Considered
to be one of the best public libraries in the world, not only by the
book lovers of
Goa but also
by experts and librarians from around the world, Krishnadas Shama Goa
State Central Library,
located at Patto-Panjim,
is indeed a great example of the modern face of the age-old
institution. However, along with keeping in pace with the world of
digitisation, the library also seeks to preserve and maintain the old
and rare books in its treasure chest by setting up a one-of-its-kind
in-house book preservation laboratory. One of the very few book
preservation centres in India, the library might probably be the only
public library in our country that has a special in-house lab for
book conservation.
According
to Carlos Fernandes, the curator of the library, the laboratory began
functioning one and a half years ago, after a long period of
preparation during which,
people were trained, conservation labs across India were visited and
all the necessary material was acquired. “These old books that we
have are the treasure of our nation and it’s
our responsibility to preserve them so that even the next generation
has the opportunity to benefit
from them,”
Carlos
opines.
Although the library is making an attempt to digitise all the rare
books, he feels
that it’s
still necessary to preserve the original copies. He adds, “The
pleasure of holding paper in hand is second to none. Preserving the
books
also helps
in preserving the naturality of the document.” Till
now, the
laboratory has successfully conserved around 10,000 pages of books on
different
subjects.
The
process of book conservation is a tedious one. Explaining
it,
Shruti Mandrekar, the in-charge
of the
preservation
laboratory,
says, “The process begins with separating each page of the book
that has to be conserved. Each page is then covered in marinex
sheets, and cleaned and de-acidified in distilled water and lime
water.” Sonali Alornekar, the in-charge
of the fumigation section, continues
with the demonstration.
“Once the pages are clean, the actual process of conservation
starts. Two marinex sheets are placed adjacent to each other on a
blotting paper. A special kind of tissue paper that is imported for
the purpose of preservation is then placed firmly on both the sheets
and a paste of the starch of ‘maida’ is applied onto it. The page
to be preserved is then placed on this tissue paper, and is covered
with the other marinex sheet that also has a tissue paper, thus
encasing the page in two tissue papers. The ‘maida’ paste helps
the tissue paper to
hold on to the
page. A piece of handmade paper is attached to one side of the page
for the purpose of binding. The page is then kept on a terylene cloth
to dry for a whole day. The
marinex sheets
are then
removed and
the dry pages encased in tissue paper are sent for binding once the
process of preserving all the pages of the books is complete,”
explains Sonali.
Shruti
states that if the book is in a relatively good condition, it’s
possible to preserve around 40 to 45 pages per day. But if the pages
are too fragile or torn, the work gets difficult and slower. “Right
now we are just focusing on preserving the books from our library’s
old collection. We
also plan on
starting
the conservation of our
old newspapers and gazettes. The process of
preserving
newspapers is very different from that of books
and we will
be acquiring
special training for that,” she adds.
Carlos
expresses that
the
preservation technique is a risky process and it also comes with
difficulties. “Getting stationery required for the process is very
difficult as we have to import most of it and buy in bulk. Only the
experts can carry out the process as it’s a very delicate and
tedious job;
even a single mistake can cost us a valuable book,” he states. The
library also trains university students who are interested in
learning this technique,
on request. A
unique practice
adopted by the
central library’s preservation lab is
the use of
glass-top tables. “Almost all the other labs we visited used tables
with sunmica tops. It was our idea to use glass-top tables as we
thought it would
give us a uniform
platform to carry out the process,” he maintains.
It’s
safe to say that Goa’s state library has definitely given
the concept of
library
a new face; becoming a place that not just stores books but preserves
them. This is
something more libraries need to do in the
coming future.
