A special box has been set up at the entrance of the National Library in Valletta containing centuries-old books that are rotting away due to lack of adequate preservation.
A donation barometer and information about the perishing books’ story is displayed on the box to encourage people to donate.
“Our aim is to use the funds to help restore and digitise the priceless books at the National Library,” said Monique Chambers, chairman of new NGO New Leaf.
The money collected will mainly be used to fund specialists and equipment needed to preserve books – including rare first editions – that are in a bad shape.
This will include cleaning the books of dust and getting rid of bookworm.
New Leaf is also appealing for people to give up their time. “We need volunteers to help with converting the National Library’s handwritten library cards to a digital database and to convert the outdated cassette based audio books to MP3,” Ms Chambers said.
Volunteers will also get training on basic book cleaning and will help with desk duties in the lending libraries.
The founders of New Leaf are all book lovers and were inspired to set up the organisation by the pitiful state of some books on the library shelves.
“We all appreciate that the age-old volumes at the National Library document all our knowledge about our history, and it’s important we preserve that not just for us, but more so for future generations,” publicist Alexia Grech said.
This is not the first time the decaying books and manuscripts at the National Library are the focus of NGOs. Two years ago, Lions Club Sliema embarked on a National Library Book Restoration Project to collect funds for major expensive restoration work, which requires proper aid machinery.
The library homes 60 incunabula, or books printed before the 1500s. When the building was inaugurated in 1812, in addition to the bequests of the Knights, it housed 7,000 volumes of archives of the Order dating to 1798 – most of which are in dire need of preservation.
http://newleaf.org.mt
A book that needs saving
The first book that will be saved using public donations is the priceless first edition Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire Raisonné des Sciences, des Arts et des Métiers – the first general encyclopaedia ever published.
Written at the time of the French Revolution, with the aim of gathering all the knowledge in the world, the encyclopaedia lists philosophers Diderot, Voltaire, Rousseau and Montesquieu among its contributors.
The work comprises 28 volumes published between 1751 and 1772. There are various references to Malta and to the Order of St John in several of the volumes.
These all need preserving and need varying degrees of restoration.