National day of Collection Care 2016 in Göttingen

As a reminder of disasters such as the collapse of the Cologne City Archive, the fire at the Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek or the devastating effects of the Elbe floodings the National day of Collection Care is organized every year. It draws attention to dangers such as mould, paper corrosion and ink corrosion.

Programme

We kindly invite you and your friends and family to the Historical Library Papendiek 14 on Saturday 12 November 2016 from 14:00 on for guided tours, panel discussions, short presentation and other events!
Admission is free and there is no reservation needed.

All information is available on the information leaflet (in German) (PDF 472 KB) and the poster (in German) (PDF 742 KB) as well.

From 14:30 to 17:30 the Counselling "My Old Book", a Family Event by the Bookbindery and a Used Books Market await you!

Presentations and Discussions

All talks will be in German.

14:00 Welcoming (Alfred-Hessel-Saal)

14:30 Panel Discussion (Alfred-Hessel-Saal)

16:00 Presentations of specific projects on conservation and restoration of written cultural heritage (Vortragsraum)

  • Wasserschaden-Projekte (Dr Johannes Mangei)
  • Kartenrestaurierung (Mechthild Schüler und Magdalena Schumann)
  • Die Sanierung einer halben Million brandgeschädigter Bücher mittels Trockeneis und Aktiv-Sauerstoff (Renate van Issem und Sandra Hildebrandt)
  • Rettung der Timbuktu-Manuskripte (Eva Brozowsky)
  • Bücher schützen beim Bauen und Möblieren (Almuth Corbach)

18:00 Lecture "Zeitkapseln. Vom Nutzen und Nachteil des Wegwerfens" by Prof Dr Dr hc Heinrich Detering (Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung University Göttingen)

Guided Tours

  • Restorationsworkshop (14:30, 15:30 and 16:30)
  • Exposition Conn3ct (14:30, 15:30 and 17:00)
  • Digitisation Centre (15:00, 16:00 and 17:00)
  • Historic Library (15:00, 16:30 and 17:30)
  • Map Collection (15:00 and 17:30)

All guided tours start at the Info-Point in the foyer of the Historical Building and are held in German.

Exposition "Conn3ct - 2 media, 1 story"

"Conn3ct - 2 media, 1 story", a project by the Flanders Heritage Library and the National Library of the Netherland The Hague in cooperation with the SUB Göttingen, demonstrates in an interactive exposition the influence new media has on the humans and the world we live in. It confronts nowadays social media with some of the first printed books to show that they are distant relatives.

Examples of work typical of a conservation department

To give an insight into the importance of the preservation of our written heritage, the following images will give you an impression of the work done by conservation departments.

Ink corrosion in an Arabic manuscript

Shelf Mark: Cod. Ms. Arab. 186

Ink corrosionIn this Arabic manuscript, fractures resultedInk corrosion from the accelerated decomposition of the paper caused by the corrosion of copper in the green colour, as you can see on the left side of the image. On the right side, too, you see that by turning the pages a fracture was caused along the green colour which was unprofessionally fixed with inadequate material.

After taking off the old repair, the underlyingInk corrosion fracture is visible and the restoration can go on.
To stabilize the paper, gelatine-coated Washi was put on the fractures.

Thereby the pages were restored and the pages can be turned without problems again.

Distorted wooden book cover

Shelf Mark: Jus. Canon 79/1

Distorted wooden book coverThis book has a leather binding with a wooden cover which was very much distorted by humidity over time.

By carefullyDistorted wooden book cover moistening and weighted drying of the cover, it was possible to straighten the cover in order to restore its original shape.

Organization responsible

Göttingen State and University Library organizes the National day of action as a member of the „Allianz Schriftliches Kulturgut erhalten“ (Alliance for the preservation of our written cultural heritage).

Logo Allianz Schriftliches Kulturgut erhaltenThe Alliance was founded in 2001 as an interest group of German archives and libraries with extensive historical holdings. Its aim is to raise awareness for the national task of preserving our written cultural heritage.

Your contribution to the preservation of our cultural heritage

You can contribute to the preservation of our written cultural heritage!

We are thankful for every support with the preservation, restoration or digitalization of our historical teasures. Please contact us or take a look at the following pages for already existing projects: