FYI: Bob Schnare
Robert E. Schnare
Library Director
Naval War College
686 Cushing Road
Newport, RI 02841
401-841-2641
401-841-6491 fax
-----Original Message-----
From: Western European Studies Section List
[mailto:WESS-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Heleni Pedersoli
Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 7:02 PM
To: WESS-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Fwd: Update on Cologne Archives]
Not sure if you have seen this. Pardon any duplication!
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Update on Cologne Archives
Date: Tue, 19 May 2009 17:38:54 -0400
From: bryan draper <draper1@xxxxxxx> <mailto:draper1@xxxxxxx>
To: library-staff@xxxxxxx
For any one interested is the current state of the recovery effort in Koln.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [ConsDistList] Inst. 22:68
Date: Mon, 18 May 2009 15:53:48 -0700 (PDT)
From: The Conservation DistList <consdistlist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
<mailto:consdistlist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: consdistlist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: consdistlist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Conservation DistList
Instance: 22:68
Monday, May 18, 2009
Today's Subjects
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Historischen Stadtarchivs Koln
collapses--addendum
-----------------------------
Date: 16 May 2009
From: Georgia Iona <georgia_iona [at] hotmail__com>
Subject: Historischen Stadtarchivs Koln collapses--addendum
Collapse of the Historic Archive of the city of Cologne March 3, 20099
The Historic Archive of Cologne was built at the beginning of 1970s and it
was located on Severinstrasse, in the southern part of Cologne's city
centre. The main storage building was designed in such a way to protect
archival material from climate fluctuations creating a structural-physical
balanced room climate. Most of the auxiliary rooms and offices, including
the conservation studio, were situated in an annex adjacent to the main
building. The six-storey building housed the municipal archive of the city.
In total it kept
27 linear kilometres of official and private records, including 65,000
charters, 104,000 maps and architectural plans, 50,000 posters, 800 estates
literary remains and other special collections of significant historical
value. Some of the oldest documents date back to the early Middle Ages.
The Historic Archive of Cologne collapsed on March 3 2009, along with two
neighbouring residential buildings. The building itself can be characterised
as a well-built construction, made of robust materials, such as stone,
concrete and metal, showing no obvious signs of deterioration. A still
on-going investigation as to which was the cause of the collapse primarily
focused on the construction of a new subway tunnel at the site. In
particular the local media made reference to an erroneous extraction of
underground waters from the building pit.
The incident was handled as an emergency situation. Access to the area was
immediately prohibited and an emergency evacuation procedure of the Archive
and the surrounding buildings followed. The scene was soon crowded by
emergency rescue crews. The emergency situation was handled strictly by the
local police in cooperation with the Fire Brigade, German Federal Agency for
Technical Relief (THW), General Health and Hospital Care and the City of
Cologne.
Thanks to the immediate warning, all staff and visitors evacuated the
building within a few minutes. All archive personnel and users have survived
without any injuries being reported. Unfortunately, two young residents of
the adjacent residential buildings that also collapsed were fatally injured.
Victims received counselling and financial support.
Within the next days of the collapse, an evacuation operation of the intact
rooms of building was performed. During this procedure archival material,
office and conservation studio equipment were removed form the intact annex
building. The debris of the collapsed building was covered with a gigantic
plastic cover in order to prevent further inflow of rainwater into the site.
At a later stage the entire area of the incident was housed under a metal
umbrella roof.
The very first dry archival materials that came out from the undamaged
cellars of the archive were packaged into paperboard boxes. Intact parchment
documents and rare books from the Middle Ages were enclosed into metal
containers. Wet and damp archival materials were packed inside waterproof
film and sent for freezing.
At the very first two weeks after the collapse, all excavated materials were
transported into a hall in order to be separated from debris and building
rubble, identified and categorised as dry, moist and wet; in order to be
packed, stored and treated accordingly. From the beginning und until now all
recovered archival materials are deposited into storage rooms from museums,
archives and private warehouses specially rented for this purpose.
As a principle, all wet and mold-contaminated files, books and documents are
packed in stretch film and sent for freeze-drying.
Archival materials contaminated with mold are treated separately, avoiding
any contact with the rest of the documents. The majority of the archival
material, which is moist in most of the occasions, is packed temporarily
into boxes and sent for first-aid treatments to a provisional identification
and conservation hall, located a few kilometres from the site of collapse.
First-aid treatments involve identification and short listing of the
archival material, as well as air dry cleaning and air-drying inside
chambers with uninterrupted air circulation, temperatures between 25-30 deg.
C and 25-33% relative humidity. Drying time varies from 6 to 24 hours,
depending on the condition of the moist documents.
As a last step, archival materials are packed inside numbered acid free
paperboard boxes or folders and sent for temporary storage. The complete
evacuation of the Archive from its actual stock and demolition of any
remaining building parts is expected to be complete within several weeks. To
this date access to the area of the incident is restricted only to the fire
brigade, THW, authorised personnel of the archive and to a limited number of
aid workers that hold a specific permission licence.
The exact degree of damage made to the documents kept in the archive
building is still not known. However, it is believed that a substantial part
of the records has been recovered. Future plans for the recovery and the
rejoining of the disordered archival stock involve the foundation of a
Conservation and Digitalisation Centre, were the damaged books, files and
documents would be digitalised and receive all appropriate conservation
treatments. This scenario implies that conservation for the majority of the
documents will involve preventive and interceptive treatments, aiming to
prevent any further loss of original material. Additionally, objects will be
brought to a state that would enable and secure their further use as sources
of information.
Georgia Iona M.A.
Conservation and restoration of archival material Historisches Archiv der
Stadt Koln Stadthaus Deutz 14 D 60 Willy-Brant-Platz 3 Koln D-50679
Deutschland
+49 160 4174080
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--
Bryan L.W. Draper
Collections Conservator
University of Maryland Libraries
McKeldin Library, Room B0213
College Park, MD 20742
(voice)301-405-9349 (fax)301-314-9971
draper1@xxxxxxx
http://www.lib.umd.edu/TSD/PRES/1Preshp.html
--
Heleni M. Pedersoli
Humanities Services
McKeldin Library
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742-7011
301-405-9116
http://www.geocities.com/buchlieber/Helenis_Page.html
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