Low Cost Dust Monitoring at The British Library - IFLA

The second action was the beginning of the restoration of the
Teresiana Library as the Mantova Conservation and Research
Library.
C. Work schedule
The following main lines of action were developed around:
1) The restoration of the eighteenth-century wooden shelves of
the two “Teresian Rooms”;
2) The installation of new technological systems in the public
rooms and in the stores such as air conditioning and air treatment.
The system achieves the air fi ltering and renewing with
an injection of air according to the standard values of temperature
and relative humidity. These values are controlled by the
central station. The system supplies the study room of the central
gallery and the storehouse on the fi rst fl oor.
3) The upgrading of the air conditioning system from the basement
storehouse in order to re-establish the relative humidity
values within the parameters of acceptable standard;
4) The installation of a lighting system and a fi re-fi ghting service
with safety system in the library’s storehouse. In the two
Teresian Rooms and in the rare books repository, the system
only works to monitor the alarm because the too important capacity
of the room does not allow an automatic switching off.
5) The anti-theft system uses RFID (Radio Frequency Identifi cation)
and is integrated into the management of books in SBN
(National Library Service);
6) The users’ identifi cation through the recognition of CRS card
(Regional Services Card);
7) The implementation of a wireless access;
8) The introduction of compact shelves in order to increase the
capacity of the library. The library will be able to store new collections
needed for the reading rooms;
9) The library furniture and the books display in the reading rooms.
D. The restoration of the wooden shelves
The historical value of the monumental Teresian Rooms relies
on their being designed for the original library in Mantua.
The recent restoration work of the rooms’ wooden shelves was
preceded by preliminary survey about the state of conservation
of the scaffolding. Different points were studied: the surface
degradation due to the multiple coats of paint over the time,
the surface oxydation due to infi ltration of water and exposure
to sunlight; the deterioration of the structure due to the waste
and the settling action of scaffolding and balustrades. These
surveys revealed several mistakes in the shelves strips, a slight
deformation of shelves and uprights; several galleries have to
be reinforced and there is a need for further interventions on
the doors ironworks.
Several general factors, preservation considerations, practical
aspects of restoration and consolidation of the wooden
shelves, drove to the necessity of taking out all the books from
both the Rooms. The immediate availability of the adjoining
3-4. Second Teresian Room during and after restoration.
Gallery - clear of any furnishings - encouraged this choice and
allowed to reposition the 44 thousand antique volumes of the
two Rooms inside four metal shelves, meeting the topographic
order. The restoration and consolidation of the wooden shelves
then continued for a year. In this period some maintenance was
carried out on the old books.
The restoration of the wooden components involved several activities:
the removal of dust and fragments deposit with a vacuum
cleaner, the cleaning of surfaces with surface-active mixtures,
the woodworm treatments with non-toxic insecticides.
The balustrades were consolidated by the application of metal
brackets bonded at the base of the balustrades and the fl oor.
E. Preservation interventions on ancient books
As mentioned before, maintenance works on the 44 thousand
volumes located in the two Teresian Rooms were scheduled to
be done during the restoration of the shelves.
In the light of subsequent considerations and thanks to the
opportunity offered by the collaboration with the Villa Manin
School for Paper Restorers, in Friuli Venezia Giulia Region,
the whole operation was more important than foreseen and
was connected to the preservation mission of the library.
In Mantua, then, we had been able to apply perfectly the Ar-
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International Preservation News No. 53 May 2011