(The beetles are probably one of the most common minor pests you can find in a pantry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drugstore_beetle )
To answer @Amerzarak's question, the abbey is in a rural setting without an immediate surrounding community of researchers or urban resources. So, yes, no air-conditioning. The floors are polished; the ticket-takers are friendly, and the guides have a handful of stories that they tell well. For aesthetics, it would be nice if they can preserve everything. But in terms of scholarly impact, this wouldn't be on my list of the world's 1,000 historic collections most worth preserving in their entirety.
But it's worth browsing pictures of the abbey to get a sense of how challenging this would be. https://www.comece.eu/christian-artworks-benedictine-archabb... Most books reside in giant, wall-flush bookcases with no natural ventilation. Establishing decent airflow -- without accidentally ruining structural walls or turning the bookcases into perforated messes -- seems very hard.
You do not need to run ducts, just piping for (say) mini-splits.
By the way, I was always curious why installing splits _in_ the room. I understand multi-story apartments, where there's no other place. But if we're talking about detached houses you have an attic (where the airducts go), or a ceiling (where recessed lights go). Can we put splits in there? I can see problems with power delivery, condensate diversion, but they are the same if we install them _in_ the room. But in return you get fine-tuned climate control, and no pressure difference problems (no need for bypasses to prevent slamming doors with ducts).
It's an abbey, so they are probably into religious tracts and it has cultural and sentimental value to them. E.g. if it has a Bible from the 13th century then it's worth preserving even if it's just the usual stuff.
You know, there are modern scholars that study that stuff, both directly and as a resource for studying other areas.
Ultraviolet light is well known to be damaging,
https://www.nedcc.org/free-resources/preservation-leaflets/2... ("Protection from Light Damage")
https://www.loc.gov/preservation/care/light.html ("Limiting Light Damage")
[late edit]: And if you search the literature, gamma irradiation is known to affect the texture of certain fruits—and if you ask why, one of the studied mechanisms is that fruits' cellulose polymers—which paper is also made of!—are easily broken by gamma rays:
https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1002/pol.1957.12026114... ("Effect of gamma-radiation on cellulose" (1957))
> "Cellulose is degraded at gamma-radiation dosages equal to or below those required for softening plant tissues such as apples, carrots, and beets. Therefore it seems probable that the degradation of this cell wall constituent is a major factor in the radiation-induced softening of plant tissues."
The effect on thin, old paper should presumably be the worst, no?
[edit]: And this paper says the lethal gamma dose for one species (different one) of pestilential beetle is 1,000 gray, or 100 krad. That's a bit higher than the threshold doses for cellulose damage, from the other paper: 34–64 krad. Stressing that I have no clue know how those numbers translate to paper integrity.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-43739-x ("The lethal and sterile doses of gamma radiation on the museums pest, varied carpet beetle, Anthrenus verbasci (Coleoptera: Dermestidae))
So it comes down to picking the dose that doesn't kill your but does kills what would other wise kill you... radiation cancer therapy.
The only obvious advantage of irradiating them would be that it will kill eggs; if the eggs will still hatch in an oxygen-free environment, there's no advantage and plenty of downside.
Anyway, I wouldn't suggest irradiating them either. Just the volume of required handling would ruin them.
You could have an environment that was consistently oxygen-free, but it would make no sense for eggs laid in such an environment to refuse to hatch there.
Curious which books you are starting with!
I experienced this when the only way to access a 70 years old scientific paper written in Italian was by finding a copy in a library and scanning it. There are not many existing copies of the journal left, in a few decades it might have been lost forever.
Our summers are getting unbearable, and there are many apartments where you will not get a permit for ACs as they require some repairments because from what I heard, the cables or whatever can't handle the ACs. So... I am left here with a fan that is not enough anymore, and I cannot get a permit for an AC. It is going to be a tough summer.
Once you have these beetles they come back again and again. The only really good long term solution is to store everything in what is essentially a giant walk-in refrigerator. ...or if the specimens are old enough, they may have been treated with mercury or arsenic, which is quite effective but has other problems!
Amezarak•6mo ago
ajb•6mo ago
Having said that I wonder if they also have a damp issue, insects need some degree of moisture if they are eating stuff like paper.
Amezarak•6mo ago