The Use of Vacuum Packing in Australia - Victoria and Albert Museum Página 1 de 2

OCTOBER 1993: NUMBER 9

The Use of Vacuum Packing in Australia

Helen ShentonHead of Paper and Book Group, Conservation Department

Introduction
From the middle of February I was working in Australia for just over three months based in the Preservation Branch of the
State Library of New South Wales in Sydney, funded by an exchange scholarship between the V&A and the Ministry for the
Arts for NSW. In addition to visiting other conservation departments in Sydney, such as the Australian Museum, the
Australian Archives and the Art Gallery of NSW, I also spent time in Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide and Darwin visiting
institutional and private conservation organisations; in all I spent 14 weeks in five cities visiting 19 conservation
organisations. This article focuses on one practical technique which I saw in various forms in different institutions around
Australia.

State Library of New South Wales

The State Library of New South Wales (SLNSW) is divided into two main collections housed
in two very different adjoining buildings. The Mitchell Library is a grand classical building
with a 'strong Rococo flavour', built in phases between 1910 and 1942. It contains collections
such as manuscripts, maps, pictures and Australiana, which tends to be the older material.
The General Reference Library is in a new building completed as part of the Bicentennial
Celebrations in 1988. It comprises about 1.5 million items on all subjects and tends to be the
newer collections.

The burgeoning interest in genealogy following the Bicentenary led to the establishment of a
family history reading room at the library and to the increased use of newspapers as primary
research material. Analysis of reader usage has shown that the social sciences are the most
heavily used area of the library as a whole and specifically that newspapers are the most
consulted material. Given the obvious physical instability of newspapers, there is a policy that
a microfilm copy should be used, if one exists, in preference to the original hard copy. (http://www.vam.ac.uk/imag
-popup.html)
It is being recognised in the library field that new technology can have an incremental impact Fig. 1. Logo of the State Library of
on a collection; if a book or journal is translated into a microform, although one option is to New South Wales, Sydney (click
deaccession the original, this is often not done. Therefore, instead of one unstable, acidic image for larger version)
book or paper object, there is a microform, which itself has a finite life and there is still the
unstable, acidic original. With the next step in technology such as CD-ROM and the
digitisation of words and images, there is an awareness at the SLNSW of the potential preservation implications for at least
three generations of information format.

The half a million newspapers in the SLNSW are in such demand that there can be queues to use the microfilm readers.
Newspapers are notoriously unstable, therefore it is a priority within the library to microfilm them so that all the
information can be accessed. There is a A$257,000 per year programme, overseen by the Preservation Librarian, to
microfilm all newspapers, both current and retrospective. At the current rate of a million pages per year, approximately
70% of the collection of NSW newspapers has been microfilmed. The target is for all NSW newspapers to have been
microfilmed by 2001, which will be a great achievement. But what of the original newspapers, which in line with the
National Plan for Australian Newspapers, have to be retained? Rather than bind them up into books (which is costly, bulky
and often unsuitable for brittle paper) or box them (which does not offer full protection) the SLNSW vacuum packs its
newspapers.

Using a machine from the food industry (used to package, for example, turkeys) bundles of newspapers are put into plastic
bags and the air is extracted. The bags are produced from 80 micron coextruded plastic: 70% linear low density
polyethylene inside to enable sealing at a reasonably low flow temperature, 30% nylon outside to give toughness. The result
is a brick-hard package, which can be easily stored and handled since it affords a lot of protection to the unbound
newspapers. If the original newspaper has to be consulted, (usually for reprographic purposes, when the quality from a
microfilm is inadequate for publication), the seal can be broken and the volume repackaged and resealed afterwards. The
revenue generated from the reprographic work generally offsets the cost of resealing. Documentation incorporated with the
sealed newspapers records when and how often the seal is broken; if more than twice it is referred back to Preservation for
review as to whether a different preservation option is more suitable.

The vacuum packing machine is sited in the stacks of the new library building and is operated by library staff after
instruction from Preservation Branch staff, who keep the machine maintained, bags supplied etc. The particular model at
the SLNSW was noisy, having to be the heavy 'turkey-sized' machine in order to operate effectively on the large size of
broadsheet newspapers. It could be used by two people at a time continuously and underuse at the library compared to
heavy industrial application, was thought to be the cause of mechanical problems. Looking around the stacks, it seemed that
the seal was broken more than the amount of reprographics would suggest, and it appears that the vacuum could break
down if the plastic was creased during the operation or during rough handling.

Whilst the machine is interesting, what was especially interesting at the SLNSW was that it was part of a preservation
strategy for newspapers whose implications ranged across many areas of the library, not just Preservation. Firstly, there was
agreement between all the six State Libraries and the National Library as to collecting policies for current and historic
newspapers, with each state retaining their own newspapers and returning other papers to the state of origin. Secondly the

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money for the microfilming project, which is the driving force behind the vacuum packing programme, is committed
through a library-wide strategy, rather than being a specifically Preservation cost. Thirdly, whilst one of the main canon of
the SLNSW is the accessibility of information, there is a library-wide policy that no-one can consult newspapers in their
original form as long as a microfilm exists (despite the undoubted continued unpopularity of microfilms and the flow of
objections). Fourthly, the process is carried out at a satellite work station in the stacks by non-Preservation staff. Fifthly, the
whole programme was informed by accurate information about what readers were using in the library (this was achieved by
a database project analysing slip returns by Dewey classification).

State Library of Victoria, Melbourne

At the State Library of Victoria (SLIT) in Melbourne, there was a different type of vacuum
packing machine, together with a shrink wrapping machine, used on different material to the
SLNSW and for different reasons. The SLIT is housed in a magnificent 19th century building,
with a glorious, soaring, circular reading room and has all the familiar 'challenges'.of
environment and storage concomitant with inhabiting a listed building which has in many
ways outlived its original function.

When I visited, the SLV was preparing to move parts of its collection, including the rare
books, to a new storage area which would have automated 'cherry-picker' retrieval. In
readiness for the move, in order to protect the largely unconserved books during that
vulnerable time of moving, the Conservation Department was overseeing the vacuum packing
and boxing of many of the rare book collection. The machine here was smaller and quieter,
and again in use in the stacks, but operated by short-term non-library and non-conservation
staff. The bags were made of coextruded Nylon 6 and Surlyn (a modified polyethylene). It was
anticipated that the rare books would remain sealed in the vacuum after the move until a
reader wanted them. Less valuable material was being shrunk wrapped in plastic with a heat
sealer. In this machine, a volume is covered with plastic film and with the application of heat
the plastic shrinks tightly around the book.
(http://www.vam.ac.uk/imag
Shrinkwrapping film is biaxially orientated polyethylene, i.e. it has been stretched in two -popup.html)
directions and therefore stressed so that when it is softened by heating, stresses are relieved Fig. 2. Vacuum packed
newspapers, SLNSW (click image
by shrinkage in those same directions. The resulting pack is not as solid or hard as a vacuum for larger version)
pack, and has the disadvantage that the book is heated during the brief sealing process. For
flimsy material or for volumes with weak edges or corners, boards have to be put either side
to prevent cockling. Shrinkwrapping is cheaper than vacuum packaging and is not used on the rare books at the SLV, rather
for books in the main stacks with loose bindings or loose spines in lieu of tying up with tape.

Applications for the V&A

Such a programme of vacuum packaging as that operated at the SLNSW is obviously of no
use for highly-used material, but is worth contemplating as part of a preservation strategy for
unstable material which has been reformatted but where the original is to be retained. Some
of the National Art Library's periodicals spring to mind, serials and catalogues being one area
of the collection for which there is as yet no workable conservation solution.

Satellite work stations in the stacks for library staff is in line with a perceptible general
movement towards the greater overlap of curator and conservator. Other manifestations of
(http://www.vam.ac.uk/imag
this at other institutions were a result of economic necessity but bore fruit; for example at the
State Library of South Australia in Adelaide, staff reductions meant that conservation staff -popup.html)
Fig.3. Vacuum packing machine.
had to have spells as stack attendants. Leaving aside whether this was the best use of a SLNSW (click image for larger
conservator's time, working at the 'coalface' had the benefit of exposing conservators daily to version)
the realities of handling and storage, and issues were raised and solved. By extension here,
periods of secondment from Conservation to the Collections and the NAL and vice versa
could be mutually beneficial, such as the experiment of a curator from Sculpture Section spending time in the Sculpture
Conservation Studio.

Whilst at the SLNSW I tried using the vacuum packing machine on wet books, thinking that such a machine might be useful
in a flood, as an alternative to freezing as a way of 'buying time'. I tried half a dozen sodden paperbacks and hardback
books; the paperbacks were extremely misshapen as they were packaged, the hard-board bindings less so. The process did
not make any of the shapes worse,,but neither did it improve them. After about six weeks, the seal on one volume had
broken down. When I broke the seals on the others, the books were still wet but there was no mould. When I released the
one whose seal had split, the book stank, although again there was no visible signs of mould. In the UK, Conservation by
Design is marketing a vacuum sealer, from which not only can air be extracted, but other gases can be introduced. Is there
any mileage for the insect pest control project being carried out by Textiles Conservation? Are there other applications apart
from storage and 'disasters'? As the company also leases the machines out, it could be worth hiring one for a short period
and experimenting with it.

I would like to thank the Ministry of the Arts for NSW for funding the scholarship; the Conservation Unit for help towards
additional travel and the staff of the Preservation Department of the SLNSW for their extreme hospitality and generosity
with time, in particular Alan Howell, Preservation Manager.

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