Introduction to preservation at the NAA - Ian Batterham
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Introduction to preservation at the National Archives of Australia
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Introduction to preservation at the NAA - Ian Batterham
- 1. Preservation at the National Archives of Australia Community Heritage Grants 2014 Ian Batterham
- 2. Background The Archives is funded by the Australian Government. The Archives Act 1983 identifies the key roles and responsibilities of the Archives, including: • Preserving and making publicly available the archival resources of the Commonwealth
- 3. Definitions Preservation The protection of material by slowing down the deterioration process and/or preventing damage or loss of information. Preventive Conservation Measures that slow down deterioration or prevent damage to collection material. Interventive Conservation The treatment of objects, including direct manipulation of the material.
- 4. Preservation: every step of the way Record is made Record is used Record is “retired”
- 5. Challenges Issues: •Quantity of material •Diversity of material •Level of handling that records can receive •Uniqueness of records
- 9. Research
- 10. Research
- 11. Types of damage Mould
- 12. Types of damage Tightly rolled
- 13. Types of damage Damaged volumes
- 14. Types of damage General wear and tear
- 15. Unusual items
- 16. Unusual items
- 17. Unusual items
- 18. Unusual items
Editor's Notes
- Before we go any further we should define some of the terms we’ll be using in this presentation: Preservation The protection of material by slowing down the deterioration process and/or preventing damage or loss of information. This covers preventive conservation activities as well as interventive treatments that aim to maintain the material’s current state with minimal or no alteration. Preventive Conservation Measures that slow down deterioration or prevent damage to collection material by ensuring the best environmental conditions and the safe storage, use and handling of the material. Archival boxes for all objects, training in safe procedures for records handling, and the monitoring of environmental conditions are all examples of preventive conservation. Interventive Conservation The treatment of objects, including direct manipulation of the material. Some examples carried out at the NAA include removal of adhesive tapes, and the repair of torn items. Interventive Conservation treatments are documented in a condition report, ideally with before and after photographs or diagrams.
- Conservation permeates every level of a record’s existence: Archives recommends to Government agencies the types of materials on which records of enduring value should be made, and in which they should be stored. During the life of a record, advice on record handling and storage, preventive conservation and disaster planning and management is all provided to agencies on the Archives website. Preservation staff also give advice over the phone and occasionally make visits to agencies to help with particular problems. Once a record is no longer needed by an agency, and it is transferred into Archives custody, Preservation advises on its repackaging prior to transfer (if needed) and its handling during transport, and then manage its care once it goes into our repository.
- Of all the branches of conservation, archival conservation is one of the most challenging.There are a number of reasons for this, including: The quantity of material usually held in an archive Archival collections tend to be very large – the National Archives of Australia holds an estimated 2.5 billion individual sheets of paper. Given such quantities it is often very difficult to approach preservation on the basis of individual documents, so larger scale approaches are more common. The diversity of materials making up the archive An archive does not choose the nature or format of the material it holds – anything that falls within its area of jurisdiction must be taken in and looked after. In the case of the National Archives, this encompasses anything of enduring value created by the Commonwealth Government. The effect of this is that any way that information can be recorded is represented in our collection. So we hold paper documents, every type of office copying process ever used, every conceivable photographic format including all manner of microfilm and fiche, and moving to more modern times – all manner of modern material such as audio and video tape, magnetic disks and CDs. Our Sydney office deals with audio visual material and specific issues related to its preservation. And now we are reaching the digital age, where the artefact itself is becoming redundant. The Archives has a Digital Preservation sections which manages born-digital records – Michael will be talking to you later in the day about this. The level of handling archival records receive In most archives, general collection material is made directly available to researchers. Thus documents get handled by people not trained in handling and who may either inadvertently or through rough handling cause damage. In the case of vulnerable or fragile material any handling can be extremely dangerous. Also the more popular a particular record is, the greater the amount of handling it will receive as more researchers choose to look at it. Almost every item in the Archives is unique. There is usually no contemporary copy (although Archives might make one as part of its preservation or accessibility) and because of this, an Archival collection is almost like a manuscript collection in that we only have one copy of everything. It’s not like a library where we might be able to buy another copy of a book that gets tatty. Trying to balance out the preservation of these unique items with the need to provide access to them can be a tricky business, and we have to take into account a lot of different options and compromises in order to do this.
- We take two main approaches to Conservation at the Archives: Preventive Conservation and Interventive Conservation. Our main Preventive Conservation activities focus on three areas: Monitoring of insect pests – we set sticky traps in our repository areas to monitor the number and type of insects living there, and check them on a regular basis. This way we can see if dangerous pests such as silverfish or carpet beetles move in and can take action against them. Monitoring of the environment – data loggers are set in each repository and the data is downloaded regularly so that we can keep an eye on the temperature and relative humidity and ensure it falls within the set parameters (which are 20C +/- 3C and 40% +/- 10% over a 24 hour period, with consistency being the key). We also advise on appropriate conditions of environment, framing, display and lighting for exhibitions. Training of Archives staff in handling of archival records.
- Interventive Conservation involves stabilising the condition of records by treating them so that they can be safely handled. Most of this treatment of paper-based records involves repairs of some kind, such as removing old sticky tape, mending tears and filling losses, and mending the bindings of volumes. We also carry out intensive treatments like washing, stain reduction and lining. A more basic level of intervention is applied to records, and that is repackaging and rehousing in archival materials. Items such as files can be placed in new, archival Archives folders or wallets, and then placed into archival quality standard boxes. This is a good, basic way of ensuring the basic needs of the records are met, in terms of protection from environmental conditions, each other and handling damage. Our Interventive program is split into two streams – services and projects. Services are those jobs that are driven by the needs of researchers and the public, such as tidying up damaged files before they get sent to the Reading Room to be used. Projects target sections of the Archive that are considered to be “at risk” materials (i.e. those more vulnerable to deterioration) and are also considered to be important by either their historical value or their popularity with researchers.
- Commonwealth records of enduring value need to be created using materials that will last for the long term. To certify the stability and durability of paper products the NAA encourages the manufacture, supply and use of paper products of archival quality. Paper products that meet NAA archive quality standards can be readily identified by NAA archival quality trademark. The NAA Canberra conservation laboratory is accredited by the National Association of Testing Authorities to test the compliance of products with these requirements, including the Photographic Activity Test (PAT), and maintains a register of approved products. Our Conservation Chemist carries out this testing as well as other analytical work related to the identification of storage materials and items from the Archives (for example to determine what they are made from or written with). (spectrum shows gelatine)
- When possible, Archives Preservation staff carry out research projects to enhance our knowledge of the collection and of archival materials in general. For example, recently we have been conducting testing known as “micro-fading” to try to determine the speed at which certain items in our collection will fade if they are put on display. This will enable us to set parameters for their exhibition in the future. Some of the items that were tested in this project were the original designs painted by Marion Mahony Griffin for Walter Burley Griffin’s plans for Canberra, and the Royal Commission of Assent signed by Queen Victoria.
- When possible, Archives Preservation staff carry out research projects to enhance our knowledge of the collection and of archival materials in general. For example, recently we have been conducting testing known as “micro-fading” to try to determine the speed at which certain items in our collection will fade if they are put on display. This will enable us to set parameters for their exhibition in the future. Some of the items that were tested in this project were the original designs painted by Marion Mahony Griffin for Walter Burley Griffin’s plans for Canberra, and the Royal Assent to the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, signed by Queen Victoria in 1900.
- The deterioration of archival material is quite different from that experienced by, say, objects in art galleries. The reasons for this are very simple: The material has been “working” all its life, used by those who created it and others in the agency and elsewhere; and archival material is not just viewed by the public, it is handled by the public, and the more popular material is handled more often. The material is also handled by staff who retrieve it from storage to give to the public. The deterioration of archival material is therefore rapid, and it is more in the nature of tearing, creasing and staining from dirty fingers. Protecting material from this handling damage is therefore of prime concern to archival conservators.
- As a reward for the hard slog of routine conservation work, sometimes we come across more unusual items in the Archive. Here are some things that you might not necessarily expect to find in Government records…