The Library continued to play a leadership role in the preservation of materials in a variety of formats such as books, films, sound recordings, photographs and items "born digital." The Library also played an outreach role in the preservation of the nation's heritage through several oral history projects.
Left, senior rare book conservator Lynn Kidder sews a book signature on a sewing frame; right, conservator Kaare Chaffee conserves an item from the Herblock cartoon collection. - Marita Clance
In 2004 the Preservation Directorate completed more than 10 million assessments, treatments, rehousings, and reformattings for books, codices, manuscripts, maps, cartoons, political posters, palm leaves, architectural drawings, photographs, newspapers, discs, film, magnetic tapes and artifacts. A total of 4,132,284 items were repaired, mass deacidified or microfilmed at a total cost of $18,367,801. The average cost per item was $4.44, representing a decrease of $2.05 per item over 2003.
The Library took action to preserve its collections by:
- Deacidifying 299,064 books and 1,219,500 sheets of paper as part of the Thirty Year (One Generation) Mass Deacidification Plan to stabilize more than 30 million general collection books and manuscripts in 30 years. To date the Library has deacidified 1 million bound volumes and more than 2 million sheets of manuscript materials.
- Using a single-sheet treatment cylinder onsite at the Library to deacidify non-book, paper-based materials that were too valuable to be transported to the mass deacidification vendor plant near Pittsburgh.
- Providing conventional or highly customized preservation treatments for 289,401 general and special collection books, manuscripts, drawings, prints and photographs.
- Rehousing 630,269 documents, photographs, discs, film and magnetic tape reels and cassettes.
- Assessing 4,103,419 photographs, paper and other collection material for future preservation needs.
- Converting 4,111,415 documents, newspaper pages and motion picture reels to microfilm and digital format.
- Stabilizing 31,663 items to allow scanning and mounting on the Library's Web site.
- Treating 1,372 items and matting 562 items for display in Library exhibitions.
- Treating 16,024 bound newspaper pages using a new technology for paper strengthening.
- Preservation microfilming of 4 million pages with 2.3 million exposures.
- Working in partnership with other organizations to develop a National Digital Information and Infrastructure Preservation Program to sort, acquire, describe and preserve electronic materials.
Left, senior paper conservator Heather Wanser examines a document under a microscope; right, a conservator removes laminate from a manuscript. - Marita Clance
