The investigation and conservation of the Vienna Genesis, a Late Antique manuscript on purple parchment, included the study of parchment production and purple dyeing in the sixth century. The process of parchment making and of purple dyeing was recreated and compared with the Vienna Genesis and other manuscripts from the sixth and eighth centuries. Parchment made from the hides of young lambs and dyed with orchil resembled the folios of the Vienna Genesis. The results of material analysis and the study of parchment technology influenced decisions for the conservation and storage of the manuscript. Fragile areas of ink and parchment were stabilised with strips of adhesive coated Japanese tissue paper. The single folios are stored in folders of Japanese paper and museum matboard within a sink mat.

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We’ve built this digital research platform to provide academics everywhere with fast, stable and secure digital access to our library of over 110,000 scholarly books and 800,000 journal articles. We’ve tested the platform in close cooperation with leading academic institutions. If you have any questions or you notice something doesn’t quite work as it should, please visit our <a href="/publishing/faq?lang=en" class="text-primary">Help/FAQ</a> page and let us know.

The desire to have a storage medium for digital information with a higher capacity than the CD has led to a growth in the use of DVD optical media. A single-layer DVD provides up to seven times more storage capacity than a CD and therefore makes it useful for the storage of larger digital files. However, due to some key structural differences between the DVD and CD formats, there are some unanswered questions with respect to the long-term stability of DVDs. This study examined the stability of a variety of movie DVDs, DVD±Rs, dual layer DVD+Rs, and DVD±RWs. These media were evaluated under accelerated aging conditions of 80°C and 85% relative humidity and by measuring error rate changes after four aging intervals of 21 days. It was demonstrated that erasable DVDs (DVD±RWs) and dual-layer recordable DVDs have fair and very poor stability respectively and should not be used if longevity of the optical media is required. On the other hand, the stability of recordable DVDs (DVD±Rs) ranged from very good to poor. Discs with good stability utilized a gold metal layer and a dye that was unaffected by the aging conditions. Recordable DVDs with a silver metal layer and less stable dye degraded quickly and cannot be recommended for the long-term storage of digital information.

A survey of the Bodleian Library Oriental Department's mounted papyri collections was initiated following concerns raised by conservators and librarians that a number of papyri were exhibiting a ‘ghosting’ or ‘halo’ effect, which is thought to be caused by the mobilization of soluble salts within the papyri. Previous analysis of the salt on one object confirmed that the deposit was composed mainly of sodium chloride, which is consistent with analyses of salt deposits on papyrus collections elsewhere. This paper establishes the frequency of salt efflorescence within the mounted collections at the Bodleian Library, and relates the condition of the material to the history of the collections. It is shown that the presence of higher levels of salt can be related directly to the provenance of those objects. The caveats of performing statistical analysis on complex historical collections are also highlighted. Zusammenfassung Eine Anzahl von Papyri aus den Sammlungen der Bodleian Library zeigten Beschläge auf den gläsernen Montageplatten, ein Phänomen, dessen Ursache der Migration löslicher Salze aus dem Papyrus zugeschrieben wird. Das Auftreten dieser Phänomene hatte zur Folge, dass die Bestände einer generellen Zustandsuntersuchung unterzogen wurden. Bereits davor konnte durch die Analyse der Beschläge bewiesen werden, dass es sich dabei um Natriumchlorid handelt, ein Ergebnis, das mit Untersuchungen aus anderen Papyrussammlungen übereinstimmt. In dieser Untersuchung wird die Häufigkeit der Salzmigration in den montierten Beständen der Bodleian Library erfasst und ins Verhältnis zur Sammlungsgeschichte und den Objektzustand gesetzt. Es kann gezeigt werden, dass das Vorhandensein erhöhter Salzkonzentrationen im direkten Zusammenhang mit der Objektprovenienz steht. Die Aussagefähigkeit statistischer Untersuchungen an komplexen historischen Sammlungen wird diskutiert. Résumé Un nombre de papyrus des collections de la Bibliothèque Boldleian était affecté de condensations sur les plaques de montage en verre, un phénomène dont la cause est attribuée à la migration de sels solubles à l'extérieur du papyrus. L'apparition de ces phénomènes a eu pour conséquence que tous les objets ont été soumis à une inspection générale de leur état. Mais déjà auparavant on avait pu démontrer grâce à l'analyse des condensations sur les plaques qu'il s'agit bien de dépôts de chloride de sodium, un résultat qui concorde avec des études réalisées sur d'autres collections de papyrus. L'objectif de cette étude est d'analyser la fréquence de la migration des sels à l'intérieur des collections montées de la Bibliothèque Bodleian et d'établir une relation entre l'état des objets et l'histoire de la collection. On a pu démontrer qu'il existe un rapport direct entre la présence de concentrations de sels plus élevées avec la provenance de ces objets. On discutera de la fiabilité des analyses statistiques faites sur des collections historiques complexes.

Low-oxygen technology – ZerOx technology, offers new opportunities for museums, libraries and archives in protecting, preserving and treatment of biological infested objects. The ZerOx technology can be applied in any of the following areas: fire prevention, through permanent oxygen reduction; conservation, through active climate control of rooms or anoxic show cases; treatment of infested objects with the advantage of avoiding their contamination with chemicals. The contribution provides an overview of the working principle, the technology behind it, application possibilities, limitations and case studies. Zusammenfassung Die Low-Oxygen Technologie, die so genannte ZerOx-Technologie, eröffnet neue Möglichkeiten für Museen, Bibliotheken und Archive, für Schutz, Erhaltung und Behandlung biologisch geschädigter Objekte. Die Technologie kann in mehreren Bereichen angewendet werden: dem Brandschutz durch permanente Reduktion des Sauerstoffgehalts, der Erhaltung empfindlicher Materialien durch Kontrolle des atmosphärischen Sauerstoffs bzw. durch sauerstoffarme Atmosphäre in Vitrinen und schließlich der Desinfektion von durch Organismen befallenen Objekten mit dem Vorteil, dass ihre Kontamination mit Chemikalien vermieden werden kann. Der Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über die Prinzipien der Low-Oxygen Technologie. Die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen von deren Anwendung werden anhand von Fallbeispielen dargestellt. Résumé La technologie Low-Oxygen, appelée Technologie ZerOx, offre de nouvelles opportunités aux musées, aux bibliothèques et aux archives pour la protection, la conservation et le traitement de documents historiques biologiquement endommagés. Cette technologie peut être appliquée dans plusieurs domaines: dans la protection contre l'incendie grâce à la réduction permanente de l'oxygène, dans la conservation de matériaux sensibles à l'aide d'un contrôle de l'oxygène contenu dans l'atmosphère ainsi que par une atmosphère pauvre en oxygène dans les vitrines, et finalement grâce à une désinfection des objets ayant été infectés par des micro-organismes, ce qui présente comme avantage qu'une contamination par produits chimiques soit évitée. Cet article donne un aperçu sur les principes de fonctionnement de la technologie Low-Oxygen. Les possibilités et les limites de son application seront exposées à l'aide d'études de cas.

α-Amylases are enzymes employed in paper conservation to remove starch-based adhesives. However, the success of their application can be limited by the transport rate of the enzyme molecules through the paper pores to the substrate. This investigation was focused to monitoring the rate of penetration of the enzyme into hand-made paper and various means of accelerating it. Special attention was paid to using power ultrasound of 20 kHz and a 3 mm diameter sonotrode. The measurement was performed using a vertical static diffusion cell. It was found that the process can be accelerated up to thirty times by using ultrasound. The portability of the results to practical applications was verified on model samples of pasted joints. The work also included testing the effect of the experimental conditions on the catalytic activity of the enzyme and on selected properties of the paper. No negative effect of the ultrasound on ether enzyme activity or average DP of cellulose of the treated paper was determined under the given experimental conditions.

The aim of this research was to assess the efficacy of disinfection solutions containing quarternary ammonium salts (QAC) in controlling cellulolytic fungi. The influence of different disinfection solutions on paper properties and writing or printing materials and other media on paper were also taken into account. The solutions were applied in a one-hour immersion treatment at a 0.5% concentration and eliminated the fungi Penicillium spinulosum, Cylindrocarpon hederae and Cladosporium cladosporioides successfully, while the fungus Trichoderma pseudokoningii was reduced to a lesser degree. Chaetomidium subfimeti proved to be resistant to disinfection solutions.