Some astounding numbers

The January/February issue of the Library of Congress Magazine is devoted to “The Science of Preservation” and contains short articles written for the non-specialist on such topics as the use of hyperspectral imaging to study Thomas Jefferson’s rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, the lifespan of digital media, and mass deacidification of paper based items. While all of these articles will be edifying for the publication’s wide audience (it is distributed free of charge to publicly supported libraries and research institutions, academic libraries, and learned societies in the U.S.), the page with the greatest impact may well be “Preservation by the Numbers” which lists the numbers of items from the Library’s collection that are treated in a year. A few of the astounding numbers: 1,098,488 volumes and sheets deacidified, 162,462 items bound, and 37,725 photographs rehoused.