Bookkeeping Center
The Center for Book Preservation GmbH (ZFB) in Leipzig emerged as a spin-off from the Center for Book Preservation of the German Library at the beginning of 1998 , which was set up as a restoration workshop in 1964.
The company has grown to become an industry leader in conservation and has advanced conservation techniques . These include a mass deacidification system and freeze-drying systems .
Mass deacidification
Due to the change in the manufacturing processes for paper in the middle of the 19th century, in particular through the use of wood and aluminum-containing glues, acidic papers were produced that self-destruct when they are consumed with acid .
The world's major libraries assume that tens to hundreds of thousands of books in their holdings have either already been destroyed or will soon be so badly attacked that they can no longer be used.
After previous methods had proven to be too time-consuming and only small quantities of books could be processed, the Canadian National Library and the National Archives in Ottawa jointly developed a new method for mass deacidification in 1981 . The Wei-T'o plant in Ottawa was the world's first plant. In 1987 the Bibliothèque nationale de France built another mass deacidification plant in Sablé-sur-Sarthe , the first in Europe to be based on the Canadian process.
The first German system for mass deacidification was built in 1991 in Frankfurt am Main and represented a slight further development of the previous process by the Battelle Institute . A process developed by the Battelle Institute in 1994 was used in a new system in Eschborn , which after the privatization of the institute was transferred to Battelle Ingenieurtechnik GmbH. A similar second mass deacidification system based on the Battelle system went into operation in the competing Zentrum für Bucherhaltung GmbH Leipzig. After Battelle Ingenieurtechnik GmbH went bankrupt, the ZFB also acquired the facility in Eschborn and has been operating it ever since. As a further development of the Battelle system, the ZFB developed the Papersave process, in which, according to the company, approx. 1500 books can be deacidified per cycle (3 days). The books are first gently dried in a large steel cylinder in a vacuum and then exposed to a non-aqueous deacidifying chemical.
The Center for Book Preservation has been offering the ZFB: 2 mass deacidification processes since 2011.
Paper stabilization
Paper that has become brittle through aging is provided with a very thin, but tear-resistant core paper in a paper splitting process. The paper is split with two carrier sheets that are glued on with gelatine . After the gelatine has set, these carrier sheets are pulled apart so that two identical halves of paper are created that adhere to the carrier sheets. After inserting the core paper using glue, which also contains a deacidifying agent, the paper halves are joined together again. The gelatine is then washed out in a warm enzyme bath and the carrier sheets are removed from the stabilized original. As part of the paper stabilization, imperfections can also be closed by mechanical bevelling. Similar to paper production, a fiber suspension is applied to a sieve on which the fibers are arranged and bonded together. The combination of splitting and graining is an excellent method for the restoration of severely damaged papers in old stocks , which is convincing both in terms of aesthetic aspects and in terms of usability.
Paper splitting methods are also suitable for restoring paper that has been damaged by ink corrosion.
Freeze drying
In the event of water damage from a burst water pipe, extinguishing water (e.g. in the event of a fire, fire night on September 2, 2004, Duchess Anna Amalia Library ), flood disasters or the like, the soaking of the written material leads to the bleeding of paints and inks as well as the swelling of the paper and detachment of bindings and covers. In order to keep the damage as low as possible and, above all, to prevent mold infestation, it is necessary to rescue and freeze the affected archives and books immediately .
Temperatures of −20 ° C prevent the risk of mold spores multiplying. The freeze-drying is well suited for gentle drying wasserdurchnässter materials because it prevents the byproduct of a conventional drying. With real freeze drying it is possible to use the water in gaseous form, i.e. H. remove without thawing. By skipping the liquid aggregate state of the water (sublimation) , transport processes and associated further damage can be avoided. Existing damage, however, can only be treated by restoration.
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Coordinates: 51 ° 21 '55.6 " N , 12 ° 27' 4.7" E