Fire and flood threat to our literary heritage

Published on Wednesday 12 September 2007 01:09

IT CONTAINS Scotland's greatest literary treasures, including the last letter of Mary Queen of Scots, a historic Gutenberg Bible and Charles Darwin's letter proposing the origin of species.

So when the National Library of Scotland (NLS) was hit by a flood in the dead of night on Thursday, there was consternation among archivists and academics.

"I'm appalled," said Owen Dudley Edwards, the historian and writer. "Heaven knows how much damage has been done to the books. It strikes home, because I think of the place as home."

Hundreds of items from the library were damaged after a broken sprinkler pipe poured water into the 11th floor. Staff yesterday said they were unable to give a definitive account of the extent of the damage, but insisted it was minimal and involved modern books rather than the greatest treasures. But the incident raised questions about how Scotland's literary and historical crown jewels should be safeguarded.

The books will be laid out to dry in coming days, their damp pages interleaved with fabric to soak up the water. Some of the wettest may be frozen before they turn mouldy.

Early yesterday morning, an emergency team of about ten librarians were called to their building on Edinburgh's George IV Bridge. The water had seeped through several floors in what firemen described as "heavy flooding", though it was stopped after just five minutes.

Fire and flood are the twin nightmares that haunt Britain's guardians of rare books and manuscripts. In 1994 fire ripped through Norwich Central Library, incinerating more than 100,000 books and ancient documents. A flash-flood hit a storage facility at the University of Sussex Library in 2000, severely damaging a collection of 42,000 books and 14,000 bound magazines, microfilms, and newspapers.

The NLS flood is minor by comparison. The books that got wet, in their specially fitted cardboard casings, are a tiny fraction of the 13 million items in the collection.

Fewer than 18 months ago, the library took possession of the John Murray archive - which includes the publishing firm's correspondence with Charles Darwin, Lord Byron and other scientific and literary giants, paying more than 30 million.

One of the first calls made by the library's director, Martyn Wade, yesterday morning was to John Murray, the archive's former owner, who had wanted the family trove to go to Scotland.

"They've been around for 234 years. It does seem extraordinary, but no harm's been done," said Mr Murray from his family home in London. The archive, stored in a security cave, was "totally secure", he said. "They moved so swiftly they stopped anything from happening. I was very impressed by the speed at which everything was taken in hand."

Ten years ago the NLS ordered a new sprinkler system for its 15-storey building. It came after warnings that, without such protection, a fire could rip through the rooms in minutes.

"It is challenging and ironic that the system that was installed to protect the library from high fire risk has been involved in so much damage," said Elaine Fullerton, the director of the Scottish Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. "They are doing all the right things, but you cannot anticipate everything."

At 11:40pm on Monday, a pipe in the sprinkler system burst, apparently after being damaged by workmen. The library is closed to the public for refurbishment, to add a new entrance to the exhibition showing off the treasures of the Murray archive.

Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue and an emergency library team converged on the site, bringing boxes of books out of the building. Firefighters used two mechanical pumps to remove the water.

"We arrived to heavy flooding," said a spokeswoman. "We isolated the sprinkler system before assisting staff who were wrapping up books."

The cardboard boxes around the manuscripts and books are designed to take the brunt of any water leak. The sprinkler system is meant to respond only to the site of a fire. Some historic libraries use gas suppression systems, rather than water, to extinguish fires. But Alison Walker, head of the National Preservation Office, which works with major libraries, said: "Gas systems tend to be used in small strongrooms." In storage areas that are little used, the other anti-fire measure is a low- oxygen system, as the British Library uses for some spaces.

But if people are using an area regularly, as researchers or staff would be in the library book stacks, gas or low- oxygen systems could be dangerous.

"You would rather have a wet book than no book," said Helen Donnelly, who works with the Data and Archival Damage Control Centre. "Some of these gases are still unproven. A lot of libraries still have sprinkler systems."

The NLS is reviewing the incident, said Cate Newton, its director of collections development. The construction work meant the library's Gutenberg Bible and other high-value items had already been placed in additional protective wrapping.

"The outlook for recovering items is very good indeed and in some cases there won't be any visible damage at all," she said. Within minutes an emergency library team of about ten were on the scene, she said. "We are very pleased at the way it worked out."

UNIQUE TREASURES AMONG LIBRARY'S 13 MILLION ITEMS

THE National Library of Scotland holds many of the country's literary treasures, including the last letter by Mary, Queen of Scots, written six hours before her execution, and the order for the 1692 massacre of Glencoe.

It is also home to the world's greatest collections of Sir Walter Scott and Thomas Carlyle manuscripts, rare works by Robert Burns, papers from Robert Louis Stevenson and a Gutenberg Bible, which dates back to 1455.

The John Murray archive, bought by the library for 33 million, includes 150,000 items, including private letters, manuscripts and other correspondence from Jane Austen, Benjamin Disraeli, Herman Melville, David Livingstone, Thomas Carlyle, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Edith Wharton.

It includes the letter Charles Darwin wrote proposing The Origin of Species, and a unique collection of Lord Byron's correspondence.

It total, the library contains well over 13 million items, including about 100,000 manuscripts and nearly two million maps.

Every week, it collects about 6,000 new items through legal deposit, under laws allowing it to request a copy of all printed items published in the United Kingdom.