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No. 68, July 2010

Introduction

As stipulated in the National Library Board (NLB) Act 2005, the National Library Singapore takes appropriate measures to maintain and preserve library materials deposited with the Board. The preservation programme by the National Library covers both conservation and preservation actions.

Conservation usually includes examination, documentation, treatment, and preventive care to the original materials. As this is a resource-intensive process, only materials that are deemed to be of heritage, historical and literary value to Singapore are conserved in their original form. Conserved materials are usually kept in a purpose-built room fitted with climate and security controls. This provides a form of physical protection of the important materials collected by the National Library.

The conservation efforts by the National Library are currently supported by two preservation approaches: preservation microfilming and digitisation. Due to limited resources, not all print materials are given an equal level of treatment. Currently, only the Rare and Singapore Heritage Collections are given conservation treatment and are microfilmed and digitised.

Review Findings of Other National Library Preservation Practices

Having invested heavily in preservation microfilming, digitisation and digital preservation programmes, the National Library started to review the long-term financial feasibility and practicality of this approach. The National Library studied the practices of other national libraries on their policy and approach towards microfilming and digital preservation. The preliminary findings are:

a) Ultimately, the aim is to reduce 'duplicate' costs incurred when embarking on both microfilming and digitisation-and-digital preservation of the same materials. Funding and resources are finite and need to be judiciously used. Several major libraries have acknowledged that digital copies will be accepted as preservation copies.

b) Moreover, from a user point-of-view, microfilm readers are viewed as cumbersome machines and microfilms are not very user-friendly as compared to accessing digitised materials. This cannot be ignored in a service-oriented environment.

c) Currently, all digital materials are digitally preserved, including complex formats such as websites. These are in addition to other relatively complicated formats such as AV materials and sound recordings. Such materials cannot be converted to microfilm, and need to be preserved digitally. In contrast, print materials are more straightforward and pose fewer issues.

d) Digital copies have been accepted by many to be preservation copies as they do meet the criteria of fidelity minimal damage to source material and can be duplicated easily. Digital copies also allow greater flexibility in terms of access and provide a better look-and-feel.

e) Regarding storage sizes, firstly, there is intense on-going research internationally to find better carriers and to improve the process. A report by the International Data Corporation in July 2008 pointed out that there will be substantial reductions in price over time for a terabyte (TB) of data storage. In fact, their research has shown that a TB of storage in 1997 was US$440,000. This amount fell to US$5,400 in 2007 and again to US$200 in 2008.

f) In addition, the effects of file formats on storage sizes are also being addressed and researched by international communities and consortiums. Currently, most digital materials are saved in the "TIFF" format, which translates into large file sizes, that in turn increases overall storage. However, there is a move towards saving materials in "JPEG 2000" format that can reduce file sizes by 40 – 50%. This results in substantial storage savings.

The National Library has a mandate to acquire and maintain a comprehensive collection of materials and ensuring that they are accessible and appropriately preserved.

Existing National Library Preservation Programme

The following describes the existing preservation programme in the National Library:

Digitisation and Digital Preservation Programme
The National Library started digitising its print materials less than ten years ago to provide faster and easy online access to these library materials. This operation is outsourced to qualified vendors who are familiar with the digitisation requirements for preservation purposes. The high quality master digital files are for digital preservation, while lower-resolution copies are derived for access purposes. To-date, we have digitised more than 18,000 titles, or 1.3 million pages, excluding newspapers digitised from microfilms.

Having recognised the trend for digital publishing in Singapore, and to prepare for the eventual revision of the NLB Act to allow for Digital Legal Deposit, the National Library launched its Voluntary Digital Deposit Programme in 2007, to promote awareness of the need for the deposit of digital publications. Tapping on various channels of acquisition, the National Library has to-date collected some 20,000 digital publications that come in various formats and manifestations, excluding the born-digital newspapers deposited by major news agencies in Singapore and Singapore websites archived since 2006.

The need to cater for Digital Legal Deposits and the need to prolong the lifespan of the digitised materials sealed the need to establish a digital preservation programme. Funds for the Digital Preservation System (DPS) was approved under the Library 2010 project. A tender was called in 2006 and awarded in 2007. The first version became operational in late 2009, and the full-fledged version fitted with National Library's requirements will be rolled out by the end of 2010. DPS will enable the National Library to digitally preserve the integrity of digital contents, and conduct preservation planning according to the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model, to ensure the long-term accessibility, usability and understanding of the preserved digital contents.

Digital preservation will also be adopted for non-print materials like audio and audio-video materials due to the complexity and limited resources in conserving such original formats. This is the recommended approach by some film archives.

Preservation Microfilming Programme
The preservation microfilming programme in the National Library started some thirty years ago. Microfilms then were produced and processed by NLB staff who were trained in microfilm operations. In 2004, the Microfilm Unit had to be relocated to a smaller premise due to the closure of the former National Library building. As the smaller premise could not support a full microfilming infrastructure, the National Library began to outsource its microfilming operations to local established vendors. However, the National Library retained its gatekeeper role as a Quality Controller to ensure that the microfilms delivered by the vendor, meet international and local standards for preservation microfilming. The National Library also engaged an independent laboratory to conduct quality tests on the preservation masters.

The master microfilms are kept in acid free boxes shelved in a climate-controlled Microfilm Room. As at May 2010, there is a total of close to 31,000 rolls of microfilm masters, comprising newspapers and tabloids, Government Gazettes, Acts and Supplements, as well as rare books. Reference copies (positives) of local newspapers are also made for access at the National Library as well as the three Regional Libraries.

The following case study describes how conservation was carried out before the preservation action kicks in.

Case-Study: Conservation of Koh Seow Chuan's Court Papers

Koh Seow Chuan is the founder and senior director of one of the most established architectural firms in Singapore. He is a world-renowned philatelist and an avid collector of historical documents, such as maps and antique books. Between the years 2007 to 2008, he donated various items from the 19th and early 20th century, to the National Library. The materials include maps, hand-carried letters and petitions, legal documents of well-known families, manuscripts and court papers.

The Koh Seow Chuan Collection at the National Library is a valuable resource for researchers and scholars interested in the social history of Singapore. It covers topics such as the early pioneers and their fortunes, and the history of the Chinese Diaspora.

Among the items donated are over 6,000 papers relating to court cases from the year 1877 to 1949. They include writs of summons, affidavits and bill of costs.

Conservation work is now focused on the 1910 court papers, as there is a plan to exhibit them sometime this year. For the year 1910, there are a total of 178 suits. Each suit consists of numerous documents, ranging from one to as many as seventy-two documents per suit. In total, there are over 1,800 documents for that year.

Preservation work

1) Anoxic treatment
The first step in sending the materials for anoxic treatment was to eliminate any insect infestations. In this process, nitrogen gas was used and the materials were left in the vacuum chamber for 2 weeks. An external vendor carried out this treatment.

2) Inventory
The papers were sorted and organised by year and suit number. They were then placed in paper envelopes and a barcode label was pasted on individual envelopes. Information such as barcode number, title, name of donor are recorded in the Heritage Management System (HIMS) database. The HIMS system helps to track the movement of the material during the process.

3) Conservation
The condition of the documents varies from good to poor. Some materials are brittle, contain faded text or are damaged by the iron gall ink problem.

Diagram 1: Brittle document

3a) Surface cleaning
We used a soft brush to do surface cleaning on the documents to eliminate dust and grime that may be present.

Diagram 2: Surface cleaning using a soft brush

All folded documents were unfolded to reduce further damage along the fold lines. However, as some of the documents have been folded for a very long time, they still could not be flattened.

Diagram 3: Documents that have been folded for many years

For such documents, we sandwiched them between two boards and left them under a weight overnight. However, the documents still could not be flattened.

As an experiment, we placed some documents under a weight for about 10 weeks. At the end of the trial period, the materials were still not flattened (see Diagram 4).

3b) Humidification and flattening
We used humidification process to flatten the papers instead. Before starting this treatment, we had to ensure that the inks are not fugitive that is, it does not smudge when in contact with moisture. We chose an inconspicuous part of the document to conduct the spot test.

We conducted three spot tests using a brush, distilled water and blotting papers. This was to confirm that the ink was not fugitive and that it was safe to carry out the humidification process.

A sponge moistened with distilled water was gently dabbed on both sides of the document. The document should only be moist and not dripping wet. To dry the document, it was placed between sheets of blotter papers, flattening boards and put under a weight. After 10 to 15 minutes, the wet blotters were replaced with dry ones and again put under a weight. We changed the blotters several times until the document was quite dry. It was placed under a weight again before leaving it overnight.

After humidification and flattening, the document was much flatter. See Diagrams 4 and 5.

3c) Repair works
The repairs carried out are mending of tears, holes and missing corners. We started work around end November 2009. At the point of writing this article, we had completed repairing about 80 % of the total number of documents, and we plan to complete the work in July 2010.

We used Tenjugo tissue as repair papers and carboxyl methyl cellulose as an adhesive. The time taken to repair each document varies, with the shortest time being 50 minutes and the longest was two hours.

Diagram 6: Repair work in-progress

4) Housing
After repairs, all documents belonging to the same suit number are placed in an L-shaped Mylar sleeve so as to contain them as one collection. An acid-free, lignin-free and buffered 2-ply board is placed within the Mylar sleeve to provide additional support to the documents. A collection of 10 suits is placed in a clamshell box made of buffered barrier board. After boxing, the documents are now ready for digitisation, and delivery to Lee Kong Chian Reference Library for use by library patrons.

Diagram 11: Documents safely stored in a clam-shell box

5) Storage
One of the terms and conditions under the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the donor is that he requested that the manuscript collection be made available to the general public. These manuscripts will be placed in the Donor's Gallery at Level 10 of the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library.

Even though the storage environment at Level 10 is less stringent than those recommended for rare materials, the condition is acceptable as long as there is no large fluctuations in temperature and relative humidity.

Conclusion

The Koh Seow Chuan Collection is a valuable collection, enriching the National Library's heritage collection. With the National Library's expertise in organisation of contents and making them available for access to the general public, the manuscript collection serves as an important source for those researching the social history of Singapore, particularly in the 19th and early 20th century. With the support of National Library on-going preservation programmes, we hope to extend the collection's life for a longer time, and be made available for use by future generations. This is an example of how we could make all other valuable collections available and accessible for Singaporeans in time to come.

References

1. Jones, M. (1978). Traditional repair of archival documents. The Paper Conservator, 3, 9–17.
2. Koh Seow Chuan.
   http://donors.nl.sg/A42_intro.asp
   Accessed on 20 May 2010.
3. Paper Conservation Catalog (1989), 1-127.
4. Singh, S. K. (2009). Koh Seow Chuan.
   http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_1608_2009-11-06.html.
   Accessed on 18 May 2010.
5. Watkins, S. (2002). Practical considerations for humidifying and flattening paper.
   The Book and Paper Group Annual, 21, 61–75.
6. NLB's Preservation Of Heritage Materials: Position Paper, dated Nov 2008
7. NLB's Preservation Policy For Audiovisual Materials, dated 26 May 2009
8. Preservation 101
   http://unfacilitated.preservation101.org/site/index.asp