Paper Conservation: Decisions & Compromises

Integrated Modelling: The Demography of Collections
Matija Strlic | Catherine Dillon | Nancy Bell | Peter Brimblecombe | Kalliopi Fouseki |
Jinghao Xue | William Lindsay | Eva Menart | Carlota Grossi | Kostas Ntanos |
Gerrit De Bruin | David Thickett | Fenella France
Centre for Sustainable Heritage, The Bartlett School of Graduate Studies, University College London, UK;
The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, UK; University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK;
Department of Statistical Science, University College London, UK;
Nationaal Archief, The Hague, The Netherlands; English Heritage, London, UK;
Library of Congress, Washington DC, USA
Fig. 1: Frequency of responses to the question ‘How long would you like
the original document/books you have been using/viewing today to last
in a readable state/a good enough state to be displayed?’
The recent BSI:PAS198 (British Standards Institute,
2012) specification for managing environmental
conditions for cultural collections
requires environmental management to be justified
in the context of collection use, significance,
degradation and environmental considerations.
It introduces the term ‘expected collection lifetime’;
however, there is currently not much literature
available on how this could be determined
or what lifetimes could reasonably be expected.
In the frame of the Collections Demography
project (2010-2013), research was undertaken to
assess the expectations of library and archival
users, and their attitudes to document use and
degradation, to inform the decision on appropriate
planning horizons (Dillon et al. 2012a).
This was accomplished using the VALUE (Value
and Lifetime – User Engagement) questionnaire
(Dillon et al. 2012b), and experiments involving
the library and archival users themselves. The
questionnaire was distributed to visitors and
readers at a number of institutions to capture
how the contexts of use affect their attitudes,
reflected in the values which they associate
with documents, as it is likely that these affect
the expected collection lifetime. In the context
of the project, ‘value’ was operationalized in
terms of the benefits that can flow from a collection.
These may depend on material change and
degradation and environmental management
ensures that documents remain fit for the purpose
of reading or display until they degrade to
an unacceptable level, ie they become ‘damaged’
(Strlic et al., in press).
The Collections Demography project is attempting
to model these processes in an integrated
collection model.
The VALUE questionnaire
Statements were collected in interviews with
readers at The National Archives (Kew), and from
the literature. The questionnaire also consisted
of sections allowing for collection of information
on the user (e.g. activities, experience and demographics),
the particular document they were
using or viewing, what they think is important
about the document (i.e. ratings of value statements),
and their perspective on the desired lifetime
of the document and their opinions on the
document’s condition, care and use. The analysis
was carried out using factor analysis (Tabachnik
and Fidell, 2007).
The questionnaire was distributed at the
National Archives (Kew), the Capitol Visitor Center
(Washington), the Library of Congress, and
English Heritage properties (Brodsworth Hall,
Kenwood House and Eltham Palace). In total, 543
responses were collected.
The respondents were asked to rate their
agreement/disagreement with ca. 60 statements
ICOM-CC Graphic Documents Working Group Interim Meeting | Vienna 17 – 19 April 2013
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