The mission of libraries and archives traditionally has been to preserve knowledge handed down through the ages, to collect present-day information, and to disseminate it for future need. The scientific and cultural development of past centuries is unthinkable without written documentation on paper. However, institutions that preserve the written and printed knowledge of humanity and make it accessible to the public face a constantly mounting problem worldwide that has reached catastrophic dimensions today. The most recent collections are particularly threatened by decay. Millions of books, newspapers, manuscripts, drawings, maps, and other documents printed since the middle of the nineteenth century have already been lost or are so badly damaged that they can no longer be used.

The predominant reason for this decay is the lack of permanence of paper of the industrial era, quite apart from wear and tear through use, inexpert handling, and unfavorable storage conditions. The machine production introduced after the middle of the nineteenth century leaves traces of acid and acid-forming substances in the paper, causing in time the decomposition of the fiber structure and thus the loss of durability of the paper.

In the sixty largest libraries in the Federal Republic with a combined collection of approximately 100 million books, about 12 percent of the collections must be categorized as "no longer usable," according to preliminary calculations from a recent survey of the Deutsche Bibliotheksinstitut. The figures of the individual institutions vary according to type and age of the collections. Of the relatively recent collections of the Deutsche Bibliothek (from 1945 on), only 3 percent are severely damaged. In the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, which owns extensive collections from the time after 1850, the extent of the damage did not become apparent until an inventory was taken: over 30 percent of the material must be considered unusable at this point.

There are, however, no official standards or regulations to evaluate the condition of a book. A book must be considered endangered when the corner of a page ruptures after being folded once. Libraries consider a further lending of such brittle books very hazardous, since even normal handling could endanger the material.

Although the losses and damages are extensive today, an end of the decomposition process is not in sight. On the contrary, librarians and restorers know that the damages will increase substantially. With increased paper production since the introduction of machine manufacturing, the long-term permanence of paper has consistently decreased, and more and more books from the recent past reach the limit of durability after fifty to eighty years.