19-07-2025
Libraries usually like bookworms - but not these ones
The Benedictine Archabbey has stood for the last 1,000 years, perched on top of a hill overlooking the town of Pannonhalma in Hungary. Its library houses the country's oldest collection of books as well as many of its earliest and most important written records, including a complete Bible from the 13th century. It also houses several hundred manuscripts from before the invention of the printing press in the mid-15th century, and tens of thousands of books from the 16th century. The current director is Ilona Ásványi. "Every day, I experience being the guardian and caretaker, and custodian of this very valuable collection of books." The Abbey library is said to have survived centuries of conflicts, including the Ottoman invasion of the 16th century. But now it's facing a new problem: drugstore beetles have infested about a quarter of the Archabbey's 400,000 precious works. The Benedictine abbey is governed by a set of rules that have been in use for nearly 15 centuries - a code that obliges the library to do everything it can to save its vast book collection. Accordingly, Zsófia Edit Hajdu has been brought in as the chief restorer. "We have been working mostly on mould damage in both depositories and in open collections for 30 years, but we've never encountered such a degree of infestation before. Usually, we see problems of mould in warehouses and in other collections. But due to global warming, it is expected that more and more insect infestations will appear." The drugstore beetle, also known as the bread beetle, is often found among foodstuffs like grains, flour, spices, and other dried products. But they are also attracted to the gelatine and starch-based adhesives found in old books. Ms Hajdu believes the effects of climate change have played a role in spurring the beetle infestation. "Higher temperatures are favourable for the life of insects. They are quite inactive below 20 degrees Celsius. Below that, their activity slows down; above that, they're more active. The persistently greater heat leads to more life cycles per year than in cooler periods. In warmer conditions, the reproduction cycle of the drugstore beetle can be up to four per year compared to only two in cooler weather.' The beetle invasion was first detected during a routine cleaning of the library, when employees noticed unusual layers of dust on the shelves and then saw that holes had been burrowed into some of the book spines. Upon opening the volumes, burrow holes could be seen in the paper where the beetles had chewed through. Ilona Ásványi says everyone is heartbroken at the prospect of losing books because of the infestation. "When I see a book chewed up by a beetle or infested in any other way, I feel that no matter how many copies are published and how replaceable the book is, a piece of culture has been lost.' But the Abbey's restoration workers are trying hard to avoid that possibility. They're removing roughly 100,000 hand-bound books from the shelves and carefully placing them in crates. Zsófia Hajdu says so many books are being taken down because the infestation has been detected in several parts of the library. "This is an advanced insect infestation which has been detected in several parts of the library, so the entire collection is classified as infected and must be treated all at the same time. We have to remove all the books from the shelves, put them into boxes, then into hermetically sealed plastic sacks. Inside them, an anoxic disinfection process takes place. Basically, we create an oxygen-free environment in which insects perish.' Once that process is done - and before being reshelved - each book will be individually inspected and vacuumed, and any book damaged by the pests will be set aside for later restoration work. The abbey hopes to reopen the library at the beginning of next year.
