282 American Archivist / Vol. 53 / Spring 1990

• International Scene MARJORIE BARRITT and NANCY BARTLETT, editors Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/53/2/282/2747939/aarc_53_2_26824l5408112w76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021

The Preservation of Books and Manuscripts in

JOHN F. DEAN

Abstract: In April of 1989 Cornell University, with the support of the Christopher Rey- nolds Foundation, began a modest program to preserve scarce and unique library and archival materials in Cambodia. Cornell's involvement was an extension of the university's research and teaching activities in Southeast Asia including Cambodia. Preservation efforts are needed because of the devastation and neglect of collections resulting from decades of war. During the three-week project, the author surveyed the collections, trained staff in a variety of basic preservation techniques, assisted in the identification of preservation priorities, made arrangements for the shipment of conservation supplies, and developed plans for the establishment of a microfilm operation. Through the combined efforts of the Christopher Reynolds Foundation, Luce Foundation, and Cornell University, these pres- ervation/conservation initiatives are continuing. In the fall of 1989 Cornell began a project to film on location important materials in .

About the author: John Dean is conservation librarian at Cornell University. He has been involved in preservation/conservation for thirty-nine years as a conservator, teacher, and administrator, holding previous leadership positions at Johns Hopkins University, Newberry Library, and Man- chester Public Libraries (England). Dean has written extensively on preservation. Preservation in Cambodia 283

IN APRIL OF 1989 Cornell University, with Rouge leader, Pol Pot, declared the Re- the support of the Christopher Reynolds public of , and with Foundation, began a modest program to the support of the Peoples Republic of preserve scarce and unique library and ar- China, proclaimed the Kampuchean Com- chive materials in Cambodia. The preser- munist Party the governing body. vation efforts are needed because of the utter The systematically began Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/53/2/282/2747939/aarc_53_2_26824l5408112w76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 devastation of collections in Cambodia re- to destroy all vestiges of the former "cor- sulting from decades of war, destruction rupt" culture, forcibly evacuating the cap- and neglect, and Cornell's involvement is ital, Phnom Penh, and directing the a natural extension of continuing activities population in massive and ineffectual ag- at the University. ricultural schemes. By some estimates, more than three million people died from ill Cambodia/Kampuchea treatment and starvation, while most of the educated and middle classes were exter- Cambodia is quite a small country, cov- minated as "enemies of the people." In ering an area of less than seventy thousand 1979 the Vietnamese army invaded, forc- square miles, but its location, bordering ing the Khmer Rouge into remote regions , , and , has involved of the country and installing the current Hun it in war and internal strife for hundreds of Sen government. In September 1989 the years. Khmer civilization and culture is rich last remnants of the Vietnamese army with- and diverse. From the early Christian era drew. Earlier in the year as a preliminary to the eighth century A.D., the Hindu- to the Paris peace talks, Hun Sen restored Buddhist kingdoms of and Chenla dominated, with Chenla achieving com- plete sovereignty until the ninth century when the Angkorean period began under Jayavarman II, a classical period lasting from 802 to 1432. Over the next four hundred years, Khmer rulers were involved in con- tinuing wars with Vietnam and Siam, often becoming vassals of one or the other states. The four centuries of strife abated in 1864 with the establishment of a French Protec- torate that lasted until the end of World War II. During World War II, the Vichy government was maintained by the Japa- nese occupation. In 1941, the French in- stalled Prince , and Cambodia continued as an autonomous state within the French Union until indepen- dence in 1953. Sihanouk's rule ended in 1970 when he was deposed by General Lon Nol. During the early 1970s massive and apparently indiscriminate American bomb- ing coupled with widespread corruption caused general disaffection with Lon Nol's Book storage at the National Library of Cam- government, and in 1975 the Khmer Rouge bodia. Note the palm leaf manuscripts in the took over the country. In 1976 the Khmer foreground. 284 American Archivist / Spring 1990

the name Cambodia and the national reli- Cambodia, the Echols Collection assumes gion of . an even greater importance as the guardian At present, because of the taint of Viet- of much of that country's national bibli- namese collaboration, Western nations have ography. not established diplomatic ties and the United Through the university's connections with Nations has not conferred recognition; thus, former graduates working for nongovern- Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/53/2/282/2747939/aarc_53_2_26824l5408112w76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 Cambodia is languishing on the edge of mental agencies in Cambodia, the Echols' survival while fighting a rearguard action curator, John Badgley, began the lengthy against the Khmer Rouge guerrillas. process of negotiating with the Cambodian Ministry of Education and Ministry of Cul- Cornell University's Cambodian ture to establish a formal Cornell program Connection for collection development and preserva- tion. After three years, Eva Mysliwiec Cornell University has provided strong (Cornell graduate and field director of the support to research and teaching in all as- Partnership for Development in Kampu- pects of Southeast Asian studies for many chea, a consortium of nongovernment years. Currently seventeen full-time faculty agencies), was able to obtain permission in the College of Arts and Science and the for a Cornell graduate student, Judy Ledg- College of Agriculture and Life Sciences erwood, to visit in the late summer of 1988. are involved in an interdisciplinary pro- Miss Ledgerwood was able to provide some gram of teaching and research on the his- assessment of immediate needs in the Na- tory and culture of the region extending from tional Library, deliver two microfilm read- Burma to the Philippines. Within the cur- ers as a gift from Cornell, and help rent academic year, fifty-seven courses strengthen Cornell relations with Cambo- specifically concerned with Southeast Asia dian officials. Since both Eva Mysliwiec are offered, while an additional twenty-three and Judy Ledgerwood are fluent in the courses dealing extensively with Southeast , they made considerable Asia are offered in a broad range of de- progress, including arrangements for Cor- partments. Southeast Asian languages taught nell to receive Cambodian periodicals and at Cornell include Burmese, Cebuano (Bi- newspapers on a regular basis. sayan), Indonesian, Javanese, Tagalog, In September 1988 Miss Ledgerwood Thai, Vietnamese, and Khmer. The strength presented a paper to the Second Interna- of these programs has provided Cornell with tional Conference on Cambodia held in a network of scholars, many of them Cor- Washington, D.C., in which she described nell graduates, throughout Southeast Asia. appalling conditions in Cambodia's librar- The library and archives collections built ies and archives.1 It was clear that no im- to support the Southeast Asian program at provements had been made since the Cornell are concentrated in the John M. previous year's report by Helen Jarvis, an Echols Collection and in extensive hold- Australian librarian.2 Based on the Jarvis ings in the Department of Manuscripts and University Archives, both at the Olin Li- brary. The Echols Collection, generally re- 'Judy Ledgerwood, "Worldwide Efforts to Pre- serve Khmer Language Materials" (Paper presented garded as one of the foremost collections to the Second International Conference on Cambodia, of materials on all aspects of Southeast Asia, Washington, DC, 30 September 1988). has the largest collection of Cambodian 2Helen Jarvis, "A Visit to Kampuchea, 9th to 23rd July 1987: A Report," Southeast Asian Research Group materials in the world. Given the deliberate Newsletter (Australian National University) 35: 43- destruction of libraries and archives in 48. Preservation in Cambodia 285

and Ledgerwood reports, a short conser- erwood to act as my interpreter and facili- vation training and survey visit was pro- tator. posed by Cornell University Library to the Christopher Reynolds Foundation. Cam- Phnom Penh bodian officials, aware of the general na- ture of the problems, had repeatedly The flight from Syracuse to Phnom Penh Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/53/2/282/2747939/aarc_53_2_26824l5408112w76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 requested a visit by a trained conservator. involved plane changes at Newark, San The proposal outlined a strategy to train Francisco, Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Ho staff to stabilize endangered materials, to Chi Minh City (Vietnam), with an over- assess more fully conservation needs for night stay at Bangkok. Two Cornell alumni future action, and to evaluate the feasibility and former Echols staff, Rattikul Oey and of establishing a microfilming operation. Anucha Chansuriya, met us at the Bangkok With an award of $9,800 from the Chris- airport and delivered us to our hotel. Dur- topher Reynolds Foundation, $6,000 worth ing the two hours of frustrating visa ne- of supplies was dispatched and arrange- gotiations at Tan Son Nhut airport (Ho Chi ments made for my three-week visit. Thanks Minh City) prior to our Air Kampuchea to funding from the Luce Foundation, John flight to Phnom Penh, I realized the im- Badgley and Judy Ledgerwood accom- portance of Judy's great patience and her panied me: Badgley to help develop and fluency in Khmer, qualities I was to value consolidate arrangements for microfilming even more as the visit progressed. Cam- in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Burma; Ledg- bodia is a difficult country for Westerners to visit, and visas are complicated and hard to obtain. Moreover, travel to Cambodia is discouraged by the United States govern- ment, and no Western nation maintains diplomatic relations with what the United States refers to as an illegally installed gov- ernment. I was again grateful to Cornell's network of scholars, as Eva Mysliwiec ex- pedited our passage through the Cambo- dian customs and drove us in her agency Land Rover to our hotel, the Monorom in Phnom Penh. My first impressions of Phnom Penh were of an elegantly laid-out city with wide streets and boulevards, very much in the French colonial style although many of the buildings and roads were in poor con- dition, and the streets were filled with peo- ple sweeping and cleaning in preparation for the New Year celebrations. The hotel, one of three set aside for foreigners, was clean and my room tidy though sparsely furnished. Most of the guests were mem- bers of various nongovernment agencies, Unprocessed books rescued from the streets such as Oxfam, involved in volunteer three- by Cambodia citizens following the Khmer Rouge year stints to help the Cambodians rebuild destruction of the library collections. some of their basic systems (e.g., sanita- 286 American Archivist / Spring 1990

tion, water, irrigation). Most were Austra- ment officials at the Ministry of Culture, lian and British midcareer professionals while I fumed inwardly in frustration at my prepared to work in difficult conditions for inability to get to grips with the collections. bare subsistence salaries, tangible evidence There were also difficulties in tracing the that altruism is still alive. Members of the consignment of conservation supplies Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/53/2/282/2747939/aarc_53_2_26824l5408112w76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 International Red Cross seemed mainly to shipped months earlier, and in locating any be French and Swiss, while the staff of kind of suitable equipment and tools. These UNICEF, the only United Nations agency petty irritations were placed in perspective, permitted to work in Cambodia, came from however, when I visited a temple in the a variety of nations. Another, rather gran- country outside the city where the skulls of der hotel, the Samaki, housed the UNICEF five hundred victims of the Khmer Rouge and some other agency offices, as well as were piled, and was taken to the infamous being the residence of agency personnel with Tuol Sleng interrogation center. families. Tuol Sleng, now the Museum of Geno- After the chill of central New York, the cide, is a former high school wherein the heat and humidity seemed crushing. Our teenagers of the Khmer Rouge tortured to visit was towards the close of the dry sea- death some thirty-five thousand men, son, just before the onset of the hot, wet women, and children. Numbed by the in- monsoon that would last from May to Oc- comprehensibility of it all, I sorted through tober, causing temperatures to soar above six thousand photographs of victims, my 100°F, with relative humidity in the nine- tears no doubt greatly exacerbating the mold ties. My first walk in the dank, mildewy damage to the Fuji safety film negatives. dawn disclosed rapidly gathering crowds of The archives, mainly handwritten and typed gaily dressed people preparing for some of confessions, are stacked in flat folders in the traditional religious ceremonies of the glass-fronted cabinets. There are approxi- New Year. Buddhist monks in their saffron mately ninety-five thousand documents in robes presided stoically over the long plank generally sound condition, with remarka- tables filling with gifts of growing moun- bly little insect damage, doubtless due to tains of rice. The Khmer are graceful, at- the presence of mothballs in the cabinets. tractive people with beautiful children, As in all the buildings housing collections goggle-eyed at the clumsy pale foreigners. I was to visit, air circulates by way of un- Because of the sizable Russian presence in glassed, unscreened windows—through Phnom Penh, we were assumed to be "So- which insects, birds, and bats also freely viets" and it was a great crowd-gathering pass. Several studies have demonstrated the wonder when Judy responded to these vital importance of free air circulation in whispered rumors in Khmer. On this first the prevention of mold growth, often de- day in the city, I was struck by the smiling spite high temperatures and humidity.3 The friendliness of the people and, knowing of only severe mold damage I noted in Cam- the almost incredible hardships they have bodia was in the photographic negatives endured, marveled at their strength and re- housed in steel filing cabinets at Tuol Sleng, silience. Later the three of us walked the warm dark streets from a Khmer restaurant on the , the darkness scented by 3Mary Wood Lee, Preservation and Treatment of the thousands of small cooking fires that Mold in Library Collections with an Emphasis on provided the only illumination amid the Tropical Climates: A RAMP Study (Paris: UNESCO, rushing bicycles and cyclos. 1988). This excellent study by a paper conservator addresses some of the fundamental principles of mold Over the next few days we were in- prevention in tropical climates and has some valuable volved in rounds of meetings with govern- caveats concerning the use of fumigants. Preservation in Cambodia 287 Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/53/2/282/2747939/aarc_53_2_26824l5408112w76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021

A section of the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide showing some of the thousands of confessions made under torture.

and in the palm leaf manuscripts housed at tion. The palm leaf manuscripts are se- the Royal Palace. verely damaged by insects and mold. The Royal Palace, now a museum, is Palm leaf manuscripts are made from really a series of magnificent structures. The mature palm leaves approximately forty- famous Silver Pagoda and its neighboring eight-by-four-centimeters. The writing is terrace were formerly used for perform- sometimes applied directly to the leaf, but ances of classical Cambodian dance. (The more often the characters are incised with dancers and their teachers were "deca- a point and a mixture of lampblack and oil dent," thus exterminated by the Khmer is rubbed into the engraving. The bundles Rouge. A few days after my palace visit, of leaves are bound together by braided cords I was exhilarated by the dance performance threaded through one or two holes about of small children, all orphans, taught by four centimeters from the ends, the "vol- teachers from abroad.) A Polish team of ume" being secured by heavy wooden cov- conservators was working to restore murals ers at front and back. The volumes vary in and fresco-like wall paintings within a thickness, but can be up to forty centime- cloister structure in the palace yard, more ters. While the texts, generally religious or tangible evidence of the assistance pro- collections of folk tales written in an old vided by Eastern bloc countries. The palace form of Khmer called Pali, are very old, manuscripts are stored in glass-fronted cab- the palm leaves seem to date mainly from inets, but in a small building totally lacking the nineteenth century since the most prac- climate control or any form of air circula- tical preservation strategy had been con- 288 American Archivist / Spring 1990

stantly to copy deteriorating manuscripts, Penh was enlivened by the overloading of a task traditionally performed by monks. the small Air Kampuchea plane (with three Unfortunately, only a very small number times its normal burden of passengers), and of monks survived the Khmer Rouge and the somewhat erratic undulations of the it seems clear that the manuscripts will have flight. disintegrated completely before they can be The survey of the collections of the Na- Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/53/2/282/2747939/aarc_53_2_26824l5408112w76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 copied in this way. tional Library and the National Archives On probably the hottest day of the visit, was necessarily cursory given the time con- John Badgley and I were privileged to visit straints. The National Library building was the vast early twelfth-century temple com- constructed by the French in 1913 and sited plex of Wat at , the clas- next to the National Archives amidst an or- sical five-towered building portrayed on the namental garden. The library building is in flag of Cambodia. Although the Khmer extremely poor condition, without a water Rouge had damaged some of the richly supply and with eccentric and dangerous carved historical tableaux by machine-gun electrical wiring. Much less than 20 per- fire, the structure and that of the early cap- cent of the collection survived the Khmer ital of Angkor Thorn were essentially in- Rouge, who threw out and burned most of tact. A great deal of conservation work is the books and all of the bibliographic rec- being done by an Indian team of building ords. The library was used as a pigsty for conservators, who brave possible guerilla the duration of the Khmer Rouge regime attacks in their eight-year restoration proj- and, of the original staff of forty-three, only ect. The trip back from Siem Reap to Phnom three survived. Large mounds of books are

Palm leaf manuscripts at the Royal Palace, guarded by the caretaker's granddaughter. Preservation in Cambodia 289

piled in the storage areas, many rescued ent!) Insect damage is clearly of great con- from the streets and markets, or private cit- cern to librarians and archivists, but some izens. A lone, courageous Australian li- of the fumigation attempts are extremely brarian, Gail Morrison (really a Scot from hazardous. At the archives, DDT was used Aberdeen), works doggedly to catalog the extensively but without useful result. Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/53/2/282/2747939/aarc_53_2_26824l5408112w76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 books, sans OCLC, RLIN, Library of Con- I was also able to review the library col- gress classification schedules, National lections at the National Museum which in- Union Catalog, or even three-by-five-inch cluded several hundred palm leaf cards. Mrs. Morrison has no authority over manuscripts from the old Royal Library and any of the staff, who lack education, train- several thousand photographs and glass ing, and coherent job descriptions. The li- plates. While conditions at the museum brary has no written policies of any kind, seemed somewhat better than at the library, no resident director, and no funding. Staff archives, and palace, the collections are still are paid as little as $1 per month and sup- largely uncataloged and in need of prev- plement their pay and rice allowance by entative maintenance. Each week Mrs. growing fruit and vegetables and maintain- Morrison catalogs for two days at the mu- ing cattle in the "ornamental" gardens. seum and four days at the library, but is Large piles of multiple copies of books the only person qualified to do so. supplied by the Soviet Union (e.g., Khmer translations of Marx and Lenin) lie un- Staff Training touched, unprocessed, and undistributed to regional libraries because the library has no A technical processing room at the Na- transportation. A large collection of palm tional Library seemed the only suitable place leaf and paper manuscripts were being sorted for a conservation work area, so with help by a library assistant, and seemed a likely from two staff, I cleared it of some 2,000 group of materials on which to begin the books, and appropriated a nine-by-four-foot task of preventative maintenance. table from the reading room. This was The National Archives is housed in a well blocked up to a useful work height of thirty- designed but poorly maintained building. eight inches, and a search begun for local In general, the archives seems to have been equipment. Though I searched through two better supported than the library, possibly government print shops and two large mar- because it is under a different ministry. The kets, I was able to secure only a small of- records appeared mainly French Colonial, fice guillotine. After some trying moments kept without folders in the original boxes at the customs warehouse, I was able to on library-type shelving. Much of the paper transfer many of the conservation supplies seems brittle, and the boxes are made from to the library and cut some of the materials acidic pasteboard, starch-filled cloth, and to manageable sizes with knife and scis- starch and protein adhesives. Almost every sors. box I examined had been badly damaged The original strategy had been to survey by insects, much more so than the records the collections of the library; develop prior- themselves. The staff had the impression ities for action; establish work areas; train that the ubiquitous silverfish were respon- library staff in fumigation, cleaning, re- sible, but the nature of the damage seemed pair, and enclosure techniques; determine to indicate termites and beetle larvae. (Al- the feasibility of establishing a Cornell mi- though he disagreed with my diagnosis at crofilming operation; assess collection care the time, the chief archivist presented me and storage needs; and provide a general with a handful of squirming maggots mixed evaluation with recommendations on future with box fragments as a going away pres- preservation/conservation needs. The sur- 290 American Archivist / Spring 1990 Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/53/2/282/2747939/aarc_53_2_26824l5408112w76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021

An elementary furbishing project involving dust removal from palm leaf manuscripts. vey had, of necessity, been expanded to tutions, I proceeded with a system combin- encompass the collections of the Tuol Sleng ing demonstrations of a variety of basic Museum of Genocide, the Royal Palace, techniques with intensive repeat training of the National Museum, and the National Ar- two staff from the library and two from the chives, in addition to the National Library. archives. In this way, the "audience" of It had proved impossible to fumigate ma- twenty-two would benefit from the inter- terials prior to other treatment because of preted demonstrations, and key staff would the lack of local facilities, equipment, and be able to develop some basic skills. We materials, and my inability to penetrate some quickly covered book repair, simple paper of the layers of protocol. (Although I knew treatment and repair, encapsulations, and a beforehand that vacuum chambers and variety of enclosures, and proceeded to the chemicals probably would not be available, main point of the training, the cleaning and I had hoped to combine some of the re- enclosing of manuscripts. sources of an ice factory and soda factory Two types of manuscripts cases were de- to utilize freezing and/or carbon dioxide to signed for the library and archives. The first, kill insects without endangering human designed for palm leaf and mulberry paper health.) I had reached the point, after eleven manuscripts, involved both a flexible case days in Phnom Penh—and only seven for each manuscript and a sturdy box for working days remaining of my visit—where groups of cased manuscripts (see Appendix intensive staff training had to begin. 1, Palm Leaf Manuscripts). The second, Since the initial period of training had to designed as a replacement document case include representatives from several insti- for archives, assumed groups of folded rec- Preservation in Cambodia 291 Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/53/2/282/2747939/aarc_53_2_26824l5408112w76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021

Staff of the National Library during training to produce protective enclosures. ords, and is a sturdy drop-front box (see improved. Almost incidentally, the basic Appendix 2, Drop-Front Box). principles of handling and shelving were The materials used include chemically addressed as we replaced the enclosed ma- sound board, with buckram and adhesive terials. not considered palatable to insects (see Ap- During the many hours of work with the pendix 3 for a list of conservation supplies Cambodian staff, I was greatly impressed used). For both types of box, compart- by their grace and kindness, and our fare- ments were installed to permit the use of wells were prolonged and emotional. insect repellents. The group worked enthusiastically and Conclusion diligently, although the intense heat made the tools and materials slippery with per- Although parts of the visit were some- spiration. By the end of the five-day group what frustrating and incomplete, the proj- session, I had moved to a supervisory role, ect was extremely successful in achieving and on the final two days before my de- its fundamental objectives. A number of parture was able to concentrate our efforts recommendations emerged from the final on the palm leaf manuscripts, a good many report and many have been acted upon. of which were enclosed. During the train- In October 1989 Judy Ledgerwood es- ing and supervision, language differences tablished the microfilming operation strongly became less and less important as the rou- urged in the report. Designed to ensure the tines became more established and my abil- the survival of greatly endangered texts and ity to communicate through gestures the extension of access, the task is to film all the palm leaf and mulberry manuscripts 292 American Archivist / Spring 1990 Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/53/2/282/2747939/aarc_53_2_26824l5408112w76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021

Staff of the National Library and the National Archives learning the use of metric measurement formulae to construct inner enclosures.

and the entire archive of the Tuol Sleng elsewhere), and as part of a more general Museum of Genocide. The microfilm cam- plan of development. era, a Kodak model E class II, was carried At present there are no conservation fa- into Cambodia by Judy, and the operation cilities adequate for even the most basic set up in the former library director's of- book and paper treatments in Cambodia. fice, which has been equipped and climate- There are important and unique collections, controlled by Cornell and the Luce Foun- a growing readership, a detrimental cli- dation. The first group of film has been mate, and extensive war damage. Not sur- processed and reviewed at Cornell and pro- prisingly, Cambodians are adamant that nounced satisfactory according to standards materials not leave the country for treat- set by the Research Libraries Group, Inc. ment, and Western nations continue to re- Through the generosity of the Reynolds fuse admittance to Cambodians seeking Foundation, additional conservation sup- training and education. It seems clear that plies have been shipped to the National Li- some support must be given to the estab- brary to ensure the completion of the lishment of basic conservation and binding enclosure project. But a great deal remains facilities in Cambodia. Building structures to be done if the Cambodian archives and are poorly maintained, overall environmen- national bibliography are to survive, both tal conditions unsatisfactory, and collection in the short term (such as the urgent dupli- storage methods deficient. Relatively sim- cation of the rapidly deteriorating photo- ple strategies, such as installing insect graphic collections at Tuol Sleng and screening and ceiling fans and providing Preservation in Cambodia 293

good housing supplies, would bring signif- dered all educated people. To be literate icant improvement. was to be condemned to summary and bru- Insects pose a real and continuing threat tal execution. At present it is difficult to to collections in Southeast Asia and in other see how policies can be developed for the tropical areas of the world. The desperate library, how staff can be educated and use of hazardous chemicals has only tem- trained, how the library's basic roles can Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/53/2/282/2747939/aarc_53_2_26824l5408112w76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 porary effect on insect populations, but can be defined and realized, and how the col- have long-lasting or permanent detrimental lections can be made physically and biblio- effects on collections and people. For ex- graphically accessible to a population ample, there are reports that entire areas of thirsting for them. the national archives of Vietnam have been In Cambodia, we see the role of the li- abandoned because of repeated chemical brary at its most fundamental and, because contamination and its carcinogenic effects of the impossibility of fulfilling it, its most on staff. In Cambodia, the installation of a tragic. The painstaking creation of elemen- low-temperature freezer facility (for de- tary school textbooks seems an insuperable stroying insects by blast-freezing) coupled task without the resources of a library, the with a safe insect repellent could contain self-examination of historical research the problem. Research soon may be under- doomed without archives, yet these are very way at Cornell to develop a natural repel- real dilemmas in Cambodia. Modest action lent capable of safe and direct application is being taken now to save some endan- to library and archive materials. gered materials, but a fundamental change The entire managerial and educational in the international political climate will be structure of Cambodia was destroyed by the needed before these problems can be ad- Khmer Rouge, who systematically mur- dressed. 294 American Archivist / Spring 1990

Appendix 1 Palm Leaf Manuscripts: Stabilization in (0.020" thickness, 28" x 42"). The width of Original Format the case is three times the width of the boarded manuscript plus twice its thick- The following procedures are designed ness. Lightly score and then fold the board Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/53/2/282/2747939/aarc_53_2_26824l5408112w76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 to stabilize palm leaf manuscripts. No at- (see figure 2). Cut a flap for each end of tempt is made here to address remedial the case. The width should be 0.1 cm less treatment, such as repair or surface clean- than the width of the case, and the length ing, but some form of fumigation should should be 5 cm. plus 2 cm plus the thick- be done before stabilization work begins. ness of the case (see figure 3). Glue the The stabilization procedures fall into three flaps in place and insert the boarded man- main stages: uscript. 1. Securing the leaves. After fumiga- 3. Making the box. The separate man- tion, the manuscripts should be gently dusted ual guide describes the box-making for- to remove any surface dust and insect parts. The original ties should be carefully loos- mula which should be followed here. Starch- ened and examined. Whenever possible they filled cloth or buckram should not be used, should be retained, but if broken and de- nor should starch paste or animal glue. Py- teriorated, should be replaced with a soft- roxylin coated/impregnated buckram used fibered string of the same thickness. If the with Elvace polyvinyl acetate adhesive is original wooden board covers are missing, the most suitable material. In general, the basic protective board covers should be cased manuscripts may be boxed in fours substituted. Chemically stable boards, such or sixes. Each box should accommodate as blue/white barrier board (0.060" thick- some form of insect repellent, such as naph- ness, 32" x 40") should be cut 0.5 cm longer thalene or para-dichlorobenzene mothballs and wider than the manuscript. Make holes or crystals in a sachet, or a small piece of in the board corresponding to the manu- Shell No-Pest strip. To accommodate the script holes. Thread the ties through the repellent, it is usually best to make the box holes and gently tighten them (figure 1 slightly longer and include a board sepa- shows a typical size). The board is larger ration (see figure 4), the actual size of the to protect the manuscript's ends from dam- repellent compartment dependent upon the age, to prevent the ties from cutting into type of repellent used. the manuscript edge, and to allow the end Conclusion. As time, materials, and to be retained. trained staff permit, work on cleaning and 2. Making the manuscript case. The repairing the manuscripts should begin. This boarded manuscript is cased using a thin is a time-consuming process that must be stable board such as Archivart library board done with great care. The stabilization pro- cedures described above will provide in- definite security for the manuscripts, particularly if the insect repellent is re- newed periodically. When full remedial Text and illustrations derived from instructions pre- treatment has been done, the same cases pared by the author for the Cambodian archivists and librarians. and boxes may be reused. Preservation in Cambodia 295

Figure 1. Figure 2. Manuscript with protective board Library board or stiff file folder stock and ties. cut and folded.

22 cm Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/53/2/282/2747939/aarc_53_2_26824l5408112w76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021

5 cm i

Figure 4. The manuscript cases secured in a Figure 3. folding box (usually two or four per End flaps glued into position and the box). Note insect repellent case folded and secured. compartment. 296 American Archivist / Spring 1990

Appendix 2 Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/53/2/282/2747939/aarc_53_2_26824l5408112w76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021

Drop-Front Box for Documents

Double lined hinge

Compartment for insect repellent

Materials Upper and lower tray compartments: blue/white barrier board Outer case: Davey Red Label binders board Cover material: Group F pyroxylin-impregnated buckram Lining: Archivart library board

Illustration by author. Preservation in Cambodia 297

Appendix 3

Conservation Supplies used in Cambodia Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/53/2/282/2747939/aarc_53_2_26824l5408112w76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021

3 - 80-yard rolls Group F pyroxylin buckram 1 - 100-foot roll hinge cloth 1 - 100-yard roll Melinex polyester film 1 - 5-gallon pail Elvace polyvinyl acetate adhesive 1 - 55-gallon drum Velverett polyvinyl acetate adhesive 350 - 0.060" thickness blue/white barrier board, 32" x 40" 500 - 0.020" thickness Archivart library board, 28" x 42" 600 lbs. 0.074" and 0.098" thicknesses Davey Red Label binders board, 27" x 38" 80 sheets Kizukishi Japanese tissue, 24" x 36" 72 Shell No-Pest Strips (used as repellent) 10 kilos, para-dichlorobenzene (used as repellent) 5 lbs. silica gel 100 plastic gloves 10 rolls double-sided tape (3M 415) 2 spools linen thread (no. 18 and 35) 1 large, 3 small glue brushes Bone folders, sewing needles Steel rulers and scissors