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1996 Annual Report
In 1996 three major issues were considered :
- to make PAC more visible even within IFLA;
- to increase and strengthen cooperation with other institutions, associations and international organizations;
- to carry out some of the projects undertaken in 1995.
A. Organization and Management
- Closing down of the Leipzig Regional Centre
The political changes that have occurred in Eastern Europe during the last few years and the unification of Germany have led the Die Deutsche Bibliothek to reconsider its role as PAC Regional Centre. Consequently it was decided that the responsibility for the PAC Regional Centre, originally hosted by the Deutsche Bücherei Leipzig, would be transferred elsewhere in Eastern Europe. The Leipzig Regional Centre closed down in January 1997.
- Towards the creation of a new PAC Centre for Eastern Europe
A call for tenders was elaborated and largely distributed. After examination of the proposals IFLA Executive Board will choose the library to host this new centre, a decision to be taken in 1997. In the meantime, the International Centre in Paris manages the former Leipzig Centre activities.
- Meeting of the PAC Directors
It was not made possible to hold a plenary meeting in 1996. Nevertheless, the PAC Director had the opportunity of meeting each one of the regional directors individually and of organizing two unformal meetings, in June and
August, which allowed the planning of respective and global activities.
- Leipzig, March 96 : Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff / Wolfgang Wöchter (Leipzig).
- Saint-Martin, May 1996 : Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff / Ramon Sanchez (Caracas).
- Oslo, June 1996 : Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff, Diane Kresh (Washington), Jan Lyall (Canberra) and Virginia Betancourt, Director of the National Library of Venezuela, representing the Caracas Centre;
- Beijing, August 1996 : Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff, Chandru Shahani, representing Diane Kresh (Washington), Jan Lyall (Canberra), Ramon Sanchez (Caracas), Takao Shimamura (Tokyo).
- Washington, October 1996 : Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff / Diane Kresh (Washington).
- During those meetings the following points were discussed :
- preparation of the Medium-Term Programme 1997-2001,
- revision of the "Principles for the Preservation and Conservation of Library Materials",
- contribution to International Preservation News by the Regional Centres,
- collaboration between Regional Centres and particularly :
- Tokyo/Canberra,
- Washington/Caracas,
- geographical coverage of the Regional Centres and eventual creation of new centres,
- increase of the visibility of PAC on a regional as well as an international level.
B. Activities
Notwithstanding the efforts to increase its visibility (distribution of its newsletter, cooperation inside IFLA and with external organizations, development of fund raising), PAC has focused its work on four points :
- publications (IPN and the revision of the Principles),
- the creation and implementation of the JICPA (Joint IFLA/ICA Committee for Preservation in Africa),
- the resolution on the use of permanent paper,
- the organization of a Round Table on the safeguarding of photographs in Latin America.
- Publications
a) IPN (International Preservation News)
Two issues of International Perservation News were published : IPN 12, July 96, and IPN 13, sent in January 97
- IPN 12, which dealt with preservation in Latin America, was published with a supplement in Spanish in addition to its usual French supplement.
- IPN 13 was mostly devoted to preventive preservation and included the brochure on disaster preparedness published last year by the Section on Preservation and Conservation. A French translation, made by PAC, was inserted in the French supplement.
Since November 1996, detailed information on PAC is available on IFLANET (http://www.nlc- bnc.ca/ifla.VI/ 5/pac.html). For technical reasons the last two IPN issues could not be mounted but will soon be available.
In 1996 the number of issues increased by 25% and 5% more subscribers have been registered by the Internatinal Centre. There is a real enthusiasm from the professionals for writing in the publication, which explains the increasing number of readers. Appreciative comments from French and foreign colleagues show that they particularly enjoy the topical issues, especially when they contain technical information. IPN strives to be didactical and contributes to the promotion of the activities of the Regional Centres at the same time.
b) Revision of the "Principles of Preservation and Conservation of Library Materials"
Those "Principles" have long been the reference document within the preservation community. They are recurrently quoted in the preservation litterature. The last version was published in 1986 and since then many changes have occurred in the conservation of traditional carriers and new medias have appeared. This is why PAC, by request of many colleagues, has decided on the rewriting of a new enlarged version. PAC organized two expert meetings in Paris (March 21 and April 11, 1996) to analyse comments already received. It was decided to maintain the existing chapters though in a different order, to develop the chapters dealing with new carriers (photographic, audiovisual, electronic and digitized), to add a glossary of specific terms and an annotated and up to date bibliography including fundamental articles as well as books. It was also decided that one same person would be in charge of the rewriting. Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff contacted the Commission on Preservation and Access for collaboration. A coedition contract was signed and the CPA has funded half of the project (10,000 US$). M.-T. Varlamoff went to Oxford to meet Edward Adcock, who has been selected as writer. He works at the Bodleian Library and is the editor of "Paper Conservation News". The rewriting is under way and the publication of this new version is expected for the Fall of 1997.
- Creation of JICPA (Joint IFLA-ICA Committee for Preservation in Africa)
During the PanAfrican conference on Preservation, Nairobi 1993, the participants voted a resolution for the constitution of a joint IFLA-ICA committee for Preservation in Africa. JICPA was finally created in February
1996 in Dakar, at the end of the meeting of the Section for Regional Activities in Africa. It is composed of 17 members including French and English speaking representatives from Archives and Libraries and IFLA and
ICA ex-officio members (IFLA Professional Coordinator, PAC, ALP, Section on Regional Activities in Africa).
The President is Komlan Afanou, a French speaking librarian from Togo. The Secretary General, who is English speaking, is Musila Musembi, Director of the Archives in Kenya. Bunmi Alegbeleye, who teaches preservation at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, was asked to coordinate training activities.
The first task of JICPA was to constitute national commissions for preservation. Those commissions have close links with the national commissions of the UNESCO "Memory of the World" Programme.
It is sometimes very difficult to communicate within Africa. This accounts why JICPA activities have started rather slowly. Consequently, PAC International Centre has proposed to assist Musila Musembi in exchanging and disseminating information.
Funding is another crucial problem. Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff contacted the BIEF (Banque International d'Information sur les Etats Francophones) to fund (up to 20,000 US$) a French-speaking workshop in Dakar (April 1997).
Two other workshops (in English an Arabic) should be organized later on, provided that funding is available.
- Resolution on the use of permanent paper
The campaign initiated by PAC in 1995 in order to raise awareness among librarians on the use of permanent paper went on over 1996 when PAC participated in seminars and conferences or by means of articles in IPN. In October 1986 Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff attended an expert meeting organized by the National Library of Canada. A draft resolution and the accompanying technical note were revised then presented by Marianne Scott, the Canadian national Librarian, to the Intergovernmental Council of PGI. The UNESCO national commissions were asked to support the resolution which will be proposed to the vote of the General Conference next Autumn.
- Round Table on the safeguarding of photographs - Rio de Janeiro - November 1996
Thanks to a 9,000 US$ funding from UNESCO, PAC and the National Library of Brazil, with the support of IFLA/LAC was able to organize a Round Table on the safeguard of photographic collections. The following countries were represented: Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Peru and Venezuela. Representatives from several Brazilian institutions and organizations also attended the Round Table. The National Library in Rio, which had successfully implemented a former preservation project "PROFOTO" brought its scientific and logistic support and organized a visit of its collections andlaboratories.
The Round Table decided that:
- a questionnaire would be sent to non-attending Latin-American libraries, in order to know their methods and means of storage and enclosure,
- a basic publication in Spanish on the preservation of photographic collections would be produced,
- a common format for cataloguing should be selected and advised on.
Brazil (the National Library, the Centre for the Preservation and Restoration of Photographs in Rio de Janeiro, the Historical Archives of Brazil) being the most advanced country in the preservation of photographic documents would propose internships to their colleagues from other Latin American countries. Among other topics: digitization, users policy and translations of professional literature into Spanish.
Regional Seminar
The representative from the Brazilian Ministry of Culture suggested to organize a second regional seminar to take place during the Congress on the History and Conservation of Latin American Photography to be held in Rio in October 1997. it is obvious that this first Round table has contributed to raise awareness among managers and politicians in charge of cultural budgets but we must take care not to be purely intentional. The implementation and accomplshment of concrete actions will be the best asset of this ambitious project.
C. Cooperation
PAC has strengthened its contacts and its cooperative activities, which is visible through the important volume of letters received or sent (more than 2,000 in 1996).
- International Council on Archives (ICA)
- An active collaboration was established with three representatives from the Archives during the working sessions on the revision of the "Principles".
- The questionnaire on photographic collections was sent to all National Archives in Africa.
- The PAC Director was invited to deliver the keynote speech at the Conference of the Society of Archivists in Edinburgh, July 1996.
- UNESCO
In the framework of the "Memory of the World" Programme:
- Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff attended, as an observer, the Joint UNESCO/EC Technical Meeting on Digital Access to the Documentary Heritage and its Preservation, Prague, March 1996.
- Three PAC directors (Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff, Diane Kresh, Jan Lyall) attended the first "Memory of the World" conference, Oslo, June 1996. Jan Lyall, Director of the PAC Regional Centre in Canberra, delivered the keynote speech and presented the MOW Guidelines of which she had organized and supervised the redaction.
- UNESCO funded the Round Table on the safeguarding of photographic collections in Rio, November 1996.
- Commission on Preservation and Access (CPA)
PAC and CPA have forged excellent relationships and have implemented cooperation through a publishing project. When CPA agreed to participate in the revision of the "Principles", Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff met with Deanna Marcum, CPA President, Hans Rütimann, International Program Officer and Maxine Sitts, Communication Program Officer, in order to sign contract.
- European Commission on Preservation and Access (ECPA)
Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff met twice with Yola de Lusenet (Leipzig, March 1996 and The Hague, December 1996). They discussed the possibility of cooperating in the translation of preservation litterature into Eastern European languages. A project of a joint IFLA/PAC-ECPA seminar to be held before the IFLA Conference in Amsterdam, August 1998 was studied. The seminar could be hosted by the Royal Library in The Hague. The Director, Vim van Drimmelen, when informed, was not hostile a priori.
- Banque Internationale d'Information sur les Etats Francophones (BIEF)
Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff asked the BIEF to support the organization of a French-speaking workshop on preservation in Africa, Dakar, April 97. The BIEF decided to fund the total amount of expenses. This seminar will be the first of a series of three (in English, Arabic and French) which had been recommended during the first JICPA meeting in February 1996.
- Cooperation within IFLA
PAC works in close cooperation with ALP in the framework of JICPA and with the Section on Preservation and Conservation (cf. p.3 ç1.a). A common meeting for the preparation of the MTP was held in Beijing. PAC supports the policy of the Section and tries to lead complementary or shared activities in order to reduce overlapping.
In 1996 PAC worked in collaboration with UDT for the PAC Homepage to be put on the IFLANET. Contacts were taken with the Cataloguing Section and UBCIM to study the feasibility of including preservation data in cataloguing files.
D. Financing and Funding
PAC International Centre expenses are supported partly by the Bibliothèque nationale de France and partly by IFLA Headquarters on the terms of an agreement, revised yearly, which includes salaries, IPN publication and
travel expenses. The Regional Centres are financially independent.
Specific projects were supported by the following organizations:
- UNESCO :
- Workshop on the safeguarding of photographic collections - Rio - November 1996. Participating countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Peru, Venezuela.
- Support: 9,000 US $.
- Commission on Preservation and Access (CPA):
- Revision, publication and distribution of the Principles for the Preservaton and Conservation of Library Materials.
- Support : 10,000 US$.
- Banque Internationale d'Information sur les Etats Francophones (BIEF) :
- Organization of a workshop on preservation in Africa. Number of participants: 10.
- Support: 20,000 US$.
It is obvious that if PAC wants to increase its influence and multiply and diversify its activities, more time will have to be devoted to fund raising, a time-consuming activity, which has less in common with preservation.
E. Travels Abroad and Participation in International Events by Programme
Countries, Dates, Subjects
- The Hague 26-28 January
- Meeting with Leo Voogt and Winston Roberts (IFLA HQ)
- Meeting with Yola de Lusenet (CPA)
- Chantilly (France) 7-9 February
- International Seminar on the conservation of manuscripts from Dunhuang and Central Asia
- Dakar 13-17 February
- Meeting with the IFLA Section on Regional Activities in Africa
- 1st JICPA meeting
- Prague 1-4 March
- Joint UNESCO/EC technical meeting on digital access to the documentary heritage and its preservation facilities
- Leipzig 29-30 March
- ECPA International Conference : Choosing to preserve
- Visit to the PAC Centre
- The Hague 13-14 April
- Meeting of the Professional Board and of the Core Programmes
- Visit to the Koninklijke Bibliotheek and its Preservation facilities
- Erice (Sicila) 22-29 April
- International conference on the preservation and restoration of library and archive documents. The opening session waschaired by Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff.
- San-Marteen (Netherlands Antilles) 19-25 May
- XXVIe ACURIL Conference (Association des bibliothèques universitaires, de recherches et institutionnelles de la Caraïbe) : Title of M.T.Varlamoff's paper. "Perspectives et apports de la coopération internationale dans le domaine de la conservation et de la préservation: influence et essor du PAC"
- Oslo 2-6 June
- "Memory of the World" Conference
- Meeting of PAC Directors
- Edinburgh 2-7 July
- Conference of the Society of Archivists Keynote speech by M-T.V.: "Improving preservation strategies and raising awareness through international cooperation: the role of IFLA PAC and of the Bibliothèque nationale de France"
- Beijing 19 August - 3 September
- 62th IFLA Congress
- ICA Pre-seminar on conservation
- IFLA/ICA Meeting to establish the Beijing Platform
- Meeting of PAC Directors
- Paper by M.-T.V. at the Forum of the Core Programmes
- Roanne (France) 30 September - 2 October
- Seminar of the "Fédération française de coopération entre bibliothèques" "le patrimoine en mouvement : migrations de l'écrit au fildes siècles"
- New York, Ottawa, Washington 9 - 22 October:
- New York : CPA :
- Meeting with Hans Rütimann
- NYPL:
- Meeting with Paul LeClerc, Directeur
- Meetings with Duane Watson et Julia Van Haaften
- Ottawa :
- Meeting of experts on permanent paper
- Washington :
- Meeting with Deanna Marcum et Maxine Sitts, CPA for the "Principles"
- Library of Congress :
- Meetings with Merrily Smith, Ken Harris, Gerry Gibson.
- Visit of audiovisual facilities
- PAC :
- Meetings with Diane Kresh and Amparo de Torres
- Oxford 2-4 December
- Working session with Edward Adcock for the revision of the "Principles"
- The Hague 8-11 December
- Meeting of the Professional Board and Core Programmes
- Meeting with Leo Voogt
- Meeting with Yola de Lusenet (ECPA)
F. Courses Followed by Staff at the International Centre
- English and German courses (Virginie Kremp, Isabelle Fornoni, M.-T. Varlamoff).
- Courses on the conservation and restoration of photographs organized at the "Ecole Nationale du Patrimoine", 22-24 January and 10-12 June (M.-T.Varlamoff).
- Course on the Internet (M.-T. Varlamoff), 8-9 July.
- Training for the curator competition (Virginie Kremp).
- Technical course on paper (Virginie Kremp).
- Developing electronic acces to collections of the Bibliothèque nationale de France and British Library, 5-6 novembre (M.-T. Varlamoff, Virginie Kremp).
G. Visits and Internships at the International Centre
- 18 March: Christelle Quillet, Carole Gascard, Jo=EBlle Jezierhi, from the National School for Librarians and Information Scientists.
- 5 June: Yahya Ould Ahmedou, Senghor University, Alexandria (Egypte)
- 14 June; Narendra R. Bar, Secretary of the Association of Governmental Libraries in India.
- 26 July: Algirdas Plioplys, Director of the Restoration Centre at the National Library of Lithuania.
- 8 October: Rev.Jacob Thekeparambil, Director of the "St Ephrem Oecumenical Research Institute (India).
- 19 November: Ulrich Pagel, Curator, Tibetan Collections, British Library.
- 25 November: Kzylov Romouald, Department of Culture and Art at the Centre of Moscow and Eugen Martin, General Director of the Ministry of Culture (Moscow).
- 12-13 December: Ralph Manning, Heritage Officer at the National Library of Canada and Secretary of the IFLA Section on Preservation and Conservation.
H. Activities by the Regional Centres
- Training and help to other libraries
As in the past, interns from abroad are trained within the Conservation laboratories of the Regional Centres and acquainted with their techniques. People from Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Corea have been trained by the Centre
in Tokyo. Moreover, Tokyo was commissionned by the State Library of Mongolia to conduct a survey on the preservation conditions of the Library. A workshop was also organized to set up a preservation network in Asia,
along with a forum allowing professionals to share their experiences.
In Leipzig, where the centre specializes in paper splitting and deacidification, two colleagues from Prague were trained.
Due to lack of funds, the course on the conservation of paper-based documents, organized at the National Library of Caracas annually, has not taken place. It is all the more regrettable as this is the only course of the kind over the whole Latin-American continent. The Centre, however, managed to produce a didactical guide thanks to funding from Unesco. Moreover, four persons were trained on the techniques of film preservation and microfilming. Finally, two raising awareness workshops were intended for the library staff to introduce them to some conservation techniques. They received a most enthusiastic response. At the regional level, the Centre held a workshop on the safeguarding of XIXth Century Latin-American Press.
Staff of the Preservation Directorate at the Library of Congress meets regularly to decide on the type of training to be given to technicians responsible for the collections and to settle preservation measures within institutions. As a result 12 students were awarded a grant, two of whom were trained at the Preservation Directorate.
The distance learning manual, prepared by Wendy Smith from the Regional Centre in Canberra, is now available on the internet URL: http://www.nla.gov.au/3/npo/learning. This is the result of much thinking in didactics and it will be very useful to colleagues in Asia and to the international community as well.
- Publications, translations and dissemination
The report on the worldwide inquiry on preservation practices, which was commissionned by Unesco to the Centre of Canberra has come to an end and will be published by Unesco shortly. Canberra also produced the proceedings of the conference "Multimedia Preservation - Capturing the Rainbow" that was organized in November 1995, in Brisbane.
The "Preservation Supply Catalogue" developed by the Preservation Directorate at the Library of Congress has been mounted on the Internet. The aim of such a catalogue is to help collections departments to select preservation supplies that meet the Library of Congress requirements.
The personal and voluntary work undertaken by Amparo de Torres with the help of Ann Seibert (Library of Congress) must be underlined. Both of them are responsible for the Spanish newsletter "Apoyo" that disseminate
preservation news throughout Spanish-speaking America.
Also thanks to Amparo de Torres, an important cooperation project is being achieved. The Canadian Conservation Institute has developed a chart introducing the agents of deterioration and their dangers. The chart has been translated into Spanish and will be printed and sent to 3.000 institutions in Latin America selected from the "Apoyo" mailing list and with the logistical support of ICCROM (International Centre for the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Properties based, in Rome). The copies will be sent to libraries, museums and archives by the Regional Centre of Caracas.
Number 12 of "International Preservation News" of June 1996, was devoted to preservation activities in Latin America and was produced in three languages (Spanish, English and French). It would not have been made
possible without the help of the Regional Centre of Caracas as far as the coordination and the translation into Spanish were concerned. The translation programme undertaken by Caracas is still under way. Several papers have been translated, among which the two brochures by the IFLA Section of Preservation and Conservation on Disaster Preparedness and on Permanent Paper.
It must be reminded that both the Regional Centre in Caracas and Canberra produce a page of regional news with every issue of IPN that is being sent to libraries in their regions. Unfortunately, this example has not been followed by the other Centres.
- Coordination and communication
All the centres were present on the international stage and have strengthened their regional positions at the same time.
The conference "Choosing to Preserve" was organized during the Book Fair in Leipzig by the Regional Centre, in cooperation with the European Commission on Preservation and Access.
In Canberra, the director meets members of the APACA Group (Australian Preservation and Conservation Abroad) every three other months. They aim to coordinate preservation activities within the Pacific region. The dissemination of information relies a lot on the internet in the Oceanian and Pacific region. So Canberra is carrying on the development of its site. The Director attended many international events, especially those dealing with digitization and new carriers. She delivered the key speech at the first "Memory of the World" conference that took place in Oslo last June.
In order to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Regional Centre in Tokyo, a symposium on disasters was hed at the National Diet Library. An inquiry was also conducted on the expectations from the PAC Centre. Responses
indicated that it was expected to work as a liaison office for foreign colleagues. More translations into Japanese were requested too.
The Director of the Regional Centre in Caracas attended the Conference of ACURIL in St Marteen where he also animated a workshop.
Despite drastic budgetary cuts at the Library of Congress, the Centre was represented in two international meetings. It also held a workshop to introduce the public with preservation and to provide advice on how best to
preserve their personal archives and documentary heritage.
- Research
Although it is not a specific PAC activity , the PAC Centre in Tokyo carries on the survey on the pH of recently acquired books. In 1996, the survey dealt with official publications: 42,5 % of the books and 31,6 % of
periodicals are acid. The Centre is now determined to encourage the use of permanent paper.
In Washington, experiments on mass deacidification were carried on; 25 000 documents from the general collections have been deacidified with the Bookkeeper process, which has been adopted by the Library since 1995. Some of the documents are deacidified because they are not on the list of priorities for digitization. The long-term conservation of magnetic tapes and films has been tested in order to prevent the loss of information and
to budget preservation costs. The effects of aqueous deacidification of manuscrits written with Iron gall ink has been studied by the Research and Testing Division of the Library of Congress in collaboration with the Conservation Division.
The Centre in Canberra is collecting information on the techniques of preservation of palm-leaf manuscripts.
As far as Caracas is concerned, the Centre has been involved in the project on the safeguarding of photographic collections launched by the International Centre and took an active part in the organization of a meeting in Rio last November where Latin-American professionals set the ground for a common policy (see No. 4, page 4 and 5).
- Fund raising
For most of the Centres, it is difficult to finance travels and meetings abroad because of lack of funding. Fund raising is time consuming and requires an amount of energy which is not equalled by the results.
I. Projects Under Way at the International Centre
Activities that have been initiated in 1996 will be fulfilled over 1997.
- Organization
- Elaboration of the Medium-Term programme
- Opening of a PAC Centre in Eastern Europe
- Training
JICPA: A French-speaking workshop on Preservation in Africa will be held in Dakar next April. A similar workshop should be held in Arabic later on.
It must be stressed that the following projects (permanent paper, seminars) and the workshop in Arabic cannot be carried out without specific funding.
- Seminars
- A pre-seminar on preservation management should be held in the Hague in August 1998. This project is being developed in cooperation with the European Commission on Preservation and Access at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek.
- Contacts have been taken in Thailand to set the basis for the official IFLA pre-seminar on Conservation (August 1999).
- Publications
- The Principles for the Preservation and Conservation of Library Materials are being thoroughly rewritten. Translations into French, and Spanish are foreseen.
- From 1997 onwards, International Preservation News will be issued three times a year (May, August and December) in a three-language version (English, Spanish, French).
- Raising Awareness
- Permanent Paper
- A leaflet giving the alarm on the printed production of documents on acid paper and the solution through permanent paper will be produced.
- An exhibit introducing public the danger of acid paper and promoting permament paper is being designed. It should be an itinerant exhibit and travel among libraries and city halls throughout France.
- Documentation on PAC
- Leaflets in French, English and Spanish, introducing the PAC programme will be released.
- Posters presenting and promoting PAC at the IFLA conference in Copenhague will be produced.
- Safeguarding of photographic collections
- The resolutions elaborated at the Meeting in Rio last November will be put into practice.
- A CD-Rom of some 3.000 to 5.000 photographies tracing back major social and political events in XIXth century Latin America will be released.
Other initiatives will not be furthered without specific funding.
Since it was created 10 years ago, the influence of PAC has increased gradually. However, much has still to be done especially in some regions such as Eastern Europe, Africa and South West Asia. So far PAC has been dependent on the goodwill and devotion of many colleagues. Efforts must be focused in the following areas: closer cooperation, better dissemination of information through the Internet and a significant increase of translations.
Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff
PAC DIRECTOR
Virginie Kremp
PAC OFFICER
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