Safety and Availability of the Collection of Rare Books.
New Technologies

N.A. Ugodchikov, V.V. Shaposhnikova, S.E. Antropova, T.F. Bondareva, V.F. Smirnov
Nizhniy Novgorod State University
Address: 23, Gagarin Avenue, 603600, Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia
Tel.: (8312) 65-62-25
Fax: (8312) 65-85-92
E-male: librarian@lib.unn.runnet.ru

One of the primary concerns of any university library is to protect and preserve documentary and cultural heritage while providing extensive access to it.

The collection of the rare and valuable editions of the NNSU Fundamental Library contains more than 26 thousand unique hand-written and early printed books, published in Europe and Russia in 16th-19th centuries. In its modern state the collection reflects with a high degree of integrity and completeness the stages of development of Russian and foreign science, on the one hand, and the history of book publishing in Russia and Europe, on the other hand. It bears important information on the Nizhni Novgorod territory, that has made a significant contribution to the Russian history (in particular, the history of Schism, development of trade and industry) and culture; it is of historical and scientific value not only on the scale of the city, but also on the national scale, it is the property of national and world culture.

Of special importance is the collection of hand-written and early printed books collected by archaeographic expeditions of the University since 1979. The collection of hand-written books at the NNSU Fundamental library totals 171 storage units (155 books and 16 hand-written fragments). These include the books that were widespread mostly among Old Believers of the Nizhni Novgorod territory, one of the centres of Russian Old Believers. The chronology of the collection spans from the 16th to the 20th century. The most valuable books contain the texts of Russian saints' lives, various legends, stories, teachings, etc., and also polemic collections. The real gems of the collection are hand-written books with illustrations. Books can be listed among the rarities, in addition to their early chronology, for the rare hand-written articles or interesting inscriptions they contain, i.e. everything that makes them really special and unique. The collection of the NNSU library contains some copies that can be valuable assets to any library. For example, in the earliest part of the 16th-17th century convolute (a book containing two or more different parts under the same binding) the use of Glagolithic letters has been marked. Some hand-written books contain articles that have no analogues, for example: "About onions - garlic", "Brothers, beware the evil shigta grass", etc.

The necessity of work with these documents is confirmed by a very high rate of circulation for this type of book collection: 0,1. This collection is used by the students and researchers of Nizhni Novgorod universities and other institutions of higher education, including the conservatory, and also by the workers of museums and archives; special excursions are organised for the school and university students of Nizhni Novgorod, including foreign students.

However, this unique collection cannot be used to the full extent and entered into the cultural, information and scientific circulation for three reasons:

1. Because of its physical condition;

2. Because of health hazard to the users and employees of the library;

3. Because of the lack of detailed information about the structure of this collection.

The books that have been collected by archaeographic expeditions of the NNSU had been stored prior to that in completely unacceptable conditions: mainly, in sheds and attics, they were constantly exposed to the effects of dampness (sometimes even flooding), fire, changes in ambient temperatures, etc. As a result of it, almost all the books which have arrived in the collection had various kinds and degrees of destruction ranging from minor pollution and traces of wax spots to complete destruction of paper, text, miniatures due to mould stains, ink overdose, etc.

In some places paper is torn, the edges of many sheets and even whole pages are burnt. Paper, where it was exposed to the effects of a moisture, is swollen. As a result of it, the block of the book is usually hardly deformed. The leather of the bindings (where the bindings were preserved) is partially destroyed by insects and rodents, or other factors. Traces of patina were observed on some metal parts of bindings, like fastenings.

Many books arrived in the library with biological damages caused by microscopic fungi. Mould growth is observed on the paper and on the bindings. It leads to the destruction of material, pigmentation, damage to the text and figures. Besides, many mould fungi isolated from the books and hand-written materials, are conditionally pathogenic micro-organisms, and under certain conditions are capable of causing serious (at times incurable) fungal diseases (mycoses) and allergies of various degrees.

Therefore, only the books protected from biological damage are entered in the research circulation. The known techniques for providing safety and hygiene of book collections (including foreign techniques) are directed at achieving only one goal: to suspend the development of micro-organisms on the book. The safety of the reader is provided in that case with additional expensive security measures: isolation of the reader with the infected book in special rooms, use of respirators, gloves, etc.

Since 1992 the Biological Research Division at the Chemistry Research Institute and the NNSU Department of Biochemistry have been carrying out a number of complex measures to remove mould and to protect the books against biological damage. These measures are based on the study of the types of bio-destructors, selection of effective concentrations and types of biocidal preparations that inhibit the life of destructive fungi. These biocidal preparations used for protecting books from biological damages are new polymer compounds on the basis of acrylates, synthesised at the NNSU, therefore we get them at cost price.

The advantages of these preparations in comparison with the available analogues are:

• Wide spectrum of anti-microbial action (fungi, bacteria, algae)
  
• Low ecological load
  
• Duration of protective effect
  
• Comparatively low price
  

As a whole, the uniqueness of this technique consists in its ability to solve simultaneously several problems:

• Complete cleaning of the book,
  
• Protection of it from any further destruction under any storage conditions,
  
• Protection of humans from harmful effects of fungi spores.
  

The developed anti-fungal compositions do not damage the documents, preserve the attributes of their authenticity, preserve and improve service properties of the books, increase the documents' resistivity to destruction when in use, slow down their ageing, they are safe for users.

These preparations and technique of protection have been tested successfully at the Saltykov-Shedrin National Library, the Grabar Scientific Restoration Centre and at the Hermitage. The following has been discovered during the tests:

• Effective and reliable results can be achieved only if the full complex of protective measure is implemented
  
• The type of preparation and its effective concentration should be chosen depending on the type of destructive fungi and the intensity of destruction process
  
• Biological stabilisation should be carried out for each copy, page by page
  
• The offered technique can be used in all adjacent areas: libraries, museums and archives.
  

Now the books of the collection are located in a specially equipped room, where the temperature and humidity are maintained in accordance with the GOST 7.50-84 standard. The book storage is equipped with a ventilating system and bactericidal lamps, the walls are processed with anti-fungal bio-additives. Already in the course of the first year after placing the books in the new book storage, the growth of bio-destruction of paper and bindings slowed down markedly.

The biological treatment of the damaged books has resulted not only in a complete stop of growth of the centres of destruction, but also partial restoration of the damaged materials.

In the book "The Dictionary of Geography of the Russian State" M., 1804, in the centrefold there was a mould stain with the diameter of 22 cm. Within this stain, intensive destruction of paper was observed, the paper fell apart from a light touch. The book underwent biological treatment in 1997. Now the growth of the stain has stopped completely, the paper within the boundaries of the stain does not deteriorate any further.

The book "Chasovnik (Prayer-book by the Hours)".- M., 1635 was acquired with burnt pages. The paper at the edges was brittle and fell apart. After bio-processing in 1998 there were only external signs of burnt paper on the book in the form of darkened edges, the paper has acquired durability and stopped to crumble.

In the book "The Rule Against Evil Spirits" (hand-written book, 20th century) some damage to the text was caused by ink overdose. After bio-processing in 1998 till the present time no further damage to the text has been observed.

Popularisation of this collection is hindered by insufficiency of the standard information provided by the existing catalogues (EC). It is difficult for the reader to get a clear idea about the primary source. The standard record in an EC includes only the bibliographic description of the edition according to the GOST 7.1-84 standard. To determine whether it is necessary to work directly with the primary source, the reader requires not only the bibliographic description of the book, but also an extended description of the copy with all its specific features. It includes: seals of libraries, including personal ones, typographical marks (signets), ex-librises, donate inscriptions, autographs, and also marginalia and all kinds of hand-written inscriptions, filigrees, printers' brands, as well as descriptions of bindings and of the physical condition of a copy. By adding to the scientific information some illustrative material (miniatures from hand-written books, samples of handwritings, hooks, initials, etc.) it is possible to identify more precisely the editions which are necessary for the reader. Such an approach makes it possible to solve the problem of providing the complete information on the collection and at the same time of ensuring that rare books are not overused, since a large part of preliminary work can be done with the help of the catalogue without touching the actual books.

By now the full scientific archeographic description of the collection of hand-written books of the library of the Nizhniy Novgorod State University has been completed. The prepared information is placed in the database, which was specially developed by the employees of the University Internet centre. The database is managed using ORACLE 8 and allows to carry out input of the textual and illustrative information for producing an electronic catalogue of hand-written books.

The hand-written books of the collection are described according to 26 items, many of which have sub-items. For example, the description item "type of book" is divided into items "collection", "several books under one cover", "book of uniform structure", "fragment". The item "date" is divided into ten sub-items by various attributes of dating - filigrees, stamps, watermarked dates, mention of the historical persons, dates, events in the text or records, etc. In the item "ornament" a separate description is given for initials and miniatures. All inscriptions are divided into types: sribe’s, donator’s, evaluation, etc.

The viewing of the electronic catalogue begins with the passport, where the general characteristic of the collection, the principles of description, viewing and search are given. This is followed by the alphabetic - chronological list of the books, where only the title and date (mostly, the century or a more accurate date if it is determined).

It is possible to choose any manuscript from this list that is of interest to the user and to see its more complete description. Formally (taking into account the presence in any collection of books that contain several titles under one cover) the description is divided into the description of the book as a whole and the description of its each part. If the book does not contain several titles under one cover, it is considered to consist of one part, and then the descriptions of the book and the part completely coincide.

The following screen shows the items of information related to the book as a whole.

Further it is possible to see the elements of the descriptions related to a part of the book. In the books that contain several titles under one cover numbers of parts 1,2,etc are selected. (depending on the number of parts). If the book does not contain several titles under one cover, only the button "number of part 1" is used. Such elements of the description correspond to the parts of the book or the book as a whole as type of writing (cursive, “ustav”, “poluustav”), date, kind of manuscript (with genre illustrations or hook note signs), style and description of miniatures and initials.

The bottom buttons allow to see other elements of the description, for example "Date". This screen shows the presence (or absence) and description of such attributes of dating as watermarked dates, appearance of the paper or the date "in the words of the donor". The top buttons allow to see other attributes of dating: filigrees, stamps, inscriptions with dates, mention of historical events, dates, persons in the text, attributes of writing.

The items of information about filigrees and stamps are given according to the following pattern: description, catalogue (e.g. Klepikov), number of the filigree (stamp) in the indicated catalogue, year. The inscriptions with dates are reproduced in full with the indication of the number of the page or pages with such inscriptions. The mention of historical events, persons, dates is reproduced after the text. The attributes of writing include the presence or absence of blanks, use of certain letters, for example Glagolitic, etc.

By returning to the screen describing parts of the book, it is possible to open the following element of the description:” Structure of the book “. The structure is given by articles with the indication of numbers of pages and the source, if it is determined. In the same screen it is possible to see the element of description “Inscriptions”, by choosing any type of interest: scribe's, donative, evaluating and other inscriptions.

Some elements of the description will be supplemented with illustrations. For example: the type of writing (Glagolitic font), inscriptions, ornaments (miniatures), type of the manuscript (samples of hooks), composition (most interesting articles).

The electronic catalogue allows to conduct search using various parameters. It is possible to find the book by its title, by the date of writing of the manuscript, it is also possible to find an article in a collection using its title.

Such options are envisaged as sampling of all books with miniatures or with particular style of ornament, with filigree of a certain period, with the indication of the exact date or the name of the scribe, with inscriptions in general or inscriptions of a certain type: scribe's, evaluation and other records. It is possible to choose the manuscripts of a certain type (for example, two or more books under one cover) and kind (with genre illustrations or hook signs). The catalogue enables to conduct search using fifteen attributes.

The work on preservation, providing safety of the collection and creation of the electronic catalogue of the manuscripts is conducted with the assistance of the Open Society Institute (program "Culture and Art", grant AIA 818).

Nikolai A. Ugodchikov - director of the Fundamental Library of the Nizhniy Novgorod State University, Professor, D.Sc. (Engineering), expert in the field of management and information technologies in various areas, author and co-author of over 60 papers.

Vera V. Shaposhnikova - expert in databases for ORACLE applications. She has passed successfully an interview for the grant “INTERNET for providing access to information in the libraries” to qualify for training periods at the Russian State Library for Foreign Literature and in the USA. Education: Diploma of the Faculty of Economics, NNSU.

Svetlana E. Antropova - applied programmer, experienced designer of WEB servers at the Center for New Information Technologies at the NNSU. Field of work: informatisation of higher education. Education: Diploma of the Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Cybernetics of the NNSU.

Tatiana F. Bondareva - head of the rare and valuable books department at the NNSU Fundamental Library, expert in scientific and bibliographic description of rare books.

Vasily F. Smirnov - Professor, D.Sc. (Biology), Head of the Biological Research Division at the NNSU, expert in the field of protection from biodegradation. Experience in the field: 25 years. He is the author and co-author of 150 papers and 2 textbooks.

Nizhniy Novgorod State University was founded in 1918. In 1930 several of its faculties became independent institutions of higher education. Now the University comprises 13 faculties and 4 research institutes. It has over 14 thousand students and extensive post-diploma training programs. The teaching staff includes 131 Doctors of Sciences and 448 Candidates of Sciences.

The Faculty of History and Philology was established in 1945, now three separate faculties function that have originated from it: History, Philology and Social Sciences. At the Faculty of Philology there is a there is an archaeographic laboratory. The students of the Faculty of Philology annually take part in folkloric, dialectological and archaeographic expeditions, while history students take part in complex ethnographic, archaeological and other expeditions.

The University Library was first opened in 1918 at the same time with the University. Its holdings comprise the holdings of the Warsaw Polytechnic Library evacuated to Nizhniy Novgorod during World War I, as well as books from the Nizhniy Novgorod men’s high school and a number of private collections. For over 80 years acquisitions have been made from various sources. Now the holdings are 1 939 312 books. Annually 50 thousand readers use the library, including students, professors and other employees of the university, as well as members of the city’s cultural and scientific community. The number of books issued annually is over 1 mln. copies.

The Library of the NNSU is the methodical centre of the Volga-Vyatka region.