Accumulation of wear and tear in archival and library collections. Part II: an epidemiological study

Cristina Duran-Casablancas,Josep Grau-Bové,Tom Fearn,Matija Strlič

doi:10.1186/s40494-019-0253-2

Abstract

This paper proposes a new approach to collection surveying based on epidemiology, the discipline that describes and explains disease patterns in populations. In epidemiology the focus of attention lies not only on the occurrence of a disease but also on the characteristics of the individuals which might play a role in the occurrence of the disease. To explore the applicability of epidemiology to heritage collections, we take as example the study of the occurrence and accumulation of wear and tear in archive collections, which so far has only been studied in controlled experimental studies. We designed an observational study (survey) in which the assessment of mechanical failure is understood as the outcome variable, and the factors that might affect the degree of failure are defined as exposure variables. To evaluate the relevance of the assessed factors in relation to the observed mechanical failure, exploratory data analyses were conducted by comparing groups of objects that differ regarding their level of exposure to different factors. Although highly scattered data is not unusual in this type of studies and confounding has to be taken into account during the data analysis, this paper shows that through an epidemiological approach to surveys, the factors that have a greater effect on mechanical failure can be identified. Moreover, the rate of failure can also be determined for certain groups of objects. Also patterns of decay emerge which show the vulnerability of certain groups of objects. In this paper the practical aspects of the design and analysis of observational epidemiological studies for heritage collections are discussed. As a final note, the applicability and relevance of this approach to support collection management is briefly discussed.

Highlights

An intrinsic characteristic of library and archive collections is that they are physically used, which may lead to mechanical degradation, understood as wear and tear [1]
In order to single out the most relevant exposure variables in relation to the outcome variable, multivariate data analyses can be conducted as a first approach to reveal associations between the different variables
We introduced the exposure variables for inventory numbers with unbound records in a binary logistic regression. This type of regression permitted us to introduce whether a single sheet had failed or not as an event, in order to evaluate which exposure variables are associated with this event

Summary

Introduction

An intrinsic characteristic of library and archive collections is that they are physically used, which may lead to mechanical degradation, understood as wear and tear [1]. The relation between chemical degradation and the deterioration of mechanical properties of the paper has been extensively explored in experimental studies [2, 3]. For a better understanding of the role of the chemical and mechanical properties of paper on the occurrence of wear and tear, these properties should not be studied. The classification of failure causes used in reliability engineering has been suggested as a method to list the factors contributing to mechanical degradation [6]. This classification divides the causes of failure into factors prior to use (design and manufacture) and factors during use (maintenance and usage). In order to explore the relevance of these factors we propose a new study of heritage collections based on epidemiology

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion