Whenever a discussion is started on academic training in the field of paper conservation, that is the conservation of art on paper, archival and library materials, it is of major importance first of all to define the main goals of training. In addition, the employment possibilities of graduates, as well as the fields of their responsibility within collections, or on the free market should be considered in advance [1]. In this paper, we hope to consider these issues in the context of training in Germany.

Conservators of graphic art, archival and library materials must possess the necessary wide range of practical and theoretical knowledge of the whole variety of materials to be found within different collections. Alongside traditional archival and library material, items of technical and graphic art, such as engineering and other working drawings, as well as photographic material should be considered. This means that conservators must have sufficient knowledge about many information-carrying materials, ranging from parchment to thermal copy paper, for example. Because of the specific structure of some collections, conservators may also be faced with ceramics, metals and textiles as information carriers.

Of prime importance for the qualification of a paper conservator is the ability to recognize different media, substrata and supports and problems of their stability; to develop solutions for treatment and preservation appropriate to the material to be treated; to carry out these solutions, or to recommend their application. In their practical work, conservators have to deal with individual sheets of paper as well as with bound material, photographs, textiles, and three-dimensional items. In the near future, they will increasingly have to deal with the problems of preservation of magnetic, or optical information carriers. The great variety of institutions and collections which exist demands a many-sided training. On one hand, this training must comprise solid instruction in the conception and practical implementation of restoration techniques, as well as their theoretical background. On the other hand, it must also instill profound knowledge of preservation, including environmental and storage conditions, exhibitions, and possibilities of reformatting original items through copying, filming, or digitization.

The complex knowledge described above is necessitated by the demands of the professional field and great institutions and collections, such as museums, libraries and archives, and the freelance market. Each different context demands a different profile from a conservator. These profiles range from expertise in exhibitions and collection surveys in museums, to mass-scale preservation projects for libraries and archives, and from single-item treatments in private practice, to a wide range of training and consulting abilities for educational organizations. Training programmes are obliged to try to supply all these aspects to conservators who will fit these different profiles.

Conservators of library and archive documents who have graduated from an academic training programme should be well acquainted with the specific characteristics of archive and library materials with reference to their historical background. They should know the difference between records and library material and other items of cultural heritage. The preservation problems related to the scale of the collections should be recognized and accepted, particularly the fact that solutions valid for the treatment of individual items are far too expensive for mass-scale problems. Only then, can conservators can work in co-operation with archivists, librarians and collection managers and achieve reasonable solutions, thereby avoiding insoluble conflicts due to the opposing points of view of preservation and restoration on one hand, and accessibility and use on the other.

In the last two decades a change in working methods in conservation, especially of library and archive materials, has taken place which has at least partly escaped the attention of the conservation community. This change has been marked by the shift from traditional craft techniques to mechanization and ultimately by the introduction of industrial production techniques for mass treatment of library and archive materials. This technological evolution has gained more and more significance, especially with regard to large collections and is a consequence of efforts to find methods for the affordable preservation of whole collections. The existing conservation training programmes have had to respond to this new development in the field they serve. As early as 1983, Paul N. Banks mentioned the necessity of an engineering approach to conservation, demanding a redesign in the education of conservators in order to meet the challenge of large library and archive collections as a whole. In Banks' words, 'a large task that remains is to sell the library and archives world on the need for collections conservators or conservation engineers, and . . . to learn how best to train them' [2].

An engineering approach to conservation does not mean that the conservator literally takes on engineering tasks. It refers to the conservator's ability to define research goals, technical specifications, or new preservation strategies to be introduced into the field of conservation. Principally, this ability necessitates a broad scientific knowledge, an understanding of methodology, and skills in communication with specialists from other disciplines. An important aspect of the engineering approach to conservation is the development of new standardized working methods supported by technical equipment to solve the numerous practical restoration problems in libraries and archives, such as mass flattening of rolled documents (Fig. 3). This includes the introduction of new materials, and the development of commercially available instruments, both necessary in order to improve quality standards, and use of labour and budgetary resources. As any new technology has to be approved by the conservation community for safety and feasibility, more intensive participation by conservators in scientific research is needed, with special emphasis on the application of new technology in daily practice. This would give conservators in leading positions the possibility to take part early on in the development of new, economical procedures aimed at solving the preservation problems of libraries and archives. In addition, new control mechanisms and higher standards for restoration and conservation treatments are needed. In all cases, co-operative investigation of the humanities and the technical sciences is intended which once again alongside basic technical knowledge, requires the ability of conservators to communicate and co-operate.

As stated above, conservators must nowadays be more willing to deal with technical problems and work co-operatively following scientific methods to solve preservation problems in archives and libraries. To achieve this, however, is not a very easy task, partly due to the fact that young people interested in restoration associate the professional image of the conservator with art objects and the history of civilization, rather than strictly technical and scientific processes. A related problem which should not be underestimated is the lack of conceptual clarity with respect to the professional status of conservators in Germany. Furthermore, we must also be aware that the image of the conservator as a primarily manual craftsman, able to treat every single item present within a collection individually, is still alive in many archives and libraries; this may be due to tradition and established organizational structures but, to a great extent, also to intellectual immobility.

A clear example of a new approach, which is rather forward looking, has been the foundation of private companies providing a complete conservation service to public and private collections, such as the ZFB Zentrum für Bucherhaltung GmbH in Leipzig which started in 1998.

The establishment of formal academic courses in conservation in Germany in 1989 created a politically sensitive situation. In the beginning, these programmes had been eyed with some distrust by both the conservation community and future employers in libraries and archives. The main reason for this was considerable resistance to perceived changes in the profession which would result from the introduction of largely theoretical elements and research activities not provided by the usual apprenticeship-type training, and already considered the desirable framework for future professional activity of graduates in western Europe. Serious discussions were held around the question whether graduates would have the knowledge and practical skills required by their future employers. At present, it is in the interests of the students of a relatively new training programme if that course is at once conservative and forward looking with respect to curriculum. Therefore, at the training programme in Restoration and Conservation of Graphic Art, Archival and Library Material at the State Academy of Art and Design in Stuttgart, special attention is paid to subjects like preservation strategies, presentation and development of new intervention techniques and mass treatments. At the moment, admission to the course requires 32 months compulsory practical experience in traditional paper and book conservation skills. This may have acquired by an apprenticeship in traditional hand bookbinding, for example. The manual skills of the applicants, therefore, have already been developed to a considerably high level at entry. The curriculum of the course is composed in such a way that all students improve their practical skills further through workshop courses where they treat objects under the supervision of the workshop head and external specialists. In addition, they are expected to take part in the more specialized and co-operative field of preservation in archives and libraries, even though some of them would prefer to study traditional restoration of single items and want to work as conservators of works of graphic art after graduating.

An important aspect of an up-to-date training curriculum is the opportunity for students to work in collections, or workshops taking a leading position in the development of conservation and preservation programmes. This is necessary in order to provide students with continuing contact with conservation practice in addition to their theoretical studies and to give them the chance to treat selected original items. In this way, scientific research and development of new methods for solving problems can be better integrated within the training programme. It has been regarded as very important that archives and libraries should offer support to student conservators, not only as the source of items to be conserved, or as museums with interesting objects to show. Archives and libraries must also present themselves to the students as active institutions and show them the whole spectrum of their daily tasks. In that way, students can become acquainted with the daily work and the possible risks to cultural property when preservation activities are carried out. They also learn to realize the specific responsibility of service institutions which have to make cultural assets accessible to the public. For these reasons, the training course at the State Academy of Art and Design in Stuttgart immediately started an intensive co-operative programme with the Landesrestaurierungsprogramm Baden-Württemberg (State Preservation Program) from the beginning of its foundation. In the 1980s the course took over responsibility for preservation at archives and libraries within the federal state of Baden-Württemberg under the patronage of the Landesarchivdirektion (State Archives Administration).

Academic education necessarily comprises the conveyance of theoretical knowledge. The importance of science in restoration training is still a matter for serious debate, as 'science' is often used and understood as a synonym for 'theory', that is having an abstract meaning and being far removed from practical work. If training in conservation is organized in an environment offering access to scientific and technological development, it is important to consider the issue of effective co-operation between conservation and the scientific and engineering disciplines. To impart co-operative skills from the outset in graduate educational programmes is of great importance, as the relationship between the different disciplines mentioned is often one of strongly held views, determined by the defence of particular interests. Helen Jones from the Royal College of Art in London recently referred to this situation with the following comment [3]:

. . . much of the discussion seemed to be based on the scientists' view of conservators as highly skilled but emotional, instinctive and scientifically ignorant. Correspondingly conservators see scientists as cool but patronising rationalists with little appreciation of the complexities of conservation.

A sophisticated understanding of the different roles of conservators and scientists in conservation was presented by one of the pioneers of the field of scientific research in conservation, the American conservation scientist Robert L. Feller (Fig. 1) [4]. As a functional network of conservation and its related scientific disciplines, the model clearly shows that, besides the development of practical skills, one of the main goals of a conservator's education must be to develop the ability to communicate with a large number of specialists in different fields ranging from humanities to science and engineering. These specialists have different views and different working methods. The conservator must develop and maintain mutually profitable relations with them. Feller's scheme also makes clear that scientific disciplines are not the centre of events but have a supporting function. Finally, it becomes clear that science is not a monolith but comprises a number of specialized disciplines, such as analysis, archaeometry, material science, process engineering, which are directly or indirectly related to problems in conservation. A scientist is only one member of a team. The term 'team' implies mutual professional recognition by a group of specialists having equal rights. The old hierarchies in science and scientific research still prevail and are based on pre-modern professional structures in Central Europe, thus the idea of a team as described above ha in a team in the professional sense of the word [5]. This calls for a specific didactic approach since traditional teaching methods in science often have a discouraging effect on students in conservation.

In Stuttgart, special attention is paid to practice-oriented process developments. The development of new treatment methods is the culmination of the relationship between supporting scientific work and theoretical research in restoration practice. The introduction of effective chemical treatments, such as calcium phytate, calcium bicarbonate and/or gelatine, to arrest the destructive action of iron-gall inks on paper may be cited as an example [6]. Likewise the development of new and rational working techniques such as ready-to-use enzyme poultices for the removal of mounting paste are illustrative of this co-operative approach (Fig. 2) [7]. Developments like these are based on expertise in science and technology but cannot be provided by the scientific disciplines alone. They require, from the very beginning, the inclusion of conservators who define the problems, suggest specifications for their solution, who adapt and optimize the proposed solutions and, at the end, incorporate the new methods into conservation practice. Students' contribution to the project work consists of carrying out literature searches, and directing their seminar, semester and degree work toward specific projects. Their participation begins in the third semester of the eight-semester, four-year course. In this way, they become involved quite early in the methodology of interdisciplinary research and work through close contact and expert discussions with scientists.

Other ongoing projects at the Stuttgart course are the improvement of techniques for flattening rolled documents on transparent paper, the development of efficient humidification chambers, and equipment for the consolidation of writing media, or paint layers (Fig. 3) [8]. These projects require co-operative work with process engineers and equipment constructors, since the rationalization and standardization of preservation techniques depend to a very high degree on having the proper technical equipment.

Ten years after the foundation of the training programme in Restoration and Conservation of Works of Graphic Art, Archival and Library Material at the State Academy of Art and Design in Stuttgart, there still exist some unanswered questions for the graduates regarding their future professional development, particularly so if they intend to work in preservation in state collections, archives or libraries. There are almost no models in Germany which show how to define suitable positions and fields of responsibility in conservation, or how to place them within the hierarchy of existing administrative structures. Nevertheless, academically educated conservators will slowly reach professional equality with colleagues from other disciplines. In 1995, the State Archives of Saxony created a position for a conservator on an academic level for the first time in the history of archival conservation. A graduate of the training programme in Stuttgart now occupies that post.

A similar position was created recently in the department of conservation at the City Archives of Vienna, Austria to which another graduate student from Stuttgart was appointed. These changes in the professional image of paper conservators necessitate a revised definition of conservator's responsibilities within collections and on the free market. Some European countries including Austria are presently considering giving academic conservators the same professional status as archivists, librarians and collection curators. This would require placing specific institutional and theoretical emphasis on training which will be of crucial importance in establishing the co-operative partnership between conservators and specialists from other scientific disciplines. Conservators would then be able to participate actively whenever decisions were taken concerning preservation of collections on a large scale and of single items.

 

Anmerkungen
[1]	Gerhard Banik, ‚Dentist, cook and washerwoman - Models for training cooperative skills in conservation science and practical restoration', 25 Years of School of Conservation. Preprints of the jubilee Symposium, 18-20 May 1998, ed. K.Borchersen (Copenhagen: Konservatorskolen, 1998) 29-36.
[2]	Paul N. Banks, ‚A library is not a museum', Trainig in Conservation, ed. N.S. Baer (New York: Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 1989) 57-65.
[3]	Helen Jones, ‚Questions and answers: Review of the interface between science and conservation', V & A Conservation Journal 25 (1997): 15-16.
[4]	Feller, R.L. ‚Concerning the place of science in the scheme of things', Trainig in Conservation, ed. N.S. Baer (New York: Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 1989) 19.
[5]	G. Kolbe, ‚Gelatin as inhibiting agent for iron-gall-ink corrosion on paper', in press.
[6]	I. Schwarz, A. Blüher, G. Banik, E. Thobois, K.-H. Maurer, ‚The development of a ready-for-use poultice for local removal of starch paste by enzymatic action', Restaurator 20 (1999): 225-244.
[7]	M. Reikow-Räuchle, G. Banik, E. Thobois, E. Becker, ‚Der Nachlaß des Architekten Leopold Bauer - Ein standardisiertes Arbeitskonzept zur rationellen Erschließung umfangreicher Plansammlungen', Papier Restaurierung - Mitteilungen der IADA 4 (2000): 2-5.
[8]	R. Dierks-Staiger, ‚Anwendung von Aerosolen zur Konsolidierung von Gouachemalerei auf Papier', Schriftenreihe des Institus für Museumskunde an der Staatlichen Akademie der Bildenden Künste 14, ed. K.-W. Bachmann (Stuttgart. Institut für Museumskunde, 1997).