[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Dust tests



Reprinted in "The Printer," Vol. 15, # 179, pg. 7, Feb. 2002., pg. 7 [arrived
yesterday]

dateline LONDON (AP)
"England wants its dust to settle"

    ---It's enough to make a butler wince. About half of the 156 libraries in
stately homes run by the National Trust have been instructed not to dust
the books on their shelves for three years, the trust said yesterday.

    Experts believe the trust's collection of 500,000 antiquarian books may
be harmed more by their annual cleaning then by being left untouched.
So they're panning to leave them, then analyze the dust that collects to see
how best to treat it.

    "Dust can corrode the books, but cleaning can also damage them;
their spines are particularly fragile," said Graham Crane, assistant visitor
services manager at 19th-century Dunster Castle, near Minehead in south-
west England.

    "Sticky pads will be placed on the books and every three months some
will be taken out to see how dust accumulates in different parts of the lib-
rary.  That way we hope to find out which parts need cleaning more regularly
and which can be left for longer."

    Until now, cleaners spent tweed weeks a year cleaning the more than
2,000 volumes at Dunster Castle that date to the 18th century.

    Helen Lloyd, the trust's head housekeeper,  said the group is trying to
strike a balance between cleanliness and handling precious objects as little
as possible.

    "By keeping these materials on view all the time, we are allowing every
visitor to see the place as though they were the grandest guest the family
would ever have had," she said.

    Test have shown that National Trust dust is largely made up of fibers shed
by visitors' tweed jackets and wooly sweaters.

    Experiments conducted when many stately homes were closed during
the foot-and-mouth epidemic last year confirmed that visitors cause most of
the dust.

    Early tests indicate French tourists contribute the most dust, then Ameri-
cans and Germans come in second and third place, respectively.  Japanese
tourists contribute the least amount of dust. National Trust have considered
recycling the dust fibers into mittens and caps for sale in the gift shops at
the stately homes.

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>