Records are considered as cultural heritage of a nation and mankind. We are obliged to preserve them well to effectively make them available to whole mankind. And also, it is very important to preserve records as it improves efficiency of national adm...
Records are considered as cultural heritage of a nation and mankind. We are obliged to preserve them well to effectively make them available to whole mankind. And also, it is very important to preserve records as it improves efficiency of national administration and enables to preserve history and to study it, to preserve them safely.
For preservation of records, role allocation has been allocated and preservation facilities have been specialized, with the establishment of Government Archives and Records Service in 1969, which is called National Archives of Korea, as a start, and with the expansion to 4 storage facilities, opening Nara Repository, Daejeon Main Repository and History Repository in 2008 and Daejeon Repository in 2013. Preservation facility is being specialized. In addition, it is very important to figure out any pernicious ingredients which may cause damage to records for preservation of them. The National Central Library conducted analysis of paper data per period for a study for scientific restoration and preservation of paper data. As a result of pH analysis of representative kinds among the data published from 1910’s to 2000’s, all the data before 1990’s were found to be acidic. Therefore, it is necessary to study the ingredients that cause acidification. (The National Central Library) And also, in fact, the study of pernicious ingredients in the air that cause deterioration of records is insufficient yet in our country.
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) among pernicious ingredients in the air causes damage to exhibits in a variety of aspect and brings about obvious discoloration of pigments in the paper or clothing, acting as nitric acid together with moisture. In Korea, it is stipulated in an enforcement ordinance of Public Records Management Act that nitrogen dioxide should be maintained at 50 ppb or below in archives management institutions. However, the regulation is a lower standard than ISO 11799 standard of not higher than 5∼10 ppb. It is because the regulation adapts indoor environment standard rather than records preservation standard that relaxed standard is used in Korea.
As a result of measuring environment of 3 interim preservation of archive, where records are preserved for a limited time, and 4 permanent preservation of archive, the temperatures in all the 3 interim preservation of archive exceeded standard temperature. The humidity in 2 interim preservation of archive exceeded standard humidity. As a result of measuring NOx concentration, it did not exceed 50 ppb, the standard in Public Records Management Act, but exceeded the ISO standard, 10 ppb, in 3 interim preservation of archive and 1 permanent preservation of archive. It is necessary to secure scientific data about the effect of nitrogen dioxide gas on papers for preservation of papers such as paper cultural assets and records, etc.
In this research, therefore, we selected representative papers among from traditional Korean papers of the past to modern papers and conducted exposure assessment according to concentration of nitrogen dioxide gas and analyzed the change characteristics in optical, physical and chemical aspects according to exposure to gas and when temperature and humidity were not maintained.
As papers were being exposed to nitrogen dioxide gas, NO3-ion was deposited onto paper samples. We studied the relation between NO3 and degree of deterioration in this research.
As for all the kinds of paper, NO3- increase magnification was the highest in comparison to NO3- blank at temperature: 30 ℃ and relative humidity: 75%, and the next was at temperature: 30 ℃ and relative humidity: 50%.
We think that high concentration of contaminants and high temperature and humidity in the preservation environment of records affect more on the damage on records. We think that the results of this study can be the basis in establishing public records management standard in our country with optimum (concentration, temperature and humidity) standard for preserving public records rather than with indoor environment standard.