Around the world many old books and manuscripts exist. As paper has a
limited lifetime this cultural heritage is as risk. Therefore I know
that there exist techniques to restore old books and manuscripts. This
is a two way process :
1° restore the paper version (if necessary)
2° scan the books/ manuscripts digitally and archive them

First I would like to know which solutions exist for restoring the
paper, which companies are offering that service (in europe, usa and
asia) ,if they do the job onsite or not and what are the best
practises

Then I would like to know which solutions exits for digitizing
(scanning and archiving) these (delicate/damaged) books and
manuscripts, which companies are offering that service (in Europe, USA
and Asia) ,if they do the job onsite or
not and what are the best practises.

Ideally I would also receive a list of contacts of institutions that
are already using these techniques.

FYI The question is not urgent.

Hello and thank you for your question.

The first part of my answer reviews the best methods of book
restoration, with links to leading practitioners.  The second part
addresses the digital alternative.

There's a very useful introduction to the art of book restoration that
you should read.  It reviews the process, and addresses such concerns
as workspace considerations, examination and tests (pH and the like),
making the treatment proposal, and the usual steps in the treatment
itself:
 Dry Cleaning
 Washing/Neutralization
 Alkalization
 Bleaching
 Lining
 Drying and Humidification
 Resizing
BASIC PAPER TREATMENTS FOR PRINTED BOOK MATERIALS
http://www.philobiblon.com/gbwarticle/gbwjournalarticle.htm

It is important that any person doing this sort of work must be highly
skilled, since there's a real risk that the process can do more harm
than good:
"It can not be emphasized too strongly that repair, no matter how
well-intentioned, has enormous potential to cause serious and
irreversible harm to the very materials it seeks to preserve. Nearly
all repair procedures, beyond simple rehousing, may lead directly to
loss of value (intellectual, aesthetic, economic, etc.). Less
obviously it may also lead to a loss of value over the course of the
life of the book, as a repair that appears to have been successful at
the time it is executed may, over time, result in damage, whether
through choice of materials whose aging behavior is not what had been
expected, through mechanical failure of the repair, or through
unfortunate interactions between materials."
California Preservation Clearinghouse--Book Repair
http://cpc.stanford.edu/collections/repair/

For this reason, as well as for reasons of cost, many leading
libraries do their restoration and repair in-house, and the Repair
Manual cited below is perhaps the leading training guide for this
activity.
"In-house book repair is appropriate for general collections materials
not needing complete rebinding by a commercial binder. The advantages
of repairing materials in-house are that high use materials can be
returned to the stacks more quickly and simple repairs may often be
done more economically. These advantages must be weighed against the
cost in staff time and training associated with book repair staff
attaining an acceptable level of expertise."
Dartmouth College Library -- A Simple Book Repair Manual 
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~preserve/repair/repairindex.htm

Who does this sort of work on an outsource basis?  The best web link
is the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic
Works ("AIC")
http://aic.stanford.edu/

The AIC offers a search engine that will lead to qualified restorers
in the US, sorted by region, services offered, etc.
http://www.aic-faic.org/guide/form.html

For professionals outside the US, you should consider the following
sources:
The Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild
www.cbbag.ca/
Society of Bookbinders (UK)
http://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/owen.bradford/bindex.htm
A Long List of Bookbinders and Restorers Worldwide
http://tinyurl.com/vuw


Now for the second part of your question--the digital alternative.

By way of example, the Missouri Botanical Garden Library has
undertaken a Rare Book Digitization Project, funded by the Andrew W.
Mellon Foundation. The goal of the project is to digitize and preserve
beautifully illustrated and botanically significant books in its
private holdings in order to make them available to an international
audience.
MBG Library
http://ridgwaydb.mobot.org/mobot/rarebooks/

Gorgias Digitization Services provides professional conversion of
content from paper archives, books, microfilms and slides into a wide
variety of digital formats.
Gorgias Press
http://www.gorgiaspress.com/dservices.html

For the how-to of digitizing, as practiced in Japan and elsewhere, see
Digital Information Organization
http://itri.loyola.edu/digilibs/

Because of the high cost and risk of paper restoration, the trend
seems to be heading toward the digital approach. In many cases these
are simply scanning projects (so the content is preserved but the page
images are lost) but in other cases the images are also retained.
Digital Text Collections
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Collections/othertext.html


Search Terms Used:
book paper treatments
book conservator
"rare book" digitize

I hope you find this answer useful.  Please take the time to read
these sources, and let me know via a Request for Clarification if
there is anything more that you need.  Please don't rate this answer
until I have a chance to provide any clarification that you might
reasonably need.

Thanks again and good luck
richard-ga

---

Request for Answer Clarification by nazca-ga on 04 Sep 2002 06:51 PDT

Hi I probably didnīt explain myself good enough in the question. 
The answer you gave is of good quality but unfortunately it is limited
to rare books whereas I was looking for information about mass
deacification, mass microfilming and mass digitalisation.
What are the best practises, do libraries and archives do it in house
are do they outsource these services and to whom in Europe, Usa and
Asia.

---

Clarification of Answer by richard-ga on 04 Sep 2002 14:27 PDT

Hello again.

Since your request for clarification is focused on a mass digitizing
project, the first thing we need to help you to decide is whether to
do it in-house or on an outsource basis.

For the in-house approach, there is ample material on what equipment
you need and what technical route you should follow.  Some of this was
provided in my original answer, but the best two free how-to guides,
which focus on the costs as well as the technology, are

Grace Agnew,Standards-Based Imaging: Technology and Practice
https://www.library.gatech.edu/digital/digital_imaging2001_08_21.htm

and

Moving Theory Into Practice--Digital Imaging Tutorial
http://www.library.cornell.edu/preservation/tutorial/contents.html


Let me suggest that you read these materials through, and then if you
need additional information beyond that, ask me any further question
you may have, or better yet, obtain and read the following full-length
book:

Moving Theory Into Practice--
Digital Imaging for Libraries and Archives ($80)
By: Anne R. Kenney and Oya Y. Rieger
http://www.rlg.org/preserv/mtip2000.html
"This new publication from RLG is a self-help reference for libraries
and archives that choose to reformat cultural resources to digital
image form. Moving Theory into Practice advocates an integrated
approach to digital imaging programs, from selection to access to
preservation, with a heavy emphasis on the intersection of
institutional, cultural objectives and practical digital applications.

"The work is a timely and valuable reference for funders, managers,
librarians, archivists, curators, system analysts, programmers,
administrators, faculty, and other scholars. It focuses on an
interdependent circle of considerations associated with digital
imaging programs in cultural institutions. It addresses issues of
concern to many key players and stakeholders in such imaging
initiatives. It provides vital guidance in a complex arena, bringing
to bear the contributions of more than 50 experts.
 
"Complementing the book's nine chapters, some thirty sidebars
highlight major issues, point out pertinent research trends, and
identify relevant emerging technologies and techniques. From
decision-making, to sound practices, to turning projects into
sustainable digital programs, Moving Theory into Practice provides a
wealth of balanced information and counsel."

-------
For the outsource approach on the scale that you contemplate, you're
going to have to put together an invitation to bid.  Consider the
following:
RLG Guidelines for Creating a Request for Proposal for Digital Imaging
Services RLG, 1997 (May 1998).
http://www.rlg.org/preserv/RFPGuidelines.pdf
  and
RLG Model Request for Information for Digital Imaging Services RLG,
1997.
http://www.rlg.org/preserv/RLGrfi.pdf

Consider the following:
Tanner, S. and Lomax-Smith, J. (1999).'How Much Does It Really Cost?'
http://heds.herts.ac.uk/resources/papers/drh99.pdf
and
Hazen, D., Horrell, J. and Merrill-Oldham, J. (1998). Selecting
Research Collections for Digitization. Council on Library and
Information Resources,August 1998.
http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/reports.html 

There seems to be no consistency in the outsourcing decision, nor am I
aware of libraries being shipping around the world to be scanned by
the low bidder.  I believe that you will do best to make the in-house
vl outsource decision after consulting with a local qualified firm.  I
don't think you should plan on shipping your material abroad for
processing.

Take a look at these 250 projects.  It appears that all of them were
handled either in-house or locally.  That is the route I recommend for
you.
http://tinyurl.com/1arc

Good luck in your project!
richard-ga

Thanks, the answer clarification was really usefull, just a pitty the
search is very US, UK oriented

Hi Nazca,

Richard has giving you a rather thorough answer, but as a former
historian I have to add a few personal observations too. I haven spend
many enjoyable months in archives and could witness the deterioration
of the paper archives myself. The sad truth is that although the
techniques are available to save all those valuable remains of the
past, only a very, very small part will survive, simply because saving
them is too expensive.
Two main elements cause the destruction of the paper archives: the
increased polution that speeds up the degradation of the paper
archives and the usage by humans.
The better archives have systems to regulate the climate internally
and that can slow down the process of decaying. (Typically: the nice
smell in an archive is mostly the smell of decay too.)
In  the past much-used archives would be put on micro-film so the
usage would not destroy them. Nowadays, digitalization is a solution,
but still rather expensive: it takes a lot of human work to do this.

A very specific groups of archives, those of the photographers, is
slowly heading for a solution. Although the costs of scanning their
material are tremendously high, they have to digitalize, otherwise
they cannot be used commercially anymore. A group of photographers
here in Shanghai is trying to use its low labour costs and rather
high-quality facilities to set up a scanning factory that can
dramatically lower the costs of scanning analog material.
WHen it takes off, it might offer also a very partial solution for the
more valuable paper archives. But then: since most archives are
commercially not interesting, that will mostly not happen.
One day of course we will discover that also information on burned
CD's is not safe anymore. By then we might have a better solution
available.

it is maybe not a great help, but I thought I had to add this.

Regards,

Fons

Hi nazca-ga,

Probably the most well-known effort to digitize the text of books is
Project Gutenberg, began in 1971 at the Materials Research Lab at the
University of Illinois. The first text entered into the project was
the “Declaration of Independence”. Michael Hart, the creator of the
project, then tried to send the text to everyone on the network,
thereby creating a close kin to the first Internet virus!

Project Gutenberg went on to digitize the Bill of Rights and then the
whole Constitution, followed by the Bible, and then all of the works
of Shakespeare. They now offer a vast array of light literature, heavy
literature and reference books. The books are stored in Plain Vanilla
ASCII files, so they are device independent. Their website affords
search and download capabilities, and books are provided free of
charge. Books may also be browsed by author or title.

Project Gutenberg
http://promo.net/pg/index.html

Regards,

Beth    

Search Criteria:
none used

Hello,

For more information on preserving paper, the website for Preservation
Technologies <http://www.ptlp.com> describes their products and
processes for deacidifying paper.  They are best known for their
Bookkeeper method of mass deacification of library materials and
archival documents, and have recently contracted with the Library of
Congress to neutralize a substantial portion of their collection.

Not sure if I am making too much sense, but I have found Project
Gutenberg to be a very good resource of printed text. Contains some
pretty old references as well.

http://snipurl.com/gutenberg

Sorry if this is irrelevant.

-Shanx