Re: Protocols regarding food and drink in rare book collections

[Jeffrey.Kaimowitz@mail.cc.trincoll.edu (Jeffrey Kaimowitz)]

Dear Micaela Janan,

       1. Your concerns about temperature/humidity I think are unfounded.
The possibly small difference that hot food could have on a collection of
books in cases is completely negligible.  Indeed, most of the books in the
cases, I assume, are pre-19th c. when paper was generally of much higher
quality.  A little heat from a steam table would make no difference.
Infinitely more important is the overall quality of the special
collection's HVAC system.

        2. A bit more substantive is your concern about vermin.  But even
here one must not go overboard.  I assume you have a very professional
group of people running the Duke Special Collections.  I am also sure they
are as concerned about vermin as you are.  After all, they are the ones
responsible for the collection and the ones who will pay the price for
incompetence. Yes, no food in special collections, under ideal conditions,
would be best, but there are other issues, like donor and public relations.
Special collections can have an important part to play in these areas, and
so a very limited compromise has to be made.

        3. As a special collections professional, I would resent someone
who is not a specialist coming in and raising a ruckus when there is really
not a problem.  Would you want someone in special collections with a
classics background (like myself by the way--ask your colleague John
Younger) telling you how to run your classes?  The people in Duke's special
collections are professionals.  Let them do their job.

Jeff Kaimowitz



>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

Jeffrey H. Kaimowitz
Curator
The Watkinson Library
& The Enders Ornithology Collection
Trinity College
Hartford, CT 06106
(860) 297-2266
jeffrey.kaimowitz@mail.trincoll.edu