In
library classification
A library classification is a system of organization of knowledge by which library resources are arranged and ordered systematically. Library classifications are a notational system that represents the order of topics in the classification and al ...
systems, realia are three-dimensional objects from real life such as
coin
A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order t ...
s,
tool
A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates ba ...
s and
textile
Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...
s, that do not fit into the traditional categories of library material. They can be either man-made (artifacts, tools, utensils, etc.) or naturally occurring (specimens, samples, etc.), usually borrowed, purchased, or received as
donation
A donation is a gift for charity, humanitarian aid, or to benefit a cause. A donation may take various forms, including money, alms, services, or goods such as clothing, toys, food, or vehicles. A donation may satisfy medical needs such as ...
by a teacher,
library
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...
, or
museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...
for use in classroom instruction or in exhibits.
Archival
An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located.
Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...
and
manuscript
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...
collections often receive items of memorabilia such as badges, emblems, insignias, jewelry, leather goods, needlework, etc., in connection with gifts of personal papers. Most government or institutional
archive
An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located.
Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...
s reject gifts of non-documentary objects unless they have a documentary value. When accepting large bequests of mixed objects they normally have the donors sign legal documents giving permission to the archive to destroy, exchange, sell or dispose in any way those objects which, according to the best judgement of the archivist, are not manuscripts (which can include typescripts or printouts) or are not immediately useful for understanding the manuscripts. Recently, the usage of this term has been criticized by librarians based on the usage of term realia to refer to artistic and historical artifacts and objects, and suggesting the use of the phrase "
real world object" to describe the broader categories of three-dimensional objects in libraries.
Treatment in libraries
Most libraries usually have a very well written, legally tight, acquisitions policy which rejects beforehand any object which is not some kind of print or text-based document. There are some exceptions. Children's libraries sometimes have a toy collection, whose individual items are lent out after being cataloged as realia, or under a more specific material designation such as toy, or game. Some large libraries have a special mandate to keep objects related to a literary collection.
Some very large libraries have a public relations department which can find museum objects useful for enhancing or promoting the general collection. Such a library is more likely to prize realia for their associations with writers, subjects, or themes in the library's collections, rather than for their own intrinsic worth, artistic merit, historical significance, or scientific value. Examples might include a
feather pen believed to have been owned by
John Hancock
John Hancock ( – October 8, 1793) was an American Founding Father, merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor of t ...
;
lead type from
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
's printing press; or a collection of
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
era canteens,
mess kit
A mess kit is a collection of silverware and cookware used during camping and backpacking, as well as extended military campaigns. There are many varieties of mess kits available to consumers, and militaries commonly provide them to their troo ...
s, uniforms,
combat boot
Combat boots are military boots designed to be worn by soldiers during combat or combat training, as opposed to during parades and other ceremonial duties. Modern combat boots are designed to provide a combination of grip, ankle stability, an ...
s, etc. used in a "hands on" exhibit for children to illustrate the war.
Within the very restricted domain of cataloging rules in the field of
Library and information science
Library and information science(s) or studies (LIS) is an interdisciplinary field of study that deals generally with organization, access, collection, and protection/regulation of information, whether in physical (e.g. art, legal proceedings, e ...
the term "realia" is used to describe those mass-produced objects which incorporate documents or significant amounts of text (such as world globes, decks of quiz cards, board games), but which have a format which makes it hard to incorporate them in the general collection or to describe them easily in the
catalog
Catalog or catalogue may refer to:
*Cataloging
**'emmy on the 'og
**in science and technology
***Library catalog, a catalog of books and other media
****Union catalog, a combined library catalog describing the collections of a number of libraries ...
. Special cataloguing rules are available to describe these objects.
Objects of realia, due to their diverse and compound nature, pose unique preservation challenges for libraries and archives. Unlike books and other traditional library materials, the artifactual value of these materials is key. In fact, when such items are unaccompanied by written documentation, as is often the case, the intellectual value sought by most library collections is often uncertain.
“We have a lot of hair,” Saundra Taylor of the
Lilly Library
The Lilly Library, located on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, is an important rare book and manuscript library in the United States. At its dedication on October 3, 1960, the library contained a collection of 20,000 boo ...
told ‘’The New York Times’’, explaining that realia such as locks of hair, toys, and inkwells, are often the unsolicited accompaniment to prized acquisitions of personal papers or book collections. Some libraries prize their realia, actively preserving and exhibiting it while others simply keep it out of light and hope for the best.
Often, realia are seen as a nuisance, difficult not only to catalog, but to care for. Unlike
book
A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arr ...
s, which are mostly
cellulose
Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of β(1→4) linked D-glucose units. Cellulose is an important structural component of the primary cell w ...
(paper, boards, natural fibers) and occasionally
leather
Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffalo, pigs and hogs, ...
, realia are often the sum of many parts. One exasperating group of items that might find their way into library collections are textiles and handcrafts: hair, needlework, clothing.
Textile fibers
Hair, wool, and silk
Little research has been conducted regarding the preservation and conservation of human hair within the context of the archival world. However, much is known of the chemical structure and behavior of human hair, thanks in large part to the cosmetology industry; there is certainly a great deal of scholarship surrounding the care of other protein-based fibers,
silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the coc ...
and
wool
Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool.
As ...
.
Loose, braided, tied lovingly in silk ribbons, hair was memorialized especially by the Victorians. Often, hair would be encased within a glass or woven with metallic threads, paired with a metal setting to be worn as
mourning
Mourning is the expression of an experience that is the consequence of an event in life involving loss, causing grief, occurring as a result of someone's death, specifically someone who was loved although loss from death is not exclusively ...
jewelry, a memento of a friend or loved one.
Hairwork, an art still practiced today by th
Victorian Hairwork Society was a popular
needlework method, often resulting in 2-dimensional mourning wreaths and graveyard scenes, worked in hair on a fabric ground. Wool, because of its ability to wick moisture and resist flame, was commonly used in Western textiles throughout history, and might present itself in the form of bedlinens, clothing, and needlework.
Hair (both human and animal) mainly consists of a protein, keratin, the fibers of which give the inner core of hair a great deal of strength. Hydrogen bonds and disulfide bonds link the chained amino acids that make up hair. Hydrogen bonds break and re-form easily on exposure to water, but disulfide bonds (responsible for curl, among other properties), can be broken only via chemical means. Under examination with a microspectrophotometer, scientists have discovered that high heat, UV exposure, and even artificial lighting can be quite damaging to human hair.
Wool, too, suffers in the sun—the fleece of sheep allowed to spend too much time in the sun before shearing accepts little dye when sheared from their backs, compared to their underbellies, as a result of disulfide bonds broken by UV light. Heat and a wide variety of insects, too, are deleterious to woolen textiles. Wool has a high resistance, however, to fungi and bacteria, provided it is free from
sizing and soaps; further, wool can absorb three times its volume in water and requires a bit of humidity to remain viable.
Silk, another protein-rich fiber, is the most problematic of textiles. Often “weighted” with metallic salts to produce a nicer drape in clothing, silks (especially black silks and silks used in trimmings) rarely hold up to washing and repeated handling. Unlike other proteins, silk is not flame retardant. It quickly becomes brittle when kept in hot, dry conditions, and is highly susceptible to rot when in warm, humid climes.
Compound textiles
Cellulose fibers, like
cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...
,
linen, and
hemp
Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a botanical class of ''Cannabis sativa'' cultivars grown specifically for industrial or medicinal use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest growing plants o ...
behave differently from protein-based fibers. Linen and cotton, for instance, comprised most
paper
Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distributed ...
s for many centuries. Clothing and handcrafts were often made with linen or cotton. Needlework was often done with silk, wool, or hair on a linen or cotton ground. Hairwork, silk embroidery, and wool embroidery pose special problems, due to the makeup of their parts. In diffused light, all fibers deteriorate rapidly, compared to those stored in the dark. However, cotton and linen resist temperature well. Cotton can be stored in temperatures well above 100 degrees and still remain chemically and physically stable. With these varying degrees of chemical and physical degradation, textiles woven from a blend of fibers, or art pieces created using a variety of fibers, deteriorate unevenly. Storage of wool and silk, for example in the ideal condition for one, might have a negative effect on the other.
[Finch & Putnam, 17]
Preservation of textiles
All textiles react negatively to air pollution, light, extremes of temperature, and humidity. Rapid changes in the environment can cause undue stress for these natural fibers, causing them to expand and contract as they take on moisture if kept in humid conditions, to dry out in high heat. Chemical bonds are broken by the machinations of UV light and chemicals in polluted air. As with other, more traditional, library materials, temperature and humidity should be kept within a steady range if at all possible: 70 (+/- 5 degrees) degrees Fahrenheit and 50% (+/- 5%) relative humidity is suggested by most sources. Pre-conditioned
silica gel
Silica gel is an amorphous and porous form of silicon dioxide (silica), consisting of an irregular tridimensional framework of alternating silicon and oxygen atoms with nanometer-scale voids and pores. The voids may contain water or some other l ...
used for the purpose of humidity control should never come into direct contact with textiles.
Textiles should be stored in darkness, and exhibited in dim light with UV filtration. To avoid acid-migration, textiles should not come into contact with wood or cardboard.
Acid-free tissue or muslin are often used to shield textiles from harmful
lignins.
Storage options for textiles are manifold. Small items, such as locks of hair, fragments of cloth, or lace can be stored flat, sandwiched between sheets of tissue or encapsulated in
mylar
BoPET (biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate) is a polyester film made from stretched polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and is used for its high tensile strength, chemical and dimensional stability, transparency, reflectivity, gas and a ...
. Larger items tend to deteriorate at points of stress, due to folding or gravity pulling the fibers from one another. Finch and Putnam recommend rolling on plastic tubing or covered cardboard, or shaping over dummies. Clothing is often stored or shaped around specially created forms that support the textile fully while it is displayed or even hanged.
Notes
{{Reflist
References
*Drake, Miriam. ed ."Toys, games, etc (realia)" ''Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science'' Vol 31. New York : Marcel Dekker, 2003.
*Finch, Karen and Greta Putnam. '' The Care and Preservation of Textiles''. London: B. T. Batsford, 1985.
*Grossman, Lev.
"Catalog This" ''New York Times'', "Education Life" section, April 14, 2002, page 26. Retrieved on May 26, 2008.
*Hektoen, Faith H. and Jeanne R. Rinehart, editors. ''Toys to go : A Guide to the use of Realia in Public Libraries.'' Chicago: American Library Association, 1975.
*Mailand, Harold F. ''Considerations for the Care of Textiles and Costumes: A Handbook for the Non-Specialist''. Papers of The Textile Conservation Seminar, Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1978.
*Olson, Nancy B. "Cataloging Three-Dimensional Artefacts and Realia". ''Cataloging and Classification Quarterly.'' 2001 31 (3-4), pages 139-150.
*
Ritzenthaler, Mary Lynn
Mary Lynn Ritzenthaler is an American archivist who has served as the Chief of the Conservation Laboratory at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) since 1985.
Education
Ritzenthaler received her undergraduate degree in Engl ...
. ''Preserving Archives and Manuscripts'' Chicago: The Society of American Archivists, 1993.
*Vigo, Tyrone L. "Preservation of Natural Textile Fibers--Historical Perspectives" ''Preservation of Paper and Textiles of Historic and Artistic Value''. John C. Williams, ed. Washington, D.C.: American Chemical Society, 1977.
*Weber, Mary Beth. ''Cataloging Non-Print and Internet Resources.'' New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers Inc., 2002.
Library science terminology
Physical objects
Library management