Focus on 1840-1950

Metamorfoze focuses on the preservation of manuscripts, books, newspapers and periodicals of Dutch origin from the 1840-1950 period, stored in libraries with a depository task.

Paper documents, especially from the 1840-1950 period, suffer from internal decay which is only increasing with the years. On the other hand, external influences have also severely affected the quality of the paper: air pollution, climatic fluctuations and poor handling of the document.

The paper becomes acidified, yellow, embrittled, and finally desintegrates. Halfway through the nineteenth century the mechanisation of the printing process caused a shortage of rags – the original raw material for paper.  Wood pulp was now used for paper making which, together with the chemical processes used in paper making, shortened the life span of paper considerably. Older library material may also need preservation, but in most cases this is due to incidental damage, such as damage caused by careless handling.

Approach 1997-2000

If one copy of every Dutch document  from the 1840-1950 period is preserved, this will amount to some 600,000 books, 300,000 volumes of periodicals, 5,000 newspaper titles, and 2 million manuscripts and letters, distributed over all libraries in the Netherlands. Preservation of this material will require at least 20 years. A strategic plan has been drawn up for four years (1997-2000), which will be the start of the preservation of part of this material. Metamorfoze will provide for a threefold line of appraoch in the first four years:
- Literary Collections
- Preservation of Dutch Book Production
- Newspapers

Preservation in the Metamorfoze project

Registration, filming and reliable storage: these are the focal points in the first four years of Metamorfoze. Every document to be preserved is catalogued in the national, automated cataloguing system (GGC/Pica). The original document is then transferred to microfilm. After filming, the original is stored in acid-free sleeves or boxes, and preserved under optimum conditions. Henceforth the user will generally no longer be able to consult the book or manuscript, but will be referred to the microform. This does not only provide better protection of the original against decay, but will also preserve the content of the document for the future. To prevent a printed document from being filmed more than once, central registration takes place in the EROMM-database, a European system for the input and retrieval of descriptions of microforms, managed by the University Library of Göttingen, Germany. This database enables any interested library to order microfilms.

Why microfilming?

For the first four years of the Metamorfoze programme the option taken was the transfer of the original to microfilm, and not yet deacidification or digitisation. 

At this moment, both deacidification and digitisation as preservation methods have their drawbacks. Deacidification may indeed help to prolong the life span of a document, but it does not improve the quality of the paper. Moreover, research is being carried out at an international level as to its side effects.

Digitisation offers advantages especially in making stored data accessible and easily available, but the drawback is that there are as yet a lot of uncertainties as to to long-term storage of digital media.

A microfilm made within the Metamorfoze framework will last at least 200 years, and meets the quality requirements necessary for optimum digitisation in the future.

Metamorfoze and the Amsterdam University Library

From 1998 the Amsterdam University Library (UBA) has been focusing on the preservation of the Literary Collections – a total of 34 collections will qualify for filming – and the preservation of the documents printed in the Netherlands from the 1870-1899 period.

- Literary Collections:
The preservation of the Van Eeden collection has been completed in July 1999.  The preservation of the huge Verwey collections – Albert, Mea and Floris – is in progress and the project proposals for the preservation of the Multatuli collection and the Réveil collection have been approved by now.

- Preservation of Dutch Book Production:
Within the framework of this project 17,000 titles in the holdings of the UBA have now been identified as qualifying  for preservation. About half of these titles have actually been filmed by now.