National Library of France

Search Form

  Professionals

Preservation: practical information sheets

Practical information sheets: preservation

Preservation refers to the full range of regular collection maintenance activities (direct intervention on documents limited to minor degradation): packaging, mechanized binding, and minor preparations prior to releasing documents for consultation. By slowing the progress of degradation, these activities can prevent the need to make use of more serious treatment (disinfection, filling, etc.).

Dusting

By Céline Pérard

Dusting
Dusting is used to care for documents belonging to heritage collections. As well as being a maintenance activity, it is also a hygiene and prevention activity.
Download

la fiche pratique [fichier .pdf – 109 Ko – 05/05/03 – 1 p.]

Erasing

By Céline Pérard

Erasing consists of partially or completely eliminating dust which has become more or less embedded into a medium. It is an interventionist technique, and is trickier than it may appear.
Download

la fiche pratique [fichier .pdf – 108 Ko – 15/05/03 – 1 p.]

Leather care

By Valérie Godeaux

Waxing equipment (Cire 213 and a soft cloth or duster) and application of Cire 213 to a book

Waxing equipment (Cire 213 and a soft cloth or duster) and application of Cire 213 to a book

Undamaged leather can be maintained using wax. The workshops at the Bussy-Saint-Georges Technical Center use Cire 213, developed by the Collection Preservation Research Center (Centre de Recherche sur la Conservation des Collections/CRCC).
Abraded leather may be consolidated using a hydroxypropyl cellulose solution (Klucel G).
See also

Cire 213 (wax)

Download

l’entretien du cuir [fichier .pdf – 177 Ko – 2 p.]

Newspaper preservation

By Else Delaunay
(Recommendations on the Book and Reading Directorate (Direction du Livre et de la Lecture/DLL) website)

Newspapers constitute a valuable source of contemporary and retrospective documentation, and are liable to disappear owing to the extreme fragility of the medium used. Preventive measures (environment, packaging, and consultation conditions) and preservation measures (maintenance and minor repairs, microreproduction, and digitization) are therefore particularly important.
Download

la fiche pratique [fichier .pdf - 40 Ko - 03/03/1999 - 5 p.]

Dusting and maintenance of old, rare, and valuable collections

By Madeleine Blouin and Fabienne Le Bars
(Recommendations available for download from the Book and Reading Directorate (Direction du Livre et de la Lecture/DLL) website)

Advice on storing, handling, dusting, and maintaining these types of collections.
Download

la fiche pratique [fichier .pdf - 49 Ko - 03/03/1999 - 6 p.]

Preservation of sound recordings and audiovisual materials

By Jean-Marc Fontaine
(Recommendations on the Book and Reading Directorate (Direction du Livre et de la Lecture/DLL) website)

The preservation of sound and audiovisual information still involves, for the most part, preserving three main categories of recording media: mechanical, magnetic, and optical.
Télécharger

la fiche pratique [fichier .pdf - 77 Ko - 03/03/1999 - 9 p.]

Packaging library documents

By Marie-Lise Tsagouria
(Recommendations on the Book and Reading Directorate (Direction du Livre et de la Lecture/DLL) website)

Library documents may be packaged as a way of ensuring or, at the very least, improving their protection against chemical and mechanical degradation: objectives, advantages, and disadvantages of packaging, implementation, and materials used.
Download

la fiche pratique [fichier .pdf - 64 Ko - 03/03/1999 - 7 p.]

Stamping, highlighting, and anti-theft protection for heritage documents

By Jocelyne Deschaux and Jean-Loup Fossard
(Recommendations available for download from the Book and Reading Directorate (Direction du Livre et de la Lecture/DLL) website)

Download

la fiche pratique [fichier .pdf - 47 Ko - 03/03/1999 - 6 p.]

Contribution to a study of the aging of CDs

Research on BnF’s collections
By Alain Carou and Thi-Phuong Nguyen

A study conducted by BnF’s Audiovisual Department and technical laboratory sets out the findings of various test campaigns to measure the state of preservation of the audio compact disc (CDDA) collection acquired under the legal deposit scheme since 1982. The findings of analyses carried out approximately ten years apart provide an initial response that is, on the whole, reassuring. However, discs where a silver metallic layer is combined with nitrocellulose lacquer are subject to accelerated degradation.
Download

la fiche pratique [fichier .pdf – 468 Ko – 15/06/05 – 22 p.]

Friday, April 1, 2011