Books as Treasures—The Mita Media Center (Keio University Library) Rare Book Room

2003/07/01

Published in "Juku" No. 239, 2003

At the Mita Media Center (Keio University Library), we call them *kichosho* (valuable books), but they are also sometimes referred to as *kikosho* (books that are not easily seen), *zenpon* (rare books that are relatively difficult to obtain), or *chinpon* (rare books that are hard to come by; see "Kojien, Fifth Edition"). In English, they are called Rare Books. The Mita Media Center (Keio University Library) has a room for rare books on the fifth floor, where approximately 10,000 titles from Japan and abroad are managed and preserved.

So, what kind of books are considered rare books? The degree of "valuable" or "rare" varies from person to person, and the value of a book also differs from library to library. For example, if we compare Pascal's "Pensées" (1670), in which he said, "Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed," with Keynes's "The General Theory" (1936), which influenced economics, someone interested in philosophy would say "Pensées" is more valuable, while a student of economics would say "The General Theory" is more valuable. The value differs depending on the person. "Gakumon no susume (An Encouragement of Learning)" (1872) is valuable in Japan, but it is even more valuable to Keio University.

Therefore, libraries use the year of publication as an objective measure for rare books. Although this is only a guideline, Japanese books published before 1700 and Western books published before 1800 are considered rare books. This is because the older a book is, the fewer copies were printed. In the case of Western books, this can be explained quite objectively. Mechanical printing presses began to appear around 1800 to 1830, and compared to the manual presses that preceded them, the number of copies increased dramatically. The fewer copies there are, the higher the scarcity value of the book.

Books are born to be read, so for a library that supports education and research, it may be unacceptable to make them inaccessible simply because they are valuable. At the Mita Media Center (Keio University Library), rare books can be viewed after obtaining permission from a supervising professor and completing the prescribed procedures. Viewing a book naturally involves some wear and tear. However, this is the fate of a book. Recently, the term "preservation of materials" has been gaining attention. From this perspective, at the National Diet Library, rare books that have been microfilmed cannot be viewed in their original form. The Mita Media Center (Keio University Library) is considering having users first view microfilmed or digitized versions of rare books in the near future, and then finally view the originals. This is to achieve a balance between access and preservation.

Because they are valuable, we have established a ten-point set of viewing rules, including considerations such as, "Please use a pencil for writing." This is because if the tip of a ballpoint pen accidentally touches a rare book, the mark cannot be erased. Pencils are provided in the Rare Book Room.

Western books are made of different materials—leather, paper, thread, and glue—so the materials change in various ways over time. When the air is dry, the leather becomes brittle, the paper dries out, and the animal glue loses its elasticity. Forcing a book open puts stress on its spine, causing it to crack. In Europe and the United States, sponge book rests are commonly used to prevent books from opening 180 degrees during viewing. However, the Newberry Library in Chicago uses a handmade book rest called a "Book Futon," a play on the Japanese word for futon. It is a strip of cloth measuring 80 by 30 centimeters filled with cotton, and the degree to which it is rolled up is adjusted according to the progress of the pages. When placing a book that is halfway read, the ends of the Book Futon are rolled up from both sides, and the book rests in a V-shape. The Mita Media Center (Keio University Library) has produced these Book Futons and provides them for viewing.

Viewing requires light. If you leave a newspaper in the sun for two or three days, it will turn yellow due to ultraviolet rays. The reading room does not use fluorescent lights that emit ultraviolet rays. Furthermore, to block ultraviolet rays from the outside, UV-cut film is applied to the windowpanes. We are constantly maintaining the facilities for the rare books, not only during viewing but also when they are in storage.

Winters in Tokyo are dry. Our skin also becomes dry and chapped. Similarly, leather-bound Western books become dry and damaged if the humidity remains low. Even in winter, if the humidity exceeds 80% and the temperature rises above 28 degrees Celsius, mold will grow. The ideal conditions are a temperature of around 20 degrees Celsius and a humidity of around 50%, and to maintain this, the stacks are equipped with a 24-hour air conditioning system.

Mold is also one of the great enemies of books. The enemies of books include biological factors such as mold and insects, chemical factors such as anti-bleed agents used in printing and ultraviolet rays, and physical factors such as earthquakes, fires, and floods. For biological factors, we perform fumigation with a toxic gas called methyl bromide. To avoid spraying fire extinguishers or water on the rare books in the event of a fire, the stacks are equipped with a halogen gas injection system that removes oxygen from the air.

It is not widely known that the Titanic, from the movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio, was a treasure trove of rare books. At the entrance to Harvard University's Widener Library, there is a plaque that reads, "Harry Elkins Widener, a graduate of Harvard College, died in the sinking of the Titanic on April 15, 1912." Widener, a renowned book collector, was returning from purchasing books in Europe when he met with the accident, so rare books lie sleeping in the hold of the Titanic. Widener's family donated the building and his collection of books to create the Widener Library, which once had a marble Rare Book Room called the "Treasure Room." As the treasures in Harvard University's "treasure hall" grew, the Houghton Library was eventually established as a separate rare book library.

The fifth floor of our Mita Media Center (Keio University Library) is also a treasure hall. It houses major collections such as *otogi-zoshi* (short stories) and picture scrolls from the late Muromachi period, old movable-type print books from the early Edo period, books related to cooking, documents of Fukuzawa Yukichi, and Western books on economics by Adam Smith and others, history of science by Newton and others, and natural history by Buffon and Lesson. These rare books can be viewed at the monthly "Rare Book Exhibition" (on the first floor of the library) during the semester, and are also introduced on the library's website and in every issue of "Juku." Why not try conducting research using these rare books?