Zhang Zhiqing, director of the Special Collection Department of Ancient Books of the National Library, said that according to the current situation, the number of ancient book restorers in national libraries is insufficient1000, and it will take nearly a thousand years to complete the task of restoring10000 ancient books according to the relatively fast work progress. At the same time, the existing problems such as unclear family background of ancient books, backward technical equipment and scientific research level have also adversely affected the development of basic work such as the protection and utilization of ancient books.
It is understood that more than 90% of the existing ancient books in China are collected in libraries, which is different from the centralized management of cultural relics. Although the annual special funds for cultural relics protection in China reach more than 300 million yuan, the special funds for ancient books protection are pitiful, only a few hundred thousand yuan each year. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, China has conducted two national cultural relics surveys, but never conducted a national ancient books survey. At present, the statistics of the number of ancient books held by the state are accumulated from the figures reported by various libraries. However, due to the shortage of funds and personnel, many book collection units have not completed the detailed inventory and cataloging of ancient books, nor have they made statistics on classification and damage. Even so, there are still more than 30 million books registered in public collections, almost the sum of the number of other types of cultural relics. Among them, more than 1%3 ancient books need to be repaired, and many precious ancient books even need to be repaired urgently.
Zhang Zhiqing said that in the 1960s and the year before last, the National Library tested the paper acidity of rare ancient books, and the results showed that the PH value dropped from an average of 7 to 7.5 to an average of 6.6. That is, in recent 40 years, the acidic PH value of Guo Tu ancient books paper has decreased by one value, from weak alkaline or neutral to acidic. "Acidification" refers to the acid hydrolysis of plant cellulose, the main component of ancient books paper, which is very serious for ancient books. According to the experimental calculation, files with PH below 5.0 will be completely brittle, and the storage period will not exceed 200 years. Zhang Zhiqing, for example, said that most of the rare ancient books on the national map are hidden in the second and third floors underground, with constant temperature and humidity and air filtration devices, which are well protected. However, the Jin Wenge Ku Quan Shu stored on the ground was affected by air pollution, and some pages showed obvious yellow spots. He is worried that if we don't pay attention to the acidification of ancient books now and take timely measures, not only will the cost of rescue increase exponentially in a few years, but the effect will not be optimistic.
The National Library now has 6,543,800 copies of rare books, of which 6,543,800 copies were slightly damaged, 260,000 copies were moderately damaged and 6,543,800 copies were seriously damaged. More than half of the documents need to be repaired. However, there are only 12 ancient book restorers in the library-this figure is enough to make other libraries envy-although their work experience is basically more than 10 years and their repair skills are relatively high, but their general academic qualifications are not high, most of them are junior college level, and they are over 40 years old, facing the embarrassing situation of no successor. Zhang Zhiqing said: "The problems faced by the National Library are exactly the problems faced by almost all libraries in the restoration of ancient books. The number of personnel is seriously insufficient, the title is low, the age is aging and there is no successor. In addition, the low comprehensive quality is also a very serious problem. Personnel engaged in the restoration of ancient books abroad must at least graduate from university. For example, the ancient book restorers working in the British Library are all responsible for transportation. " In his view, the ancient books restoration industry in China basically stays at the stage of manual and experiential teaching, and has not risen to the level of theory and science. In foreign countries, computers, industrial machinery and other modern scientific and technological means are widely used to participate in or assist in the restoration of ancient books, and fiber monitoring and protection experiments are carried out through physical and chemical laboratories and biological laboratories to accumulate scientific data and find better protection means. Therefore, it is also an urgent problem to establish the national key laboratory of ancient books protection and improve the knowledge content of ancient books protection.
In view of the current shortage of talents in the restoration of ancient books, Zhang Zhiqing said that on the one hand, it can be slightly alleviated by realizing the socialization of the restoration industry, that is, social enterprises undertake the restoration of ancient books in the collection-there are some folk talents engaged in the restoration of ancient books in the society outside the library system; On the one hand, he has been calling on the government to consider training undergraduate and graduate students in the direction of "ancient books collation and protection" in the library department or Chinese department of colleges and universities, training ancient books restoration talents in higher vocational and technical secondary schools, and sending them to the national library and large public libraries in a planned way to engage in ancient books protection. The relevant departments will set up scholarships to encourage and attract students to engage in the protection of ancient books.
Zhang Xiaoping, director of the Library Division of the Social and Cultural Library Department of the Ministry of Culture, said that the fundamental reason for the shortage of talents in ancient books restoration lies in the training and transportation links. On the one hand, libraries are in urgent need of such talents, but the number of newcomers is compiled according to local institutions (Zhang Zhiqing said that the requirements for the introduction of national maps at present must be bachelor degree or above); On the one hand, colleges and universities have not set up relevant majors and cannot export professionals.
At present, the Ministry of Culture plans to launch the "China Special Collection of Ancient Books Protection Plan", and the central and local governments will provide matching funds to carry out the restoration of ancient books nationwide in stages. One of the important contents is to train ancient books restoration talents at different levels, and it has been decided to carry out pilot work of training ancient books restoration talents in Beijing, Shanghai and Jiangsu provinces. But so far, only Mochou Vocational Middle School in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province has started to train professionals in ancient books restoration from 200 1. So far, dozens of students have graduated and worked in Nanjing Library and several local university libraries.
After the launch of the "Special Plan for the Protection of Ancient Books in China", the national key cultural project, the national survey of precious ancient books, the cultivation of talents for protection and restoration, and the establishment of key laboratories will be carried out step by step, and the grim situation of ancient books protection is expected to be improved, and the cause of ancient books protection is expected to embark on the road of benign development.