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-european
policies
Two main areas of concern are fundamental to any museum/archive/library (MAL); storage of archives, books or artefacts and providing access to them. Although “storage” encompasses several different facets, including environmental monitoring and control and appropriates housing of records, it is not the objective of MAL. It is creating access to the stored heritage, their cataloguing, consultation by third parties and exhibition. Central to both concerns, however, is preservation and conservation of the records, for having no records, there would not only be any MAL, but also any material as basis for the history on cultural traditions of any of our countries. One of the main topics now is to prevent the paper-based heritage against further deterioration, thus for example to know how to stop e.g. iron-gall ink corrosion, to know what will happen at certain deacidification treatment and to know which conservation strategy fits best. Thus, which action should be taken to keep the origin in a well-preserved and accessible state?
During the Iron-gall Ink Corrosion Workshop at Boijmans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam (June 16 and 17, 1997) was mentioned that 15% of the drawings in their collection, representing a value of 300 Million euro, is affected with iron-gall ink corrosion. The cultural and historical value of these affected drawings cannot be expressed in figures, but is certainly higher. It is stated that co-operation on a European level will lead to an adequate solution for metal-tannin corrosion, because it is not very likely that on a national scale sufficient experts and expertise as well as funding can be found. To reach that aim an international network of those concerned with the problem of metal-tannin corrosion should be set up, because only with interdisciplinary teams and international co-operation relatively short-term results can be achieved.
During the Iron-gall Ink Corrosion meeting at the National Archives, The Hague (December 16 and 17, 1999), which first aim was to determine a state-of-the-art of ink corrosion treatment and research on this subject, was concluded that there is not a policy regarding to ink corrosion. There is a policy regarding to special programs for the public. Several important archives will be part of these public programs. What is occurring in practise is that due to ink corrosion parts of the archives cannot be subject of a special program due to the physical condition (ink corrosion). That means that an existing conservation problem is blocking the intended public policy.
Acidification is an occurring problem, often present in combination with metal-tannin corrosion. One way to slow down the deterioration of paper is deacidification. October 18 and 19, 2000 a conference about Mass Deacidification in Practice was organised in Bückeburg. The aim of the conference was to present examples of how mass deacidification can be applied in practice. Representatives from libraries and archives with considerable experience with one or several different processes shared their views on the role of mass deacidification in preservation management. The focus was on issues like the place of mass deacidification in a preservation policy, its relation to other preservation measures, workflow, logistics, costs and organisational aspects. Conclusions were drawn on the need of co-operation in the field of research and application.
Benefits for aesthetic/scientific/conservation community. It is extremely difficult to quantify the damage done to already priceless works of art, irreplaceable manuscripts, and printed materials by e.g. iron-gall ink corrosion. It is also difficult to quantify the way in which our lives are enriched by the presence of magnificent works of art and skilled craftsmanship, and the opportunity to view such items as the artist intended us to see them, rather than defaced, as they may be by their ravages of time. Now with the Internet, photographic enhancement techniques, and increasingly high-speed data transmission, images of our art works are becoming available to a much wider audience, both in Europe and overseas. Before being able to demonstrate to both academic and popular viewers the manner in which we are able to care for our artistic treasurers which would be of benefit to both the artistic, scientific and conservation communities in Europe, assessments shall be carried out in order to prepare the objects and include a needed conservation strategy.
World-wide interest in solutions will increase the Community Added Value. The needs of stopping e.g. iron-gall ink corrosion, enhanced proper storage conditions and assessment methods. By means of a good dissemination of the aims and results from this network, interest shall be found from non-network scientist, end-users and suppliers and international co-operationships will be raised to solve common problems.
Interface act: The network will act as the interface
between scientist, suppliers, and end-users. Therefore the “language
gap” will be reduced to a minimum and research and development related
to conservation strategies in relation to transitional metals will fulfil
the end-user requirements. During the whole operation of the network,
it will be open for involving other members, showing their interest and
have proven to deliver a positive contribution to this network. As a conclusion MIP Thematic Network, within the
Fifth Framework programme, City
of Tomorrow and Cultural Heritage and the Community action plan in
the field of cultural heritage, will deal with the exchange of knowledge
in the fields of development of technologies, assessment strategies and
products for diagnosis, protection, conservation, and restoration of the
European paper-based cultural heritage that is affected with corrosion
caused by transitional metals.
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