Brief book reviews

The 1992 proceedings volume of the Institute of Paper Conservation has a
number of very interesting papers (needless to say), among them one by
Elissa O'Loughlin and Linda Stiber on pressure-sensitive tape, another
by Vicki Humphry on disbinding as a conservation strategy for various
albums, one on the chemistry and conservation issues for porous-tip
(e.g. felt-tipped and other ubiquitous modern pens), and a history of
British philatelic materials and philatelic conservation.  (Mentioned
because the literature on these subjects is scanty.)  I'll give better
bibliographic information when our librarian is back and I can figure
out where we got this and what it cost.

Helen Shenton's paper, "A Conservation Strategy for Books at the
Victoria and Albert Museum," (pp. 133-140) is a look at one persuasive
model for prioritizing special collection volumes for treatment. The
goal was to identify the 100 most important targets for bench treatment
by a small conservation staff on the basis of consensus on "value" and
condition of material, optimize the allocation of limited resources.

The "best" of the collection was identified by asking each library staff
member to identify the twenty most important titles in the collection
(e.g., if the library was on fire, what would you grab before you ran
out the door).  The question permitted the inclusion of series, which
produced 650 target volumes. (The paper does not detail the
reconciliation of differing opinion, but one of the forms illustrated
shows number of "nominations," so presumably there was a statistical
basis for inclusions.)

Each volume was examined according to a pre-defined set of parameters to
determine the stability of the object against likely use (adding
priority on the basis of use and condition to priority on the basis of
value).  Sample forms are shown, a practical, common-sense methodology
is outlined, and a very useful sample mission statement and goals for a
systematic preservation/conservation program for artifact materials are
provided in an appendix.  With modifications, this should translate to a
lot of contexts.

Karen Motyklewski
Northeast Document Conservation Center

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 6:53
                 Distributed: Saturday, April 10, 1993
                        Message Id: cdl-6-53-008
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