Alchemists of British Library preserve heritage

By Robert Woodward

LONDON (Reuters) - Bending over a mediaeval parchment, the curator carefully applies her "butterfly stitch" of minute strips of tissue to a rip in the age-browned paper.

The adhesive dabbed on the tissue is made from the bladder of a sturgeon, one of the centuries-old techniques used by the alchemists of the British Library to restore its ancient books.

The library welcomes about 4,000 visitors a day to its reading rooms and many of its 13 million books require remedial treatment because of wear and tear, age and vandalism.

For the first time, the library's 50 conservators have been brought together under one roof and its conservation centre is now open to the public once a week.

In a large air-conditioned room, where uninterrupted daylight falls on every bench, conservation methods as old as mediaeval binding and as modern as laser technology are used to protect a collection built up over 250 years.

Of overriding importance is maintaining, and sometimes restoring, the integrity of the books, photographs, stamps and sound recordings and preserving their aesthetic value, says Vicki Humphrey, the head of conservation at the library.

"We are custodians, keeping the collections in perpetuity for the British nation and the world," she says. "We have to decide what to leave and what to remove."

One copy of every publication produced in Britain must be deposited at the library which moved to a new central London home next to St Pancras station in 1997. The main reading room of the British Library used to be located in the British Museum and was used over the years by Karl Marx, Gandhi and Lenin.