Workshop

The Conservation Workshop is located on level 4 of the National Library of Scotland building on George IV Bridge. Nestled deep within the building, it is situated several floors below the Library's main entrance, overlooking the Cowgate. Vital work is carried out there to protect the Library's most vulnerable collections.

Refurbished in 2015, the studio was set-up in the mid-1980s, when attitudes towards preservation began to change throughout the cultural heritage sector.

The Conservation Unit at the National Library of Scotland evolved into a separate department when the focus of the profession shifted from restoration to conservation. It replaced the previous restoration workshop, located in one of the Court buildings and accessed via a bridging corridor linking the two institutions.

Although remedial treatment is still carried out, today the emphasis is on preserving original materials as a means of protecting historical bibliographic evidence. Informed by scientific and historical analysis, contemporary conservators describe this approach as 'minimal intervention'.

During the 1960s, '70s and '80s the Library employed traditional bookbinders and took on several apprentices, many of who went on to achieve City and Guilds qualifications in library conservation. Nowadays, the majority of conservators develop their skills and knowledge by completing a postgraduate degree at university.

The Library's former bindery at Sighthill employed skilled craftspeople to create first time bindings, at one time employing almost 30 individuals. In its heyday, the bindery produced more than 5,000 first time bindings, mostly for new monographs and serials from the rapidly expanding Science collections.

With the dawn of the digital era, however, the need for first time bindings diminished significantly. The Sighthill bindery continued to operate until 2002, when a decision was made to concentrate on the provision of archival quality boxes and enclosures. This marked the establishment of the Preservation Services Unit (PSU). Together, the Conservation Unit and the Preservation Services Unit form the Collections Care team.

Contemporary conservators facilitate access to the collections by ensuring that damage and degradation are kept to a minimum.

Our goal is to protect and preserve the Library's collections in perpetuity. To achieve this we assess, identify, stabilise, repair, rehouse (and occasionally rebind) a range of historic and contemporary items.

The Conservation Workshop is staffed by a team of experienced and highly qualified conservators and technicians. The Collections Care team, which is part of the Collections Management division, includes five permanent book and paper conservators, a preventive conservator, an exhibitions officer, a project conservator, a project technician and an externally funded intern. The team also includes our Registrar, Collections Audit Officer, and preservation assistants.

The preservation assistants are responsible for making archival-quality boxes and folders. This work is important, because the provision of adequate housing helps to protect and preserve the collections from damage and decay.

As well as fulfilling orders for standard Library enclosures, they also make acid-free packaging for external clients for a small fee. If you are interested in learning more about this service, please get in touch with the Preservation Services Manager at preservationservices@nls.uk.

To minimise the risk of loss or misplacement, our Collections Audit Officer carries out a program of tracking and stock-checking. He works closely with the curators and cataloguers – you could say he's the Sherlock Holmes of the Library!

Our Registrar organises the administration and insurance of the Library's outgoing and incoming loans. Provided that the relevant safety and security thresholds are met, we lend items to other organisations on a local and an international basis.

Our Exhibitions Officer is responsible for the preparation and installation of exhibition and loan material, a job that includes the manufacture of bespoke picture frames, book cradles and lecterns.

The work of the conservators is quite varied. Mainly, we undertake remedial treatments on Library collections to strengthen them and make them safe for handling and consultation. Additionally, treatments are carried out to stabilise vulnerable items to facilitate the digitisation process, and to prepare material for exhibition or loan.

The conservators also carry out condition assessment surveys and train Library staff to ensure that material is handled safely. Similarly, we train staff and volunteers from other organisations and provide advice to the public on how to look after the collections. In addition, we plan for and deal with disasters, such as minor floods or instances of water ingress.

Our Preventive Conservator works alongside our Estates department to monitor the environment within the storage areas, ensuring that they are suitable for the collections.

The Preventive Conservator also investigates any instances of mould or insect infestation, and considers the impact of light exposure on the collections. Her goal is to maintain a pest-free, stable environment within the storage areas and reading rooms.

We also have an externally funded postgraduate intern, who is working with us for a year. Generally, our interns carry out a focused piece of research, complete a number of projects and assist us with the delivery of staff training and outreach work.

Times change and conservation methods are no exception. The Conservation Workshop was renovated in 2015, to improve our use of the space, and to update the fixtures, fittings and equipment in line with contemporary best practice.

The workshop contains a mixture of modern and traditional equipment. Although new technology has enhanced our understanding of the materials that we look after, much of our work is dependent on traditional tools.

For example, we use bookbinder's sewing frames and have numerous nipping and finishing presses. These are used to reassemble text blocks and repair damaged books. Unlike modern paperbacks, which are held together with synthetic glue, the sections of a traditional book are sewn together by hand over cord or tape supports.

At the other end of the technology scale, we also have a state-of-the-art digital stereo microscope.

This allows us to examine collection items in minute detail, helping us to identify pests, paper fibres and media particles. It was purchased following a generous donation from one of the Library's charitable benefactors.

The Conservation Workshop is also home to our 3-in-1 ultrasonic humidity chamber, which doubles as a large sink and a low pressure suction table. Because of the clear dome and the person-like dimensions, one of the curators jokingly nicknamed it 'Sleeping Beauty's Bed'. However, only inanimate collections are placed into the chamber: we don't allow any people to lie in there!

Its true purpose is to revive maps, posters and other paper-based documents, as the humidity function enables wrinkled and rolled up documents to be gently relaxed, before being carefully flattened out under weighted boards between layers of absorbent blotting paper. The sink can be used to wash, and remove harmful acidity, from maps and posters. The low pressure table can be used to treat parchment and paper documents, mitigating the risk of discolouration tidelines and helping to keep the documents in place.