Valuable Cambodian newspapers remain intact

Published Monday, March 27, 2006
Damaged SML texts are restored
Valuable Cambodian newspapers remain intact

BY ROSS GOLDBERG
Staff Reporter

Collections damaged in a January steam pipe burst that flooded Sterling
Memorial Library appear to have been restored successfully, library
staff said Friday.

Following a two-month freeze-drying process at an off-campus facility,
preservationists began to examine the collections last week, and said
it is likely that none of them suffered serious permanent damage. In
particular, the staff examined a valuable collection of Cambodian
newspapers Friday afternoon and confirmed that all of the information
in the papers remains intact.

Head Preservationist Roberta Pilette said that in most cases students
will not even notice that the books, which number more than 3,000,
suffered water damage. The status of the Cambodian newspapers was
particularly relieving, she said.

"I was a little concerned, because when newspaper gets wet it's
extremely fragile," Pilette said. "We're not going to have any loss of
information, which is the key thing."

Rich Richie, curator of the library's Southeast Asian collection, said
he is planning to digitize the Cambodian newspapers as quickly as
possible. Though University librarians initially said the newspapers
are survivors of the Khmer Rouge's censorship campaign, Richie said the
collection actually dates to the period in 1992 and 1993 after the
Khmer Rouge signed a peace agreement brokered by the United Nations.
The collection, which consists of 58 publication titles, appears to be
the largest of its kind, Richie said. The materials include some of the
last known copies in existence -- especially in the United States --
which is of interest to scholars, he said.

"It was a time period when journalism was re-emerging in Cambodia after
a long period of government repression of free speech," Richie said.

Though some scholars in Cambodia were initially alarmed by inaccurate
reports that Yale had damaged Khmer Rouge-era media not known to exist,
Richie said, they are now expressing interest in helping the University
to build on the collection.

During the freeze-drying process, the materials -- some of which were
completely soaked -- are treated with machines that freeze the water
and then convert it to vapor. Some of the newspapers and book pages
were slightly warped but readable, and roughly 3 percent were set aside
for re-binding. Though the library staff has examined less than a
quarter of all the collections, the results so far indicate that none
of materials suffered irreversible damage.

Since the steam leak, which flooded the SML basement and damaged
Machine City, library and facilities staff have taken steps to prevent
similar problems from occurring in the future. Because most of the
collections were dampened when the heat activated fire sprinklers, the
Fire Marshal's office recalibrated the sprinklers to go off at higher
temperatures. The sprinkler heads will still respond to fire but are
now largely impervious to steam, Library Building Operations Manager
John Vincenti said.

"The likelihood of those going off again in a steam leak is very small,
unless the steam is blowing directly on them," he said. "There's
already enough water in the area."

Preservationists are also streamlining emergency protocols and training
library staff to prepare them for future crises, Preservation Field
Services Librarian Tara Kennedy said. In January, librarians credited
the materials' survival to a rushed rescue operation in the flooded
areas.

"We're making cheat sheets, quick and dirty things so people know who
to call and what to do," Kennedy said.

The library as a whole is also preparing for a 16-month renovation of
Cross Campus Library beginning this summer. The formidable task of
moving the Cross-Campus volumes to SML is proceeding on schedule,
University Librarian Alice Prochaska said. The library has also begun
removing card cabinets from the knave and selling them, though the
cards themselves will be permanently relocated to the basement or an
off-campus storage facility.

.