Concern is constantly expressed about break-downs in the nation’s infrastructure. Previous long-term economic malaise led to wide-spread structural deterioration which is with us still. The seawall crumbles. The city and countless villages flood or go bone dry for lack of means to manage water. Everywhere, over-worked and underpaid workers race as hard as they can to repair or replace basic utilities but cannot maintain even the status quo for long.
In the middle of this congregation of problems it may seem impertinent to plead that more attention and money be focused on a different challenge. It is a challenge which may seem peripheral to our everyday practical lives but which in the longer run hugely appeals to our deeper lives as thinking and patriotic citizens. I refer to the store of written and other records in Guyana.
There are a number of threats to our written record. One is the common enemy of archivists everywhere in the world. It is the fragility of paper. Since about 1870 most paper has been made from wood pulp. An organic component of wood called lignin releases acid which breaks down paper’s cellulose fibres. Because of this, over time, paper yellows and disintegrates. Ways have been found to protect paper from this universal threat of deterioration and are being applied in the archives of many countries.
