British Library Archives

July 10, 2008
http://www.bl.uk/conservation

Our class was fortunate enough to go back to the British Library to tour the Archives. On our way in to their working area, we passed exhibitions on how they cleaned and restored materials. Our tour guides pointed out how the structure of their work room aided in their work: the skylights provided natural lighting, which is very important to the restoration process.

A few of the workers explained to the group the projects on which they were working. One had a collection of newspapers that had been bound together as a book, but the boards were broken and the pages were very acidic. She cut the binding and sewing away, dry cleaned the pages with a smoke sponge, washed the pages in warm water to wash out acids and dirt (I was amazed to hear that paper could be washed, but they said it was possible as long as the inks were oil-based), added alkaline to buffer and stabilize the paper, sized the pages, and strengthened the edges with thin Japanese paper (Japanese paper is long-fibered and very strong). All in all, a very time-consuming process. Other conservationists explained the importance of exactly matching the strength of the paper. They also emphasized that what they were doing was minimal intervention: binding, strengthening, incorporating cloth in endpapers, and many other things that increase the life of the book. They are careful to document their work through pictures so that they can piece it back together as close to the original as possible.

We were taken past the room where they do gold leaf finishing, but as no one was working that day, we were unable to see the process.

Conservationism sounds like a very tedious but most rewarding job.