applied when readers/visitors were not given a value scenario (in comparison to when they were asked to think about the document having personal or historic value). It can be estimated that, in general, items become unfit when text is evidently missing. However, if the visitor/reader is prompted to think of a document in terms of its historic value, then change in a document has little impact on fitness for use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper a non-invasive quantitative multi-spectral imaging technique was used for monitoring the degradation of parchment caused by light exposure. The parchment samples were aged for 24, 48, 72 and 120 hours in a weather-ometer ageing chamber to simulate a long term sunlight exposure. The effect of light exposure when a ultra violet (UV) filter is used was investigated. The degradation was monitored by using Light Emitting Diode (LED) multi-spectral imaging coupled to multivariate statistical methods and infrared spectroscopy, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) techniques in order to elucidate the mechanism of the parchment ageing and to correlate chemical and imaging data. A description of the effect of light exposure is given: the degradation of collagenous phase and thermo-oxidative phenomena are not involved in the photo-oxidation process and, as expected, the UV radiation accelerates the ageing effects. Moreover the non-invasive imaging methods used for the detection of ageing and the monitoring o f the conservation state of the parchment surface were able to identify the non-visible degradation long before possible detection by other common analytical techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Waldseemüller 1507 World Map was the first map (printed or manuscript) to refer to America. It is sometimes referred to as 'America's birth certificate' and was purchased by the Library of Congress in July 2001 from Germany. Johann Schöner (1477-1557), a Nuremberg astronomer-geographer had acquired an edition of the first printing, binding it into a volume with other maps. In 1901, Joseph Fisher, a Jesuit historian, who was conducting research in the library at Wolfegg Castle, Wurttenberg, Germany, discovered Schoner's book and the famous Waldseemuller Map. The copy at the Library of Congress is the only known survivor of the 1000 copies of the map believed to have been printed. Owing to the extreme rarity of this precious map, the Library of Congress undertook two major initiatives to ensure its preservation. The exchange between the German Government and the Library of Congress required that the map always be on exhibit for anyone to view, and a large anoxic visual display encasement was designed to maintain a 20-30 years' hermetic seal, protecting the document from environmental risks. Before to encasement for display, the Library conducted hyperspectral imaging to capture extensive historical information for access by researchers and scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]