Degradation is permanent (2nd law of thermodynamics), and therefore also the protection of heritage objects and materials have to be permanent. With that comes a need for the introduction of mass (conservation) technologies into the professional care of collection items

The choice of preservative treatment or technology is dependent on the underlying analysis and determination of the properties of object (input and output control, analysis of object before and after conservation). In terms of mass technologies or processes may be considered more procedures / processes.

Mass technological methods of protection and preservation

• Input and output control of the object (example non-destructive, semi-destructive methods for analysis more variables)

• Mechanical and chemical cleaning

• Desalination

• Annealing - oxidative, reductive atmosphere

• Plasma-protection

• Impregnation (deacidification, consolidation, petrification, ..)

• drying

• lyophilisation

• sterilization and disinfection

• digitalization

• and others

All material carriers of cultural heritage are permanently exposed to degradation, which necessitates the need of their constant protection. The rate of degradation of carrier media and heritage in Slovakia is two to three orders of magnitude higher than the required rate of protection. For quantification of object cultural heritage see: http://knihask.eu/novinky_2011/Potreba-ochrany-2011.pdf or attached file (english version).

Example

The accomplished quantification and analysis of the current state of affairs in field of cultural heritage protection of the objects in the Slovak republic has identified a need and a necessity to build the lacking infrastructure and secure qualified personnel resources So that the discrepancy between degradation speed and effective protection is eliminated. An answer would be the launch of the national network of authorized centres for protection of cultural heritage (IKC-NET) (author of idea: Prof. Svetozar Katuščák, http://knihask.eu/technologia.htm ), while observing the conditions of sustainable development.

Implementation of the results project KNIHA SK (http://knihask.eu/novinky_2008/Hanus_Ljubljana2008.pdf )

The aim of the State project of research and development "Preservation, stabilization and conservation of traditional information carriers in the Slovak republic" of the program "Current problems of the society development" is to propose optimal solution of the problem of preservation of traditional information carriers, especially of documents on acidic paper. Key implementation achievement of the state-run project KnihaSK lies in Proposal of optimum technological procedure for books protection and establishment of Integrated Conservation Centrum of the Slovak National Library (IKC SNK). IKC SNK forms an integral part of the national network of technological conservation centra for complex protection of cultural heritage. IKC SNK is an integrated system composed of the following subsystems: conservation and restoration of information carriers (K), digitization (D) and research (V). From the viewpoint of system engineering and good industrial practice, the capacity of the key technological operation – deacidification – can be increased in IKC only at simultaneously applying the necessary technological operations related directly to deacidification and digitization.(www.knihask.eu ). Very important is the selection of best available techology The (BAT) for the protection and preservation of cultural heritage. Example - Criteria and requirements for technologies. Multicriterial evaluation system of a conservation technology (http://knihask.eu/novinky_2011/Criteria-requirements_technologies.pdf )