The collections housed in the National Library contain unique and rare items held in perpetuity for the nation. All of them undergo a natural ageing process over time. We cannot stop this inevitable deterioration of the materials in our collections but we can control the rate at which it happens. Damage is cumulative, but correct handling of books, manuscripts and other materials will aid in their preservation. Nevertheless, in some instances we may ask readers to use surrogate copies of items which are especially, rare, fragile or vulnerable.
You can play your part in the preservation process, by observing rules and guidelines which are currently in place for our manuscripts collection and our rare books collection and also by following directions that library staff may give.
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