• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.443-458
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• 2018

An archive is a collection of documents or records. Currently, most archived documents are made of paper. Paper is susceptible to biological damage and deterioration due to its material properties. To control the biological damage, treatment with chemical disinfectants and control of the storage environment are often used. In government-controlled bulk public archives, all documents are chemically sterilized before storage. However, an extremely large quantity of public records have been produced, and storage space and conservation management are gradually reaching their limits. In this study, 60 species of microbes were identified using a genetic method. We successfully applied the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) bioluminescence method to detect microbial contamination on paper documents. A calibration curve of the ATP bioluminescence as a function of the microbe quantity was obtained, and the microbial activity on non-sterilized paper archives from 1951 was analyzed using an ATP luminometer. It was found that the microbial activity was suppressed or reduced in climate-controlled storage environments at $22^{\circ}C$ and 55% relative humidity. We anticipate that these results will be used to establish selective sterilization systems for government-controlled bulk public archives.