LABORATORY IN THE LIBRARY: ARCHIVAL CONSERVATION IN STIRLING UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Available to Purchase

The word “librarian” sums up brilliantly the notion that librarians work in libraries, but is in other respects most uninformative: it tells the world nothing about the myriad activities with which librarians are associated. One of the latest specialised activities is conservation, which means much more than being the “keeper” of our collections. Conservation as currently understood implies taking active steps to prevent the physical deterioration of the collections in our care, and involves bringing in to play the knowledge and skills of the paper and leather chemists. As conservation becomes established as an essential part of librarianship, white‐coated laboratory scientists become part of the library team and management makes contingency plans in case of disasters such as fire or flood. Stirling University Library has responsibility for a number of special collections whose quality and diversity may surprise those who think of the university as one of the smallest in the country. We also have a link with the Leighton Library, Dunblane, whose Trustees look to us for advice on the care and maintenance of the books and manuscripts in their ownership, and it was through this partnership that practical conservation first took hold at Stirling about five years ago. At that time it was the conservation of items produced in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries that was of most concern to us, and we were fortunate in finding to hand Jan Michaels, a Canadian conservation scientist living locally, and more than happy to act as consultant. The British Library was happy too, and provided financial support for the project. The main conservation effort in recent years has however been concentrated on two modern archives held in the university library, the Howietoun Fish Farm Archive and the Grierson (film documentary) Archive, and it is this work, under the title “Conservation of Scottish library materials of national importance” that has attracted most external interest and attention.