Volume 10, Number 2
Apr 1986

Events in the News

• Last December the representatives of 25 conservation laboratories met in Rome at the invitation of ICCROM and the Getty Conservation Institute, to examine the present state of scientific research in conservation. They came from 11 European countries as well as Canada, the United States, China, Japan and India. This meeting provided participants with the opportunity to gain an overview of scientific research being conducted internationally, to exchange information about the future directions and priorities of individual programs, and to examine ways of strengthening collaboration among institutions. Cooperative ventures for the future, such as a proposed world-wide index of research in progress, were discussed. This consultation was part of an ongoing GCI effort to survey the field and identify areas of research that night be supported through its extramural research program.
• From March 16 through April 20, in Vancouver, there is an Arts of the Book Exhibition that is more than an exhibition. Each of the five weeks will have four or five events, typically a visiting artist, visiting exhibit, lecture, workshop and lectures, featuring outstanding experts. Michael Wilcox teaches advanced bookbinding in a three-day workshop and lectures on his bindings, Claire van Vliet gives a half-day workshop centering on the small press, Miriam Clavir of the UBC Museum of Anthropology speaks on paper conservation, and so on. Sponsor: Alcuin Society, with grant money from many quarters. Occasion: Vancouver's 100th birthday. Unfortunately, the registration deadline is long past. Information was not received by the Newsletter until February 19. Anyhow, the Alcuin Society is at P0 Box 3216, Vancouver, B.C. V6B 3X8, Canada.
• On April 3-4, SOLINET (Southeastern Library Network, Inc.) is scheduled to give a workshop on book repair like the one they gave last November. Instructors: Debra McKern and Robert Milevski. This one will be in New Orleans and costs $45 for staff of member institutions, $50 for nonmembers. For information call 404/892-0943.
• NEDCC will give a two-day workshop May 1-2 at the Connecticut Historical Society entitled "Preservation Options for Non-Rare and Rare Materials in Library Collections ." It is aimed at professionals in libraries or other institutions with responsibility for overseeing contracts with commercial binderies and other collection care activities. It will also include sessions on related matters: planning and priority setting for preservation programs, and microfilming as a preservation tool. Instructors: Jan Merrill-Oldham, Sherelyn Ogden, Mildred O'Connell, and Veronica Cunningham. For registration information contact Ursula Korzenik, Connecticut Historical Society, One Elizabeth St., Hartford, CT 06105 (203/ 236-5621).
• At the IIC-CG Conference and Training Workshop in Winnipeg May 12-19, the events that relate most closely to library and archival conservation take place on May 17-18:

  Training Program for Conservators of Photographic Materials at the Public Archives of Canada (G. Hill, K. Hendricks & K. Collins)
  The Use of Borohydride Derivatives to Increase the Long-term stability of cellulose (H. Burgess)
  The Freezing Process--Effects on Insects and Artifact Materials (M.-L. Florian)
  Computer Users Specialty Group Meeting

• On Wednesday, May 14, at 5:30 p.m., a panel of four hand binders will meet at the Art Institute of Chicago, at the invitation of the Friends of the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, to consider the question, "What is a Bookbinder?" the panel will be moderated by Robert Kearns, business reporter for the Chicago Tribune, who has an interest in bookbinding. There will be a reception afterward to view the exhibition "The Art and Craft of Bookbinding," which is curated by Bill Anthony. $10 for nonmembers at the door.
• The panelists are: Bill Anthony, who served a traditional seven-year apprenticeship with his father, John Anthony, in Waterford, Ireland, and is currently University Conservator at the University of Iowa and a fine binder; Bill Minter, who apprenticed with Anthony and is proprietor of William D. Minter, Chicago, a conservation and bookbinding lab; Sylvia Rennie, a Wisconsin design bookbinder who worked with Hugo Peller at the school at Ascona, Switzerland; and Elizabeth ("Betsy") Eldridge, who apprenticed with Günter Metz and studied finishing in Paris with Jules Fache. Eldridge, formerly associated with Carolyn Horton in New York, is presently a teacher and conservator/restorer of books in Toronto.
• The workshop on "The Technology of the Medieval Book," planned for June, 1987, will be held on the land of Jim Croft in rural Idaho. He says, "This is a hands-on making of linen cord and thread and paper (from linen grown here this year), tanning leather, and working down a split oak board into covers (from Oregon White Oak harvested last year--trees were cut in 1980 and air drying ever since), [then making] clasps. The event will symbolically run through the steps--actually performing each step but being able to draw from reserves of previously prepared materials to complete the book."

  People who cannot wait until June 1987 to talk to somebody about this unusual workshop can write Jim Croft, Traditional Hand Bindery, Box 211, Santa, Idaho 83866.