National Diet Library Newsletter
No. 135, February 2004
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Training program for preservation staff in the NDL
The National Diet Library held a training program for preservation staff from December 3 to December 8, 2003. For this training program, Mr. Christopher Clarkson, ex-Conservation Officer at the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, and Mr. Robert Minte, Superintendent of Book Conservation Workshop, Preservation and Collection Care of the same library, were invited as our lecturers.
Mr.Clarkson,
Mr. Minte, and the participants in the program.
The objectives of this program were to improve the conservation skills of the NDL staff and to draw people's attention to issue of preservation of library materials both inside and outside of the library.
This program consisted of a two-day conservation workshop in the Tokyo Main Library, and lectures open to general public in Tokyo and the Kansai-kan. 183 people (including 56 staff) attended the lecture in Tokyo, and 103 (including 18 staff) that in the Kansai-kan.
Thanks to the extremely experienced and skilled conservators Mr. Clarkson and Mr. Minte, who most carefully instructed the staff during the program, the conservation workshops inspired the conservation staff to consider our future conservation work, besides improving the conservation skills of the staff. At the open lectures, library staff and other participants interested in the conservation of library materials learned the required planning and techniques. This lecture also gave us an excellent opportunity to meet people who are engaged in the area of conservation, which was helpful in furthering our cooperation activities.
Based on the NDL preservation plan FY2003-2005, the NDL will invite instructors from outside institutions and hold the same kind of training programs for next two years.
The schedule of this program was as follows:
Schedule
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13:00-15:00, 15:30-17:00 |
Workshop 1
Book conservation -- techniques used in minimum intervention |
The
Tokyo Main Library of the NDL
(Conservation workshop) |
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13:00-15:00, 15:30-17:00 |
Workshop 2
Materials & techniques used in limp, semi-limp paper & vellum binding structures |
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13:30-17:00 |
Lectures
"The Florence Flood of November 1966 & its aftermath" by Mr. Christopher Clarkson "Conservation at the Bodleian Library" by Mr. Robert Minte |
The Tokyo Main
Library of the NDL
(Auditorium) |
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13:30-16:30 |
The Kansai-kan
of the NDL
(Seminar Room 1) |
Conservation
workshop
Lead by Mr. Clarkson and Mr. Minte, 17 conservation staff, including staff from the Imperial Household Agency, the National Archives of Japan and the Diplomatic Record Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as the NDL, experienced traditional European techniques of book conservation -- bindery technique using endbands, end-of-spine-bands and headbands, and repair of parchment -- after listening to short introductory lectures.
Workshop: Conservation staff sawing headbands under the instruction of Mr. Clarkson (above) and Mr. Minte (below).
Lectures
The Florence Flood of November 1966 & its aftermath by Mr. Christopher Clarkson
Mr. Clarkson told us about his experience in the Florence Flood in 1966, to which he was sent as a member of the English book repair team: the disaster to the whole city of the Florence, his struggle to prevent further destruction and repair the mud- or oil- covered collection of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Firenze (BNCF), and the conservation methodology developed in that experience.
Conservation at the Bodleian Library by Mr. Robert Minte
Mr. Minte talked about the history of the Bodleian Library, the main research library of the University of Oxford, one of the oldest libraries in Europe which dates back to the year 1602. Subsequently, he gave us various examples of conservation practices in the Bodleian Library that have been established by library staff in the long-term pursuit of effective methods for book conservation.
The texts of the lectures are available in PDF format:
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