Cornell University Library's Department of Preservation and Collections Maintenance has received a $170,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to investigate the feasibility of using hermetic sealing to preserve master copies of library microforms in developing countries.
Most people understand that printed materials can be harmed by high levels of temperature and relative humidity, as well as by environmental pollutants. Librarians and archivists around the world have long used microfilm to preserve the textual content of paper-based materials, but the films themselves must be protected in a stable environment.
Although film produced and stored correctly is known to last for a minimum of 500 years, film in some countries has become unreadable after only 20 years in conditions of high temperature and humidity. Unfortunately, libraries in developing nations typically do not have means to install systems to control heating, ventilation and air conditioning. Without the benefit of conventional environmental controls, librarians in many developing countries have been looking desperately for alternative ways to preserve their microfilm collections.
Hermetic sealing is a process that involves sealing packaged microfilm in a pouch purged of oxygen in a system similar to the sealing of dried food. This method has been employed since 1987 at the Indonesian Centre for Scientific Documentation. Although some limited testing of hermetic sealing has been done in Sweden and Canada, Cornell Library's study will be the first to determine whether a method of hermetic sealing can be designed to preserve and protect microfilm for long periods without a cold storage vault.
Preservation librarians at Cornell will collaborate with staff members at the Rochester Institute of Technology's Image Permanence Institute (IPI) on this study. They will review hermetic sealing systems currently in use by institutions in Indonesia to provide a definitive scientific review of the technology and produce practical instructions and specifications on its use and application. In addition, a climate control study of 58 film storage areas in Southeast Asian libraries and two storage areas in Cuban libraries will be conducted using the Preservation Environment Monitor -- a battery-powered device developed by the IPI that monitors and records temperature and relative humidity levels.
For more information on the hermetic sealing research study, contact John Dean, director of preservation and collection management at Cornell Library, 255-9440, or e-mail jfd5@cornell.edu.
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