Literature

A reliable source says that the proceedings of the 1980 Cambridge Conference on "The Conservation of Library and Archive Materials and the Graphic Arts" (reported in this Newsletter Dec. 1980) are at the printers and that Butterworths will have it out by the end of the year.

The Yale University Library series of preservation pamphlets by Jane Greenfield are now out of print and no longer available. The information contained in them has been compiled, revised, and expanded in Ms. Greenfield's Books: Their Care and Repair, to be published in Fall 1983 by the H. W. Wilson Company.

American Decorative Papermakers. Order from Robert Hauser, Busyhaus Publications, Post Box 1072, Mattapoisett MA 02739. 1983. 70 pp. Soft cover $45; hard cover in quarter morocco, $75 from Harcourt Bindery, 9-11 Harcourt St., Boston, MA 02116. Contains 10 original marbled and paste paper specimens with 10 essays by contemporary decorative papermakers Don Guyot, Faith Harrison, Iris Nevins, Kay Radcliffe, Sage Reynolds, Colman Rutkin, Donna Seim, Peggy Skycraft, Pamela Smith, Jim Talin, Pamela Talin and Christopher Weimann. Pages 8½ x 10½", Mohawk Superfine, sewn sections.

"Disaster Preparedness and Recovery: Photographic Materials," by Klaus B. Hendricks and Brian Lesser. American Archivist 46: 52-68, 1983. Summarizes results of an experimental study that involved immersing a variety of negatives and prints in water, then drying them in four different ways, three of which involved freezing. Recommendations for treatment of water-soaked photographs:

• Keep immersion time to a minimum.
• Keep water temperature low.
• Freezing of photographs retards further deterioration.
• As films appear to be more stable, salvage prints first.
• If personnel and time are available, proceed in this order:

  a. air dry (without freezing)
  b. freeze-thaw-air dry
  c. freeze-dry in vacuum chamber

• Freeze-thaw-vacuum drying, as done with books, not recommended due to blocking or sticking of gelatin layers.
• Protect wet collodion glass plate negatives completely from being immersed in water.
• Wet collodion glass plate negatives must never be freeze-dried; none will survive.