With the jetlag a distant memory (along with all the Italian chocolates), the lessons learned during the recent IIC Congress in Turin, “Preventive Conservation: The State of the Art”, are starting to come into more of a perspective and, for myself, seem to center around three main ideas: the importance of documenting our work, the importance of continuing to share our work, and the excitement such work brings, from the application of new technologies to the job satisfaction that comes from contributing to the preservation of the world’s cultural heritage.
Documentation
One of the questions that came up was what does the digital revolution mean for preventive conservation? In Helen Lindsay’s talk, “Evidencing the case for preventive conservation: the role of collections care documentation”, she answered this by showing how technology can improve documentation of our current work, which subsequently provides a critical framework for future preservation planning.
Despite the numerous benefits (providing data for funding and risk assessments, preserving institutional knowledge, and helping demonstrate impact), there are a number of preventive activities that are frequently performed without associated documentation, including disaster incident reporting, cleaning collections, and assessments for on-site display. She proposed strategies- including developing software that could incorporate a wider range of information on collections- that would work towards overcoming the hurdles to documentation of these activities. With better data on the risks that face our collections and how we have responded to them, when we then analyze the data, it can demonstrate the value of what we do and inform action plans for the future.
Nancy Bell’s talk, “Evidence for informed preservation planning and advocacy: a synoptic view”, echoed this view that the future is in data collection and analysis, and added that the application of the data needs to be towards clear goals rather than as a never-ending process; while preventive activities may be on-going, the individual steps within must remain discrete if we are to reflect on their effectiveness and convey a sense of progress.
Charlotte Martin de Fonjaudran presented on the work being done to do just this for particulate matter in the Palace of Westminster. She and her partners are furthering image processing capabilities to measure dust accumulation, but note that the same technology can be useful for monitoring micro-losses, color change, salts, and biodeterioration on a variety of collection materials. Joel Taylor also noted in his talk for GCI how photography can inform surface phenomenon, deformation, and brittle cracking. As I write this from the home of Kodak in Rochester, NY, it is good to hear the role that photography will play on the future of documentation.
Publication
It’s a rare treat to have 450 people talking about all things preventive conservation for five days. In fact, while other conferences have addressed preventive conservation in the intervening years, the last occasion where IIC focused on the topic was in Ottawa 24 years ago, which leads to the question of how much has changed in the intervening years? We still struggle with some of the same questions about damage thresholds and setting parameters of temperature and RH for different materials. We still discuss monitoring pollutants, particularly for those materials on display. And we’re still interested in modeling risks so that we can best direct our resources. Like the deterioration we manage, sometimes change is small but it builds and, with each new case study, we are learning more. Learning more about the effectiveness of different techniques, about how to apply new technologies to challenges, and about how we think about our profession.
Sharing what we learn through publications is essential. With nearly whole careers occurring between milestone thematic conferences, publishing our findings becomes all the more important. As Matteo Rossi-Doria demonstrated in his and Michalski’s paper “Overcoming obstacles to preventive conservation projects in Italy: the case of the Savoy Carriage Collection of the Presidency of the Republic”, this has not always been an area of success for our field, and it is one we can address as members of AIC. In a survey of ICOM-CC papers published by 20 countries, the US tied for 12th in the percentage of papers about preventive conservation; this number is considerably lower when adjusted based on the size of the national economy.
By my rough estimates looking at JAIC from 1997-2005, we’re doing better in this forum. The average year saw approximately 13% of papers published focused on preventive conservation, excluding three years with issues dedicated exclusively to this topic. In the past five years, the percentages have been even higher, and have already included special issues devoted entirely to preventive conservation as well. Lower U.S. contributions to ICOM-CC publications seem to have less to do with the number of preventive projects we do and more about needing to increase our efforts in ensuring our preventive projects are presented to the international community as well as within our national organizations.
Looking forward
Preventive conservation is an exciting field to be in, as new adaptations and discoveries are made as technology advances. David Thickett pointed out in “Frontiers of preventive conservation” that new pollutants are still being found, any of which could account for observed differences in pollution effects. Kate Frame discussed the use of Smart Tint, a liquid crystal film, which allows for a clear view out a window when the electricity is on, but turns opaque to mitigate light damage from outside when no one is present.
As an early-career professional, it was interesting to note how many attendees at the conference were emerging professionals. It is easy to see why so many would be attracted to the specialty- Michalski’s opening talk highlighted how high job satisfaction is among those in preventive conservation and conservation science fields compared to the job market as a whole. Belief in the essence and authenticity of objects, and the value in contributing to preserving them for future generations, leads many preservation professionals to a feeling that we are making a meaningful contribution to the world: as he stated, we “help humanity to keep its spirits”.
The conference preprints are now available for purchase at: http://www.archetype.co.uk/publication-details.php?id=274. Hopefully the next IIC preventive conservation-focused conference will be in less than 24 years, and in the meanwhile we can keep documenting and sharing our work, which, however it may change with new technologies, will continue to offer us satisfaction in the quest to maintain humanity’s spirits.