Books are the memory of mankind and their cultural heritage. Everything we know about the past, we know through books. Even our expectations for the future, we can set through books. While some of us do not even look at those books decorating our shelves for years, others consider books to be the most important thing on Earth.
People value books either for their contents or physical characteristics. Prime examples of books that are important because of their contents are first editions of literary or historical works and early reports of inventions or scientific discoveries. Suppressed or censored books may be both important and scarce, since few copies may have survived. Physical characteristics may also contribute to a book’s importance, such as a special binding; an early use of a new printing process; or an autograph, inscription, or marginal annotations of a famous person.
When books deteriorate sufficiently to threaten loss of information recorded in them and their value as objects, a major preservation decision needs to be made. The decision can be difficult because some information is lost in order to save other, and decisions are made to save what is regarded as of enduring value. The challenge of preservation requires an understanding of the value of the book, and the development of an effective and efficient strategy for its preservation.
Restoration vs Conservation
Restoration and conservation are the keys of maintaining a book and retaining its value. Although “restoration” and “conservation” are often mistakenly used interchangeably and may sound like they refer to the same thing, the two terms differ significantly and it is important to note the differences between them.
Restoration is the process of returning a book, as nearly as possible, to its original condition and former glory. The entire scope of restoration ranges from the repair of a torn leaf, or removal of a simple stain, to the complete rehabilitation of the book, including de-acidification, alkaline buffering, resizing, filling in missing parts, re-sewing, replacement of endpapers and/or boards, recovering or restoration of the original covering material, and refinishing in a manner sympathetic to the time of the original binding of the book. Therefore, restoration encompasses almost the entire range of book rebinding, repairing, and reconstruction.
Conservation, however, requires a little more of chemistry to stabilize a book’s condition. It is the conscious, deliberate and planned supervision, care, and preservation of books from the injurious effect of age, use or misuse, as well as external or internal influences of all types, but especially light, heat, humidity, and atmospheric influences.
Preservation Initiative
Most museums and libraries strive to preserve their collections through achieving the ideal conditions. One of these institutions is the Manuscript Museum affiliated to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA). It introduces, saves, and maintains heritage, rare manuscripts and books following sound scientific methods.
The Museum has a large collection of rare documents, ancient texts, and antiquarian books. It cooperates and exchanges knowledge in the field of manuscripts with similar museums and centers all over the world. It develops and train human cadres in the fields of conservation and restoration of manuscripts.
Moreover, the Museum transfers expertise in the fields of restoration and environmental conservation to young restorers in regional and international institutions, in order to create a generation of new restorers who implement their roles within their institutions through training courses and workshops. The Museum provides the largest possible number of digital manuscripts from all over the world, and make them available to researchers in an appropriate medium.
I advise those interested in heritage preservation to visit the Museum located at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, in Alexandria, Egypt, and enroll in its workshops. I also recommend checking its website (http://manuscriptsmuseum.bibalex.org), which includes vast educational information about preservation processes the Museum adopts.
Today, we can find umpteen options for reading apart from the good old hardbacks, and there is no doubt that they are handy for book worms. However, readers still crave beautiful hardbacks they can treasure; book collectors are interested in the look, feel, and smell of hardback books. By providing great amount of solutions for efficient preservation processes of books we can save our past and present it for the future.
References
rarebookrestoration.com
rbms.info
artic.edu
clir.org
manuscriptsmuseum.bibalex.org