Protocols regarding food and drink in rare book collections

[mjanan@acpub.duke.edu (Micaela Janan)]

Dear subscribers to the Ex Libris list,

I am new to this list, and am neither a trained conservator nor a
librarian, but for that very reason would like to pose a question to you
all, who command more expertise than myself in these areas.  I am an
associate professor in classical studies, and was this year appointed to
our Library Council, an advisory body to the head of the library here at
Duke University.

For a few years (ever since Terry Sanford was president of Duke), it has
been the policy in Duke's Perkins Library to make the Rare Book Room
available for dinner parties, receptions, and the like where food and drink
are served.  I find this policy alarming, since it seems to bring into the
immediate environment of the rare books and manuscripts Perkins has
collected over the years food and drink that will attract vermin, vermin
who will then destroy the collection.  Moreover, a crowd of people and
tables of steaming food seem to threaten the maintenance of proper humidity
and temperature necessary to preserve our rarities.

When I have voiced my concerns to the head of the rare books collection, he
has replied that:

1) the room in which such meals are served is carefully cleaned after each
such event

2) traps set for vermin have caught none (and so, he surmises, none are in
the collection)

3) the machines that measure temperature and humidity over time have
recorded no excesses of either

4) the books are shut away in glass cases, and so food and drink and
humidity introduced by such events cannot harm them, because the books
cannot be touched directly by comestibles or steam

I find this counter-intuitive, and so am skeptical, but perhaps this is
because I am simply not trained in conservation.

So, I throw these out as questions to the list:

1) am I correct to be alarmed over these practices?

2) if I am, are there sources in print or on the Web--preferably sources
that could boast formidable credentials--that would substantiate my
opposition?

3) what are the policies regarding food and drink in the rare books and
manuscripts collections in your respective institutions?


Any help that you can offer me would be welcomed gratefully.


Regards,

Micaela Janan



Micaela Janan
Director of Graduate Studies
Department of Classical Studies
Duke University
Durham, NC 27708-0103