MANAGEMENT, CONSERVATION AND PRESERVATION OF PALM-LEAF MANUSCRIPTS: A RESEARCH STUDY BASED ON SELECTED COLLECTIONS IN SRI LANKA

Abstract

A survey of the palm-leaf manuscript collections was carried out in order to find out the maintenance, present physical condition, problems relating to the preservation and conservation of the collections, the ancient and modern preservation and conservation methods that applied to safeguard the manuscripts from flaws, and the available preservation programmes and user attitudes of above factors in Sri Lanka. The concentrations of the largest collections of palm-leaf manuscript in Sri Lanka are the Department of National Museums, University of Peradeniya and Department of National Archives. 10% of each collection was selected as sample of the study and a simple random sampling method was applied. Altogether, 717 manuscripts were taken to study the physical condition of the collections. The environmental conditions of the repositories were observed by using a record sheet. Further, a questionnaire was sent to all heads of the departments and librarians to identify the existing administrative problems. User attitude test was also carried out in order to find out the attitudes regarding the usage, maintenance and preservation of palm-leaves. Data analysis was done by using SPSS, Binomial Distribution and ANOVA between group and within group variability. The survey of visual observation and the viva-voce interviews revealed the following findings of the study.