Buildings, books and blockbusters: balancing access and preservation

In November I attended (and co-organised!) the 2019 Historic Libraries Forum conference, which was a great opportunity to explore issues around access and preservation. It took place at Westminster Abbey and we were lucky enough to get a look round the new Queen's Diamond Jubilee Gallery at the Abbey as part of the conference. These are well worth a visit in their own right, offering both spectacular views of the inside of the building and a chance to encounter myriad items from their collections. Photography isn't allowed inside the gallery, so all my images are of elsewhere in the Abbey.

The Cloisters

The conference kicked off with Caroline Bendix, exploring what we mean by access -  any means of using a book, including reading, seeing, touching, smelling, hearing. Of the 25 causes of damage to books, 14 of these can be attributed to poor handling, which is why it’s so important to have handling guidelines and make sure they are followed, especially by staff, who are setting an example to users. She offered some tips, including:

• Have supports readily available to readers and make sure staff know how to use them, eg they need to be adjusted as different pages are opened.
• Provide regular training to staff on handling books and archives.
• Train staff to intervene positively when they see a reader exhibiting poor handling technique (eg by offering "help").
• The key is to reduce the rate of deterioration to the lowest possible. Users may not understand the need to handle books in a particular way - so it's helpful to have some spectacular examples of the results of poor handling to show them.

The damage that can occur, includes:


• Abrasion from removing from shelf.
• Shelves at the wrong height
• Historical application of leather dressing (too much and to books in too poor condition)
• Wrong boxes used (eg box too big for book so it can move around). Boxes and enclosures need to provide support.
• Using acid free paper slips for shelfmarks in the book cuts down on handling
Books on brief display can be preserved by:
• Creased sheet of melinex on top of book will stop some damage
• Mitchell book shelter – protects book whilst making it available
• Blickling Hall put books on temporary display with one person by each book to talk about it and ensure it is protected.

Remember – any step taken is a positive action to reduce deterioration

Susan Jenkins from Westminster Abbey collections then provided an introduction to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Gallery, followed by our visit.
The Gallery has been a very positive development to showcase items from the collections. Creating them had been a lot of work:

• Work had to stop everytime a service took place in the building.
• Light plans undertaken to understand how light would fall around cases.
• Computer modelling of the space used to work out where to lay out objects.
• Annual lux budget decided to try and get balance right.
• Continuous programme of improvement eg clerestory windows were discovered to be letting direct light in in March and October.

Visit was very inspiring with a chance to discover all of the treasures gallery – well worth a visit - I highly recommend!

View from the conference room

After a delicious lunch and the HLF AGM, Rosemary Firman (Hereford Cathedral Library) spoke about Screen sharing: the role of broadcasting and the media in extending access
Hereford Cathedral is the only library remaining where all books are still chained to shelves. References to chained libraries generally echo Hereford, but they have a total lack of control over people using images of chained libraries eg Game of Thrones is assumed to have been filmed at Hereford (it wasn’t!). The publicity is good but it can lead to increased requests for more access – observed increase in visitor numbers after TV programmes, but often little control over what is said in them, with much repetition of basic facts. Hereford doesn’t charge for factual/documentary filiming but filming can take up large amounts of staff time.
Some top tips:
• Don’t expect producers to be well prepared
• Have some key messages ready for them.
• Review recordings before release (this may be difficult to arrange)



She was followed by David Iggulden on Empowering Global Research: the Biodiversity Heritage Library
These are natural science research collections – literature and archives critical to studying life on earth eg species descriptions, info on extinct species, history of scientific discovery. Lack of access to this literature impedes scientific research especially in developing countries.
The BHL provides open access to digital library, inspiring discovery through free access to biodiversity knowledge. Much of the material is out of copyright but agreements are negotiated for the rest. 57 million pages – Kew was a founder member and the initial idea was a joint union catalogue. Reduces the need to consult physical items although the digital should exist alongside the physical. Had nine million users since it started.



Molly Bigwood, a student who had researched the balancing act between conservation and access, then spoke about her study into how historic libraries manage preservation and access as part of her undergraduate degree. There have to be concessions on either side eg the optimum temperature for storage isn’t compatible with reader comfort. She compared four collections.
Seeing books in worse condition can be beneficial to their future – the visually shocking helps emphasise the point.


Sarah VanSnick (The National Archives) finished off with a talk on mouldy books: preservation improving access
Over 1% of TNA’s collections are mouldy and they have changed their processes so that readers can still access them. They clean on demand, as they don’t have time to clean everything, but have to be careful as mould damage is cumulative and is classed as a biohazard. They carried out research to inform risk assessments and looked at how access could risk cross-contamination. It was found that boxes were good for keeping the fungal count low, so additional mechanisms were not necessary for moving items around. They now clean based on the risk of transfer. Readers now requesting mouldy material are given a list of the risks, and provided with an apron and mask (if they want to use these) – which means they now have access to a mouldy item when previously they would have had a long delay for cleaning before being able to use it.


It was a great conference, and included plenty of networking time in breaks too, so I left with plenty to think about! My actions to take forward:


• Review our handling guidelines and ensure readers know what to expect
• Review staff training to ensure staff are confident to help readers handle books correctly. Make sure volunteers are confident to handle items correctly and understand why it is important.
• Work on a media pack, including key messages for film crews etc about our collections
• Look into the Biodiversity Heritage Library (personal interest)
• Have a couple of “worst examples” available (physical and photographs) to demonstrate consequences of poor handling