Week 5 – Designing for Preservation

Can architecture and design help in the preservation of rare books and archival materials?

Rare books and archival materials require special attention to ensure they are available for future generations.  Books, film, photographs and even digital media are vulnerable to damage from a variety of sources.  Recollections  details how damage can be caused by light and ultraviolet radiation, humidity and temperature, biological pests, dust and pollutants and deterioration processes.  Architecture can play an important role in protecting collections from some of these.  A well designed space should make it easier to take care of fragile materials by shielding them from fluctuations in humidity and temperature, blocking light and minimising contact with dust and other pollutants.  Retrofitting a pre-existing room or building is also possible, with features such as UV tinting and blackout blinds on windows and shelving aligned with ventilation outlets to keep air circulating.

What are the design considerations for rare book rooms? 

Rare book rooms contain often irreplaceable material that requires constant care to ensure it’s longevity.  Specifying Library and Archive Storage  by the National Preservation Office, UK states that the primary considerations for a rare book room are:

• Location – not near a river or lake, a military installation or airport or any other high-risk location.
• Construction – aim for long-term sustainability and internal environmental stability. Floor loading capacity is a key issue.
• Materials – should support internal environmental stability.  Materials must not produce harmful levels of pollutants and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The effect of pollutants is particularly intense when the general environmental conditions are poor and/or the material is stored in an enclosed space or poor quality container.

Consideration should also be given to lighting, access and cleaning.  

For more information on archival storage conditions the Whole Building Design Guide has a useful section on Archives and Record Storage Buildings. 

Australian standards for the storage of rare and archival material can be found at the National Archives of Australia website

How do institutions use design to enhance and preserve their collections?

Although the primary concern for a rare book storage facility must be the preservation of the materials stored within, some libraries use design to enhance their collections.  Beautiful surroundings encourage people to access and enjoy beautiful books.  Quiet contemplative spaces make the most of precious time spent studying and exploring collections.  Below are two libraries that have balanced access, preservation and asthetics using good design principles.

Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College
Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates

An axial view of the Rauner Special Collections Library
Crosbie, Michael J 2003, Architecture for the books, The Images Publishing Group, Mulgrave, Vic.

A glass shell protects the 30,000 linear feet of rare books housed in the Rauner Special Collections Library at Dartmouth College.  The use of glass allows a visual connection between the larger space, the library user and the collection.  Within the shell the climate is carefully controlled to protect the collection from excesses of humidity and temperature.  This allows the books to be housed within a beautiful but otherwise unsuitable historic building.

The Rauner Special Collections Website

The Rauner Special Collection Blog

The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University
Gordon Bunshaft for Skidmore, Owings and Merrill

The exterior of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

From the outside the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library appears to be made of solid stone.  Once inside, it becomes apparent that the marble panels that looked impermeable from the outside are fine enough to let in a soft light.  This design feature protects the irreplaceable collections within, which include a Guttenberg Bible, by filtering the sunlight of UV radiation and reducing the amount of visible light.  A glass tower at the centre of the building houses the collections themselves, further protecting them with a controlled climate.

The Beineke is a box within a box

Find out more about the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library on their website

Reflection

Originally I had planned to look at special libraries for this blog entry but I have been unable to find sufficient information.  This makes sense as different types of special library would borrow from different styles of architecture and interior design to fit their circumstances.   The library in a hospital may be primarily an archive, whereas a library in a private club may take design cues from residential design.  It would be up to the stakeholders to identify and adopt the standards appropriate to the library in question.

I’ve chosen to substitute rare book rooms because I kept coming across interesting information about them during my research of earlier topics and I wanted to poke around more.  It’s also worth looking at storage conditions for rare and archival material because the general principles of preservation apply to all types of libraries to a greater or lesser extent.  Nobody wants their books to fall apart of them too quickly.