AZ ORSZÁGOS SZÉCHÉNYI KÖNYVTÁR ÉVKÖNYVE 1982-1983. Budapest (1984)

II. Az OSZK történetéből és munkájából - Kastaly Beatrix: Új kutatási eredmények a könyvtári restaurálás területén - New Results of Research in the Field of Library Conservation

NEW RESULTS OF RESEARCH IN THE FIELD OF LIBRARY PRESERVATION B. KASTALY In the Hungarian National Széchényi Library, research into the restoration and preservation of library materials has advanced greatly the last ten years. Though they have not had the benefit of a separated research laboratory, —two chemists and a chemist-technician working with only the most essential equipment have achieved these results in the newspaper restoration workshop. The new methods and materials that they have discovered from the technical literature and their European study-tours have been applied and developed by them and they have been tested on the library and preservation materials too. They have conducted research together with universities and several industrial research institutes. This paper writes about the activity in two areas of their research-development work. a) certain essential materials of the library documents; b) development of the restoration technology. First the author writes about the antecedents and causes of the joint experiment of the National Library and a Hungarian paper factory for processing a permanent newsprint paper. The library would like the legal deposit copies of the Hungarian newspapers to be printed on a permanent paper as enormous efforts are needed to preserve (to conservate and/or restore) the most valuable newspapers (ca 14,000 volumes so far) in their original form if they have been printed on ground-wood paper. As the inferior quality of most newsprint paper is caused by the poor quality of the raw-material and the acidic by-materials, any permanent paper has to be prepared of good quality celluloses with a synthetic sizing material and has to tontain some calcium-carbonate as a filler. Attention has to be paid to eliminating the effect of the heavy metal impurities which promote the Oxydation of papers. On the basis of the composition and the measured qualities of the five experimental papers which have been produced, it could be established which factors have to be changed in order to achieve the optimal features. As the physical, chemical and optical qualities are important not only immediately after manufacturing but several centuries later as well, the experimental papers were submitted to artificial aging tests. The paper summarizes the results and determines the direction of further research. The chemists examined the natural and synthetic adhesives and reinforcing materials that have been used or were to be used in the binderies and restoration workshops of the National Library (wheat starch, gelatine, methyl-cellulose, carboxy-methyl-cellulose, Glutofix 600, poly-vinyl-alcohol, Platanol BB, Regnal, polyethylene, Calaton, polyamide tissue, Plextol D 541 and B 500). The tested qualities were: the force of adhering, the effect of the adhesives upon brightness, folding endurance and pH-value of the paper, the effect of the synthetic materials on the surface of paper, their solubility, the rate of their Oxydation and their biological resistance with and without various fungicide and bactericide agents. The measures on the paper samples covered by adhesives were made before and after aging (by heat and UV-light). After evaluation of the results in can be said that these adhesives display a wide range of results for each trait, allowing the appropriate material to be chosen according to the inportance of each in question. In the field of described restoration techniques the use of enzymes and a new method for reinforcing paper have been described. In the library, it is necessary to remove the old repairs-made by starch-from the newspapers and to dissolve the remains of the starch before microfilming. This can be done easily by using oc-amylase enzyme, which was applied for the first time in the workshop in the middle of 1970's. At present they use Aquazym, which is an industrial enzyme using in the textile industry. The composition of industrial enzyme products is not known exactly (e.g. Aquazym contains some protease too, besides amylase). This is why only pure enzymes may be used for the documents which may contain different natural glues. 202