I was privileged to speak to the Preservation Administration Discussion Group at the ALA Annual Meeting in New Orleans in June. I told them about a major research project of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) regarding the aging of printing and writing paper. Our effort is aimed at providing three accelerated aging test methods that are agreed by all stakeholders to be scientifically sound. If this is accomplished, we believe it will be possible to make reasonable predictions of the life expectancy for any given paper for its intended end use. We are in process of completing five years of intensive research in five distinguished laboratories in the U.S, Canada and Finland. Some 33 organizations that range from manufacturers to the paper conservation community are the sponsors of the work. Our test methods will use temperature, light and atmospheric pollutants as the three separate aging accelerants for the three methods. During my talk in New Orleans, I outlined the scope of the research effort and some of the preliminary findings. If there is anyone reading this note who did not attend the meeting and is interested in receiving copies of the slides I presented then, please reply to this email and I will be happy to send you a copy. In the most recent copy of The Abbey Newsletter (1999, v.23 #1), Ms Ellen McCrady wrote an article regarding the ASTM research program. Unfortunately, it contained several errors of fact. I have written to Ms. McCrady with appropriate corrections. She has assured me she will publish my note as a "Letter to the Editor" in the next issue of the publication. In the meantime, several of our technical advisors who represent the paper conservation community have recommended that I make my letter available on this web site to those who may have read Ms. McCrady's piece but may not see the next issue. Therefore, I am sending my letter as an attachment to this note. I keep up-to-date with McAfee's VirusScan program, so am virtually certain there are no known viruses associated with my attachment. Very sincerely, R. Bruce Arnold Chair: ASTM Paper Aging Research Program
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