Document conservation in the Vilnius University Library

(1)

T^ATJANA T^IMČENKO¹

D

OCUMENT CONSERVATION

IN THE VILNIUS UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

NR 1 (47) 2017, S. 10–23

1

I

n 2018 the Vilnius University Library Restoration Department will celebrate an anniversary – 50 years on document conservation-restoration. It is the oldest restoration department in Lithuanian libraries. In this article we are going to discuss the place of the department in the safeguard of Lithuanian document heritage, everyday challenges that the Department have faced during last decade and which are related to the changes in the understanding of library role and activity in the fi eld of digitization. We will also try to overview possible fi elds for international co-operation.

Overview of document conservation in Lithuania

First, we need to understand the institutional structure of document conservation in Lithuania. Today document restoration is presented in the structure of three Lithuanian libraries with signifi cant heritage collection (Lithuanian National Martynas Mažvydas Library², The Wróblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences³, and Vilnius University Library⁴), Lithuanian Central State Archives⁵. Documents, graphics and other art objects from museum holdings which can be counted as document heritage are treated in the Pranas Gudynas Restoration centre of the Lithuanian Art Museum, Restoration Centre of Lithuanian National Museum⁶. Docu-

1 Head of Restoration Department, Heritage Collection and Research Centre, Vilnius Uni- versity Librar Universiteto

2 http://www.lnb.lt/kontaktai/43-informacijos-istekliu-departamentas/47-dokumentu- konservavimo-ir-restauravimo-skyrius

3 http://www.mab.lt/en/195/departments/restoration

4 https://biblioteka.vu.lt/en/about-library/structure/centre-science-and-cultural-heritage/

restoration-department

5 http://www.archyvai.lt/lt/kontaktai_175/lcva_dr_sk.html (in Lithuanian only)

6 http://www.lnm.lt/en/conservation-centre/.

(2)

ment restoration is one of the work direction of Šiauliai Aušros Museum Restoration Centre⁷. Practically all the main document restoration “forces”

locate in the capital. In the Kaunas and Klaipėda libraries and museums few specialists on document restoration are employed in different divisions of the institutions.

Thus very institution is taking care of one’s own holding conservation, there is no tradition of private conservation workshops, which means that the institutions must perform all the spectrum of conservation activities.

This situation gives a lot of possibilities for co-operation as on the fi eld of practical conservation (consulting, application of new methods developed or already proofed by colleagues), and for the analysis of the best practice, when different decisions of problems common for all libraries or archives are taken (for instance, usage of fumigation techniques and methods) or when organizational structure of the conservation units varies.

On the other side, there are perspectives for optimization of the structures (no one can disagree with the thesis of the high costs of conservation) with the condition of improving of institutional co-operation in the future:

often different institutions are searching solution of the same problems, so it is possible to combine efforts or to divide the tasks, which could be true and for international co-operation. Also, speaking about general context it could be mentioned that the common tendency is to optimize the structure of the departments, especially when we speak about ratherlargeunits in the libraries. Therefore the centre of document conservation of Lithuanian National M. Mažvydas Library lost its status and became a department.

There are plans to unite part of the digitization department with the restoration department and with time to reduce the number of specialists on document conservation in Vilnius University Library. In this case, without considering really important economic aspects (high costs of document conservation), we need to have in mind two more aspects: aging of the profession and the status of document conservation. Undoubtedly document restoration today needs stronger advocacy in the institutional and in the national levels.

Discussing the aging and status, we need to have in mind that today it is not possible to graduate from any high school with such speciality⁸. If someone wishes to become a document restorer, he (or much more often she) has two possibilities: to go to study abroad or to complete practical studies in one of the departments. The qualifi cation is conferred by Certifi - cation Commission⁹. Work of the commission is organized and maintained

7 http://ausrosmuziejus.lt/eng/Restauravimo-centras

8 Vilnius Academy of Art offer graduate study (MA) program “The Restoration of Art and Interior Heritage”.

9 The description of the aims and procedurs could by found here: https://lrkm.lrv.lt/en/

activities/certifi cation-of-restorers-of-movable-cultural-properties

(3)

by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania. It must be said that every document restorer must gain the higher qualifi cation category or confi rm the one he/she has one every 5 years. The range of the catego- ries is (from the lowest up): the third, the second, the fi rst, highest, expert.

Additionally, requirements for the category to the level of performed conservation (restoration) works are related to the education and work experience.

It must be added that the organization of conservation work in the departments normally would have hierarchical structure: the third or the second category restorer could perform certain activities(for example, manuscript restoration) only under the supervision of the fi rst or higher category restorer. This is the general rule aimed to protect document heritage.

The situation of absence of professional education in such a multi- disciplinary fi eld as document conservation leads to inadequate recep- tion of the speciality in scientifi c and public space. The document conservation being “locked” in the frames of the institutions’ structure is purely presented in the market and in public space. Often we face the understanding of the profession as of the pure trade and in this case we have lost very important analytical scientifi c and methodological part of conservation and restoration. It is enough to say that professional educational programs are initiated by the specialists, not by the authorities.

Unfortunately, being out of a university or other high school programme document conservation doesn’t have a coordinated policy on a country level. As a result of the low level of recognition the fi nancial support for conservation projects is weak, especially for the institution, where conservation units are established¹⁰. The aim for common efforts in this fi eld would be to raise the awareness of the importance of establishing professional education and the human resources for document heritage conservation, especially in the situation of the profession aging. In such situation the aging is natural. The recruiting of inexperienced persons as future restorers means for the institution to accept expenses of professional education and high risk related to the staff loss (because no one guarantees that the new employee would continue to work for a period long enough to cover all the expenses related to the professional training On the other hand there are not a lot of people able to cover professional training themselves or to cover at least part of the expenses by volunteer- ing work. Hence the contemporary diffi culty in expecting a new wave of young professionals in this fi eld. The situation must be changed fast and the experienced practitioners could help a lot.

10 Lithuanian Council for Culture supports conservation and restoration projects, prepared only by the institutions, where conservers are not employed (information could be found on Lithuanian language in http://www.ltkt.lt/?psl=projektu-fi nansavimas&do=konkursai&step

=view&id=131).

(4)

The Vilnius University Restoration Department: experience and role of the staff of the department in professional education

The priorities of the department works are mirrored in the structure.

Today the structure of department includes fi ve directions:

a) microbiological analysis and disinfection (0,25 full time position of microbiologist, 0,25 full time position of disinfection specialist)

b) chemical analysis and support (0,5 full time position of specialist on chemical technologies)

c) conservation and restoration of paper (15 specialists / 13 full time positions)

d) conservation and restoration of bindings (6 specialists / 5 full time positions)

Later we will discuss disinfection and researches on conservation chemistry the specialist of the department are involved in, as well as organization of collection care. But now we are back to the professional education.

Department is proud of highly qualifi ed paper and binding restorers – 2 experts, specialized on paper restoration, 4 highest qualifi cation restorers, 9 restorers have I qualifi cation category in document restoration.

Speaking about the experience: one of the best book binding restorers in Lithuania Jonas Daunoravičius has been working in the Department since it was founded – 49 years, 7 restorers have 40–46 year working experience, 6 restorers – 30–39 years, 4 restorers – 20–29 year, 2 restorers – 15–20 year, 1 restorer 7 years. As we can see, the problem of aging is one of the most severe in the Department.

The Department can be seen as the point of the development of the professional education in the fi eld of document conservation in Lithuania on non-formal and formal levels. The specialists trained in Vilnius Univer- sity Restoration department were later employed practically by all restoration departments in other libraries and State Archives. For instance, the head of Lithuanian National M. Mažvydas Library Algirdas Plioplis and the head of Restoration Department of Lithuanian State Archives Danguolė Šlaustienė started their professional careers in Vilnius University Restora- tion Department.

Nowadays the department offers individual training programs on the wide spectrum of documents conservation-restoration, regularly organizes methodical workshops as for the staff of the Department, as for all com- munity of document restorers.

Specialists of binding restoration are the most experienced in Lithua- nia today. Apart from signifi cant restoration work, they provide large number of consultations, offer non-formal professional education programs, actively participate at modern book binding exhibitions, study book binding history and are winners of Lithuanian and international bookbinding

(5)

competitions. Sigitas Tamulis initiated a project on reconstruction of 1th–

16th c. historical bindings. The project was supported by the Lithuanian Council of Culture.

VU Library bookbinders are founders and members of Bookbinders Guild of Vilnius. One of the main aims of the association is to promote the bookbinding craft. The Guild organizes large number of professional and public events, edits professional literature, leads educational projects for children and young people.

The staff of the department played an important role in formal education as well¹¹. After restoration in 1995 by the initiative of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture a document conservation speciality was opened at Vilnius High School of Technologies. The School signed the cooperation agreements with Vilnius University Library and Lithua- nian Art Museum P. Gudynas centre of restoration. Zita Šliogerienė, Cezar Poliakevič and Irena Kiedienė participated in formation of professional education program and were teaching document conservation in the institution from 1995 to 2002. 48 document restorers graduated from the School.

Graduates in this program work as document restorers in different Lithu- anian heritage institutions. Two graduates of the College are employed in our department. The other program on document restoration was opened in Kaunas High School of Arts. This institution prepared two groups of document restorers (in 1995 and 1996). Unfortunately, document restoration speciality has not been included in professional education programs after 2002.

Special introductory courses on document conservation/restoration were carried out by the specialists of the Department in the VU Faculty of Communication 1993–1995, 2002–2013. Even though the course was not aimed to prepare professionals on the fi eld of conservation, it helped a lot in raising understanding of the importance of the document safeguard, specifi city of conservation work organization and the need of close cooperation and coordination with fond holders.

VU Restoration Department serves as a base for professional training for students of Faculty of Chemistry (speciality restoration technology).

Graduates of the speciality were successfully employed in the Department.

Experts of the Department actively participate in the work of Certifi cation Commission. Zita Šliogerienė was the member of the Commission from 1994 until 2012 and worked as the Chairperson of the Commission from 2007 until 2012. Irena Kiedienė has been representing document restorers at the Commission since 2013.

11 More detailed information could be found in (Kiedienė, 2000, p. 15–18).

(6)

Paradigmatic changes in document conservation/restoration

Until 2008 work of Restoration Department was based on tradition of old classical restoration school. And we need to underline that the results of document conservation/restoration are really valuable. Even taking into account that the attention was focused on separate document restoration, we need to remember that the most important object was selected for long term restoration. We need to have in mind that Vilnius University Library holdings¹² have complicated keeping and acquisition history, therefore the need of conservation/restoration treatment is high. According to the study performed by VU Library staff at 2006–2007 conservation treatment required 35.2 % of early prints and 18.9 % of manuscripts, while restoration treatment required 9.4 % of early prints and 18.7 % of manuscripts¹³.

The Library holds signifi cant early prints collection (about 160 000 items, printed in 15–21th c. including the biggest incunabula collection in Baltic States) and valuable collection of manuscripts (about 325 000 items, written in 13th–21th c.)¹⁴. Conservation needs for the old prints could be preliminary calculated at the range of 56 000 items (35.2 %), needs for restoration treatment – 15 000 items (9.4 %), conservation needs for manuscript collections – 61 400 items (18.9 %), restoration needs for manuscript collections – 60 780 items (18.7 %). The numbers are huge and, as we understand, even with the well-formed prioritization if we want to improve the situation, we need to employ quite a big group of high qualifi ed specialists and serious investment in this fi eld.

We can illustrate the scope of the work mathematically with the help of accounting system used in the Department¹⁵. Starting from 2012 the Department works with conservation and restoration of Manuscript

12 The Library holds signifi cant old prints collection (about 160000 items, printed in XV–

XXI c. including the biggest incunabula collection in Baltic States) and valuable collection of manuscripts (about 325000 items, written in XIII–XXI c.).

13 For the study model of statistical analysis was used. 1040 old prints and 1762 manuscripts were chosen for evaluation of physical condition randomly.

14 Overview of the holdings could be fi nd on the Vilnius University Library website: Rare books https://biblioteka.vu.lt/en/cultural-heritage/rare-books, Manuscript department collections: https://biblioteka.vu.lt/en/cultural-heritage/manuscript-department-collections.

15 Conservation and restoration jobs are accounted using coeffi cient of the level of complicacy, coeffi cient of dimensions and of the norm of the standard conserved/restores leaves of the VIII category of the complicacy (coeffi cient of the VIII category equel 1) per day. The formula is used to account working days: N_wd=N_l*C_d*C_c/24, where N_wd – number of working days, N_l – number of leaves in the treated document, C_d – coeffi cient of the dimensions of the leaves of the document, C_c – coeffi cient of the level of complicacy, 24 – norm of the VIII category leaves per day. The level of complicacy is offered by conserver and must be proved by Restoration Counsil (in the case of long tem restoration) or by supervising conserver (in the case of short- term conservation works). The same work accounting system is used in Lithuanian National M. Mažvydas Library and The Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences.

(7)

Department holding No 7 Court Acts of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Part of the documents are severely damaged by fungus and need high level of treatment.

The restoration work on the Act Book of Kaunas Land Court, written in 1643–1644 (F7-KZT,1643–1644) is performed by Zita Šliogerienė.

The planned work amount is 1467 working days¹⁶, so the restoration is expected to be completed in 6 years.

Staff of the Department is interested in the implementation of modern conservation and restoration technologies. In 2015 Lithuanian Council of Culture supported VU Library project “Phytic acid method in conservation of the documents written with iron gall ink”. The Department got possibilities to buy all the equipment and reagents and to start work on the stabi- lisation of the iron gall inks corrosion.

Such fi eld as preventive conservation was not structured, but this does not mean that this type of activities was not performed. Department staff often participated in holding cleaning procedures, regularly provided con- sultation on the fi eld, prepared solid, selected materials for cleaning etc.

16 Using mentioned formula N_wd=N_l*C_d*C_c/24: number of leaves – about 400, coeffi cient of the dimensions – 1.1, coeffi cient of the level of complicacy – 40, Z. Šliogerienė‘s position is 0.5 of full time, thus N_wd=400*1.1*40/24*2=1467.

Fig. 1. Manuscript before restoration. Phot. by Z. Šliogerienė

(8)

Fig. 2. Leave of the document prepared for the treatment (washing) Phot. by Z. Šliogerienė

Fig. 3. Leave of the document after restoration. Phot. by Z. Šliogerienė

(9)

The volume of the article is not enough to discuss the tendencies of document conservation and restoration used at the department during last 49 years. The materials for research on the topic are accumulated in the department archive. The archive holds restoration documentation on all the conserved/restored items and need to be properly described, digitized and bond to the descriptions of restored (conserved) documents. The deeper analysis of materials of the archive will give possibilities to review and to study main tendencies of the document restoration in Lithuania. Monitoring of the restored documents would help to analyse the effectiveness of the method used.

Changes of the work organization on the fi eld of document conservation and restoration took place after the reconstruction of the department in 2008–2009. The department was completely renovated during the reconstruction, new professional conservation and restoration equipment was installed. The physical reconstruction of the department was followed by the reorganization process. First steps forward scientifi c document conservation/restoration were done: a specialist on chemistry technologies was employedlater followed by a microbiology specialist. In 2014 Depart- ment was equipped with disinfection chamber and document disinfection process was automatized.

At the same period the Department was searching for the solution for the co-operation with Department of Digitization. Digitization started at the Library at 1996. One of the biggest digitization projects in which VU Library was involved is pan-Lithuanian digitization project Virtual Electronic Heritage System¹⁷, initiated by Lithuanian National M. Mažvydas Library.

Participation in the digitization process was an important challenge for the department. It was needed to establish all the process of the co-ordination of the works, to build works amount evaluation system, to improve the co- operation with other departments¹⁸, but also to move to the program of the minimum intervention into the objects. The reduction of the documents usage due to digitization gave the possibility to change the approach to the restored object as “ready for usage” fully restored item and to move to the other concept. Large amount of documents selected for digitization helped to set structured programs on preventive conservation before digitization, to prioritize conservation and restoration jobs, which leaded to the improve- ment of the long-term conservation-restoration planning. Today we start the preparation for digitization from the documents evaluation and preliminary conservation plan. The documents are evaluated and the conservation plans are set by the group of high qualifi ed restorers. The documents are different, so the minimum treatment depending on the document condition could vary from dust cleaning to full restoration. Evaluation and planning give the

17 http://www.epaveldas.lt/en/home

18 More information in (Тимченко, 2012, c. 80–89; Prokopčik, Timčenko, 2013, p. 287–307)

(10)

possibility to see the project line more clearly, to agree with the curators on the sequence of conservation and restoration lists in time to set the jobs for different types of digitization equipment.

The other important challenge for the Department was liberalization of the Library. Today Library became more open and friendly for the users.

The Library moved to the open shelf system, the new building of the Library is open for public in regime 7/24, the consumption of drinks and snacks is allowed in the space of the modern collections reading rooms. In this situation we are facingseveral risks and we need to respond to them.

Open shelf system means higher risk of book damages, which can be reduced by providing information on proper behaviour for the readers.

Regime 7/24 means that we need to fi nd a solution for preventive dust cleaning programs. Drinks and snacks require regular microbiological control and deeper work with the reader.

The training of the library staff in the fi eld of document safeguard must not be forgotten. Especially such programs are important for the young employees without professional education on the library studies.

One of the directions of the work of the department in the fi eld of preventive conservation today is the evaluation of the conditions of document holding of the Library divisions, which are situated in the VU faculties. The aim of the work is to fi nd – together with the holding keepers – the solution of reduction of factors, which lead to the higher number of damages of modern holdings.

Fig. 4. Container for one of act book. Phot. by R. Malaiška

(11)

Microbiological and chemical analysis and researches

Microbiological analyses and monitoring of microbiological situation in holdings storage spaces, reading and working rooms have been performed at Vilnius University Library sine 2011. The systematic microbiological control procedure for the new collection, acquired by the Library, was set up.

Disinfection of the documents is carried out in the chamber, produced by a Korean company BIOMIST Technology co¹⁹. For disinfection process the composition based on essential oils is used. The practical microbiological results of the disinfection are positive. This is the fi rst experience of usage of environment friendly technologies for document disinfection in Lithuania.

In co-operation with the Jagiellonian University Library and Faculty of Chemistry of the Jagiellonian University in 2015 the project of research of “Chemical evaluation of disinfection with essential oils based on Vilnius University Library experience” was performed²⁰.

19 More information coul be found on Environment-Friendly Disinfection System, http://

www.sentios.lt/upload/fi les/Catalog%20Biomist.pdf

20 The results of the research was presented in 16^th international workshop “Care and Conservation of Manuscripts”, held at University of Copenhagen in 2016. The article (G. Keraitė et al., 2016) is accepted for publication in seminar proceedings.

Fig. 5. Author of the structure of the container Sigitas Tamulis. Phot. by R. Malaiška

(12)

Currently our restoration department in co-operation with Martynas Mazvydas National Library of Lithuania, Faculty of Chemistry and Geo- sciences of Vilnius University and Faculty of Chemistry of the Jagiellonian University are participating in a research of “Effect of Different treatment with Antioxidants on Ageing Stability of Paper containing Iron-gall ink”.

The aim of this research is to evaluate the effect of interleaving treatment performed with interleaves containing organic and inorganic halide salts on ageing stabilities of paper with iron-gall ink. The effect of interleaving is compared with the effi ciency of direct treatment of samples and with the established conservation procedure – calcium phytate/ calcium hydrocar- bonate treatment.

Professional services for other institutions

The absence of private conservation workshop lead to the situation when staff of the Library performed conservation and restoration of the holdings of other institution on the project work basis. For example, in 2014, 2016–2017 VU Library performed document conservation for Kau- nas Country Public Library, in 2015 for Kaunas Regional State Archive, this year specialists of the Department are involved into the Lithuanian Aviation Museum holding conservation program.

International co-operation

The wide net of international co-operation is highly important in document conservation. Today the department could offer professional training projects on conservation, restoration and reconstruction of book binding, different practices of paper conservation and restoration. The experience and qualifi cation of the staff guarantee high quality of the trainings. Specialists of the Department are interested in discussion on new methods of document conservation and restoration, analysis of the practice of other workshops. It is possible to use the Erasmus Plus project for the professional co-operation.

Professional co-operation is extremely important in such a narrow fi eld as microbiological analysis and research in the libraries. One of possible question to discuss could be the level of fungi attack, when the disinfection is needed. Today norms when the disinfection is recommended vary²¹.

We hope to continue research in the fi eld of conservation chemistry in co-operation with the colleagues from the Jagiellonian University Library and other institutions.

Scientifi c research could be developed in the fi eld of codicology. For instance, the structures of bindings produced in the territory of the Pol-

21 For example: Zerek, 2010; Попихина, Великова, 2007.

(13)

ish Kingdom and Grand Duchy of Lithuania could be studied. The Library holds collections which historically belonged to different private and institutional libraries.

There could be more possibilities mentioned. A lot of work is to be done and joined efforts could lead to better results.

Bibliography

Keraitė, G., Knapik, A., Timčenko, T., Zacharski, T. (2016). Chemical evaluation on disinfection with essential oils based on Vilnius University Library ex- perience. In: Care and conservation of manuscripts, 16, (in print).

Kiedienė, I. (2000). Dokumentų restauravi- mo specialistų rengimas. In: Vilniaus universiteto bibliotekos metraštis, 1999 (p. 15–18), Vilnius: Vilnius universiteto biblioteka.

Prokopčik, M., Timčenko, T. (2013).

Vilniaus universiteto bibliotekoje saugomų LDK Teismų knygų skait- meninimas: nuo atvaizdų gamubos iki tyrimų bazės. Knygotyra, 61, 287–307.

Zerek, B.F. Microbiological control of library collections – a tool for preserva-

tion and disaster response. In: World library and information congress: 76^th IFLA general conference and assembly.

10-15 August 2010, Gothenburg, Swe- den. Retrieved July 11, 2017, from:

http://www.ifl a.org/en/ifl a76

Попихина Е.А., Великова Т. Д. (2007).

Контроль микробиологического со- стояния документов. In: Э.Г. Вер- шинина (ред.), Комплексное обследо- вание книгохранилищ (с. 147–160), Санкт-Петербург: РНБ, с. 147–160.

Тимченко, Т. (2012). К вопросу о пробле- мах планирования реставрационных работ. In: Лики памяти. Новейшие технологии сохранения и восстанов- ления рукописного и печатного насле- дия (с. 80–89). Ереван: Наири.

Tatjana Timčenko

Document conservation in the Vilnius University Library Abstract

The aim of the article is to review the main tendencies and directions of the work of Vilnius University Library Restoration Department. An important element is also the discussion of the possibilities of international co-operation in terms of conservation, restoration and preservation of library collections.

Key words: conservation, restoration, written heritage, preservation, library collection, conservation chemistry, microbiology

(14)

Tatjana Timčenko

Konserwacja dokumentów w Bibliotece Uniwersyteckiej w Wilnie Streszczenie

Celem artykułu jest przegląd głównych tendencji i kierunków prac Vilnius University Library Restoration Department. Ważny elementem stanowi również omówienie możliwości współpracy międzynarodowej w zakresie konserwacji, restauracji i ochrony zbiorów bibliotecznych.

Słowa kluczowe: konserwacja, restaurowanie, dziedzictwo piśmiennicze, ochrona, zbiory biblioteczne, konserwacja chemiczna, mikrobiologia