Aged paper Library

J. Rychly and L. Rychla, Chemiluminescence from polymers. In M. Strlic and J. Kolar (Eds.), Ageing and Stabilisation of Paper, National and University Library, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2005, p. 71. 

In those moments, when he could escape from the grind of daily life, having access to the facilities of the Nottingham Subscription Library in Bromley House enabled him to become acquainted with the advanced mathematical concepts embodied in the works of the French school of analytical physics, which was only then being established at Cambridge. In 1828, at the age of thirty-five, he published by subscription the paper that immortalized his name. It was entitled, An Essay on the Application of Mathematical... 

Strlic M, Kolar J (2005) Ageing and stabilisation of paper. National and University Library, Ljubljana... 

All too often, the environment within library and archive storage areas presents a threat to their aging collections, when it could be utilized as a most cost-effective tool for their preservation. All paper-based materials, whether rare or common-place, old or new, acid or alkaline, are susceptible to heat and humidity. While it is... 

Of the two test papers employed in this study, the wood pulp waterleaf better represents natural cellulose, while Foldur Kraft paper, which is sized with alum-rosin, is fifteen years old and also fairly acidic, more closely resembles average library book paper. Both the papers were aged as sheets freely suspended on a rack, as... 

Unfortunately, a computer search of library catalogs shows there is no such book. That isn t too surprising in this day and age even books like Kimura s and Kauffman s that propose new theories are usually preceded by papers on the topic that are first published in scientific journals. The absence of papers on the evolution of biochemical structures in the journals just about kills any chance of there being a book published on the matter. 

A much more recent development is the morpholine process in which fifty books per hour are treated in an evacuated chamber with morpholine-water vapor (12). In its present form, it was effective on 95% of the papers treated, prolonging their life on average by a factor of 4-5 (Figure 7). Though it does not leave a titratable alkaline reserve in the paper, acid papers treated in this manner aged in the presence of 5 ppm S02 at 75 °C and 60% relative humidity deteriorate more slowly than if untreated. Recent tests of twenty treated books at the Library of Congress show that their pH has not declined in two years. The equipment for the process was set up in the Virginia State Library where 35,000 books were treated in the first seven months of operation. 

T his chapter is a report of the results of conventional testing pro-cedures carried out on a series of kraft paper samples at the Library of Congress. The chemiluminescence emission from the paper samples was measured concurrently in a study at Battelle s Columbus Laboratories, and the results of that study have been presented elsewhere (1). In summary, the chemiluminescence maxima from the papers in humid or dry atmospheres adhered fairly well to a conventional Arrhenius expression from 25° to 100°C, which suggested a continuity in the oxidative mechanism over this temperature range, at least in the initial stages of aging. 

As acid paper ages, the amorphous regions of the cellulose fiber that are plasticized by water and/or humectant tend to disappear. The sorbi-tol/Kymene treatment becomes ineffective with degraded paper. This suggests that somewhat the same effect would be observed between new and degraded papers when humidified. Adrian Sclawy of the Library of Congress Preservation Research and Testing Office, carried out the experiments on humidification which are reported in Chapter 16 of this volume. 

In closing, we suggest that interested readers should consult the following three recent review papers that demonstrate how, even today, almost 20 years into the combinatorial chemistry era, chemists and biologists are still learning chemical history from Nature —the review by Kaiser et al. on biology-inspired compound libraries,88 and the two reviews on natural products in the modern age by Ganesan89 and Butler.90... 

In this section, we will concentrate on heat ageing which is intended to reproduce the effects of ageing in the dark and in the absence of air pollutants. Chemical reactions in general, and those which cause deterioration of paper in particular, slow down when the temperature is decreased and accelerate when the temperature is increased. In response to this fact, some libraries and archives have built stores that can maintain a low temperature to prolong the life of their collections. There is an equation that was defined by Arrhenius, which can be used to predict the effects of temperature on the rate of chemical reactions/ageing, here it is ... 

M. Strlic and J. Kolar, Ageing and Stabilisation of Paper, National and University Library, Ljubliana, 2005. 

My first encounter with the field of colloid science occurred during my undergraduate studies, when I worked in a project on the electroacoustic zeta-potential measurement of colloidal suspensions. I probably did not understand much of the measurement technique, but I became fascinated with colloids for several reasons. First, they behave strangely —at least for a student of process engineering whose education in physics stopped right after mechanics and thermodynamics. Second, in our library I found some of the historical papers by Smoluchowski and others, which impressed by their age and the clear and comprehensible explanation of the physical phenomena in colloidal suspensions. Further on, I felt attracted by the interrelation of physics, chemistry and engineering. Last but not least, there was this mystery that our curriculum completely ignored the subject of colloids. 

The discovery and the use of wood pulp (1840 by Keller) and acid sizing, mostly with alum or aluminum sulfate (1807 by Illig), are the main reasons for the current problems of deterioration of books in libraries und archives. Even at that time it was known that acid-sized wood pulp paper was not as stable against aging as traditionally made rag paper. Today the books most threatened by deterioration are those that were made in the last 150 years and not, as many people may assume, the older works from centuries ago. 

The main cause for paper deterioration in libraries and archives is the acid catalyzed hydrolysis of cellulose, the ingredient that gives permanence to the paper. The aging permanence of paper is closely coimected with the add concentration in the paper. The priority in preservation measures is in most cases the dead-dification of acid paper. Today, more than 70 years after Barrow s pioneering work, mass deacidification of books and archive materials has become a commerdal reality. 

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