Book culture: New research methods of books’ preservation

The new research methods give the opportunity to “smell” the condition of the print.

The results of the experiment have been published in the article of Analytical Chemistry journal and announced at the ACS Publications publishing house press release.

One of the scientists Matija Strlic confessed that the idea to correlate books’ condition with their smell appeared while he watched the archive workers smell the paper for identifying its quality. He is convinced that “the smell of the old book is familiar to every library’s visitor. This “herbal” smell with the hint of sour and the notes of vanilla above the main musty smell – is the same essential attribute of the book as its content”.

In order to establish the correlation between the books’ smell and their age the scientists examined 72 folios dating back to XIX-XX. Due to the chromatography-mass spectrometry technique scientists identified 15 volatile organic substances with the higher concentration. These substances were compared to the books’ characteristics, which show their state of preservation. Among others the scientists identified such parameters as Lignin/Rosin/Protein content presence and also рН of the paper. Finally they managed to get the data about the correlation between the content of the organic substances and the book’s condition.

The scientists also explained the fact why old books preserved better than those comparatively newly-published. With the development of the paper production technologies the specialists began to use rosin which simplified printing on the sheets. He explained that in the course of time it decomposed and produced sour components which sped up the “aging” process of the book.

Strlic remarked that it was high time to challenge the hard work of creating the supplement that would give a chance to use this methodic in the real-life environment.