Volume 10, Number 6
Dec 1986

Editor's Page

Available From the Office

The subject classification scheme used for books and files in the Newsletter office will be sent on request. Please enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope (22�).

The Editor of CAN, Robert Patterson, had an editorial on the preservation backlash a year or two ago ("Why bother saving all those brittle books, if it's so expensive? Before long everything will be on computer or optical disk, anyway"). Ammunition for those who care to reply to this backlash is hard to find in the literature, but it has been accumulated in 15 papers written for the Editor's class in preservation at Brigham Young University. They cover human values, research value, practicality and technical considerations, and amount to 30 pages total, since they have been copied two to a page. Please send $2.00 for copying and postage; or $1.00 for a selection.

Abbey Newsletter Gets Tax Free Status

This Newsletter is incorporated in New York and Utah as Abbey Publications, Inc. in November 1986 the Internal Revenue Service granted tax-free status to Abbey Publications. One of the advantages of having tax-free status is, of course, that you don't have to pay taxes; the other is that people can donate money and other things to the corporation and deduct then from their own income tax.

Things on Acid-Free Paper Received Recently

Periodicals: New Bookbinder, AATA, Journal of the AIC, Studies in Conservation, National Preservation News (NPPO). Stationery used by William E. Hartmann and Robert Stables (and doubtless many others, but only a few were tested). Miscellaneous items: the preliminary program for AASLH' s 46th annual meeting two months ago; Nekoosa Finesse Cover, used for an ad in Tappi Journal Wilson Library Shelving Catalog 1485; the registration form for the last GBW seminar.

All the above were tested with chlorophenol red. Also tested were Restaurator (acidic) and Paper Conservator (ambiguous results). Sometimes a purple line of the indicator (indicating a pH of over 6.7) will turn yellow the next day, but rarely if ever the other way around. Of course, chlorophenol red does not give definitive determinations, but they are interesting.

Subscription Agent Can Help French Subscribers

Dawson France, an international subscription agency (BP 40, 91121 Palaiseau Cedex, France) has responded to letters of inquiry from the Editor, to say that they would be happy to handle subscriptions to save people the trouble of dealing in foreign exchange. First, people should contact the Abbey Newsletter. Then Dawson France invoices the subscriber in francs or other currency, and AN invoices Dawson in dollars.

Flat Earth Society (And Nearly Everybody) Ahead of Abbey

Organizations that have more members than the Abbey Newsletter has readers include the Flat Earth Society, whose members reject the idea that the world is round (2000); the Couch Potatoes, who are devoted to prolonged TV viewing (5000); Unicorns Unanimous (1545) and the American Society of Dowsers (2200). The members of the Beer Can Collectors of America nunber 5500, and the unorganized beer can collectors must be many times that number.

Sixteen Pages Is Not Enough

Nearly eight pages' worth of material, typed and ready to go, had to be left Out of this newsletter for lack of room. At least two more pages' worth of items for the Literature section were ready to be typed. As the field grows, it becomes harder to fit all the news into a l⁶-page publication issued only six times a year. There will have to be seven issues again this year, as there were in 1985. Contributors whose material does not appear in this issue can expect it in the next, about a month from now.

The Abbey Newsletter: Bookbinding and Conservation is issued six or more tines a year and has about 1000 subscribers. (Vol. 9 had seven issues.) New subscribers automatically receive all issues published in the current year, unless they request otherwise. All subscriptions expire on the last day of the year. To initiate or renew a subscription, send name, address, and a check for $35 (students $20), or the equivalent in £ sterling to Abbey Newsletter, 6216 HBLL, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602. Telephone: 801/378-2512 weekdays, 373-1598 after hours. Note: the Newsletter is not part of the University or the Library.

No paid advertisements are accepted, but any notice that is appropriate and has news value will be printed if there is room for it. Written contributions and bits of news are welcome. Claims for issues which are defective or damaged in the mail, and for back issues paid for but not received, will be honored without question within a year of publication.

The Abbey Newsletter is indexed in Art & Archaeology Technical Abstracts, Institute of Paper Chemistry Abstract Bulletin and Graphic Arts Literature Abstracts (RIT). It is not indexed in the usual periodical indexes because it is a newsletter. All issues but v.1 #2 are in print.

The Editor encourages readers to copy and pass around any article from the Newsletter, even entire issues; but before copying any part on a scale that amounts to republication, they must obtain permission from both author and editor.