Volume 11, Number 2
Mar 1987

Events in the News

• Last October 22, the Australian Branch of the International Association of Sound Archives (IASA) held an all-day seminar for people with responsibilities for sound collections, in order to generate interest and discussion in this area.

  The morning sessions began with a brief introduction to the types of sound carriers and why we should collect then (one reason being their unique capability of reproducing the atmosphere of a previous event). It continued with an examination of the issues involved in information management and the differences between creating a catalog and creating a discography. The afternoon session on technical management covered the methods used to treat sound carriers and the very sophisticated electronic processes used in transferring sound to a new, accessible medium.

  The papers presented at the seminar will be published in the Australian Sound Archive, the Australian journal of the IASA. For information about IASA or sound collections, contact Dr. Jeff Brownrigg, editor ASA, RSD 1 Flowerdale Rd., Kinglake West, Vic 3757, Australia. [From the ICCM National Newsletter for December.]

• On the weekend of October 25-26, the Ottawa Regional Group of the IIC-CG sponsored a seminar: "Guidelines for the Establishment of a Private Conservation Practice." the program included:

  How to Start a Small Business - by Jim Ledoux of Ledoux, Sonego and Assoc.

  Working Co-operatives - by Constance Mungall CAPC and the Ethics of Private Practice - by Ian Hodkinson

  Experience with Private Practice - by Sandra Lawrence

  Panel Discussion, moderated by Ian Hodkinson. Panelists: Karen Graham, Craig Johnson, Sandra Lawrence and Kenneth Lockwood.

• The Center for Book Arts is offering 12 courses or workshops on bookbinding and boxmaking, each emphasizing a different aspect, three on making equipment, and others on marbling, papermaking, printing and publishing this spring and summer. Members can use the workshop for $4 per hour ($6 nonmembers) or $75/month. Membership is $25. For more information write Center for Book Arts, 626 Broadway, New York, NY 10012 (212/460-9768).
• From February 28 to April 24, Saturday's Gallery (565 East 185th St., Euclid, Ohio) will exhibit the works of ten outstanding contemporary Czechoslovak design-binders. This is the first in a series of international exhibitions to be organized annually by Saturday's Gallery. Each year the exhibit will feature contemporary design bookbinders from a different country.
• On April 3 and 4, there will be a symposium at Columbia University on the principles and uses of freezing in the eradication of insects and the stabilization and drying of library and archival materials. It is entitled "Cryobibliotherapy: Principles and Practice of Freezing in Book Conservation and Disaster Response," and it is sponsored by the Conservation Programs in the School of Library Service. Participants will be involved in practical demonstrations. Conservators, scientists, preservation administrators, librarians and archivists are invited. There will be ten speakers, including Sally Buchanan, Mary-Lou Florian, Gary Frost, Elizabeth Gay, Don Hartsell (of Airdex Corporation), Eric Lundquist, and Richard D. Smith. Fee: $400. Write Jerry Grant, Conservation Programs, School of Library Service, 516 Butler Library, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027 (212/280-4178).
• April 8-10, TAPPI is giving a Sizing Short Course in Atlanta. Some of the papers listed in the preliminary program are:

  The Wetting of Paper Starches for Paper Sizing
  The Chemistry of Aluminum Salts in Papermaking
  Rosin Sizing: Fundamentals
  An Overview of Cellulose Reactive Sizes
  ASA Sizing: Fundamentals
  AKD Sizing

  The fee for members is $400; nonmembers $600 (but membership is only $50). Registration forms from Preregistration Dept., TAPPI/CA 5225, Technology Park/Atlanta, P.O. Box 102062, Atlanta, GA 30368-0062.

• On April 22 and 23 there will be a workshop on bindery preparation and book repair, in Denver, co-sponsored by the Bibliographical Center for Research, SOLINET and Denver Bookbinding Company. Speakers are Lisa Fox, Myra Jo Moon, Rita Lundquist and Gail Sichler. Topics covered in the talks include housekeeping, preservation, book structure, leaf attachment, administrative concerns, quality control, staff and morale issues, library-binder relations, simple book repair, contract writing and decision making. the fee has not been announced yet. For information, contact Gail A. Sichler, Denver Bookbinding Co., 2715 17th St., Denver, CO 80211 (303/455-5521).

  The last tine this was done in this area was 1982 and the workshop attracted over 100 librarians.

• May 7-9, the Midwest Archives Conference will hold its spring meeting in Chicago. Archivists, historians, librarians, museum curators, manuscript curators, records managers, oral historians, and anyone with an interest in the preservation and use of historical materials is invited to attend the meeting. For further information contact Maureen O'Brien Will, Chicago Historical Society, Clark St. at North Ave., Chicago, IL 60614 (312/642-4600).
• The Columbia Rare Book School runs from July 6 to 31 this year, with 24 courses, most of which are 5-day, all-day courses. There are some half-day courses, but because they have one or more day-long field trips, it is not possible to take two half-tine courses in the same week. Both all-day and half-day courses cost $400 plus field-trip fees. Housing is provided at $30/night, air-conditioned. One of the courses, "Topics in Medieval and Renaissance Bookbinding Structures," taught by Chris Clarkson, has a prerequisite:

  Clarkson's introductory course. For course descriptions and application forms, apply to Rare Book School, School of Library Service, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027.

  Instructors (35 of them) include Nicolas Barker, Tim Barrett, Terry Belanger, John Bidwell, Chris Clarkson, Francis Mattson, Nicholas Pickwoad, James Reilly, Tom Tanselle, Claire Van Vliet and Edwin Wolf II.

• The Annual Instructional Meeting for archive conservators, organized by the Society of Archivists Technical Committee and the Kent County Archives Office, will be held in Canterbury, September 8-11. It is planned to include sessions on the conservation of both printed and manuscript material, on early repair methods and the development of binding structures in the 16th & 17th centuries. Seminars will include sessions on the identification of fibres, techniques for repairing prints, classification of polymers and titration.
• In September, the Philipps-Universität, Marburg, West Germany, is planning a two-day colloquium on parchment. The object is to compile expertise from scientists, historians and conservators with the aim of producing a publication which can be used as a reference tool. Anyone interested in participating should contact Dr. P. Ruck, Philipps-Universität, Wilhelm-Ropke-Strasse 6C, Marburg, West Germany.
• The Imaging Science and Technology Group of the Royal Photographic Society announces a residential symposium to be held at New College and the Zoology Department Lecture Theatre, Oxford, England, on September 21-25. The overall theme is the storage of recorded images, including stability and conservation of images and archival storage considerations. Papers are expected to cover electronic and magnetic storage media as well as conventional photographic storage and image stability.
• IADA holds its Sixth International Graphic Restorers' Day October 5-9, in Berlin. (IADA is the International Association of Archive, Library and Graphic Conservators. German is the principal language at its meetings, which are held only once every three or four years. It has no newsletter or other publication of its own.) Speakers at this meeting will include Gerhard Banik (National Library, Vienna), Helmut Bansa (Bavarian State Library), David Clements (British Library), Francoise Flieder (Centre de Conservation, Paris), Klaus Hendriks (Public Archives, Canada), Judith Hofenk de Graaff (Central Laboratory, Amsterdam), Per Laursen (Denmark), Peter Sparks (LC), Richard Smith (Wei T'o), and Otto Wächter (Austrian National Library). Topics addressed are wide-ranging and include the destructive effects of light; fixing of colors in preparation for mass restoration; some Japanese methods of conservation for scrolls, books and screens; hygiene in the workplace; and deacidification and preservation of newspapers. Six of the 26 papers in the preliminary program deal with book conservation. For more information, write Ernst Bartelt, Restaurierungswerkstatt, Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Potsdamer Str. 33, D-1000 Berlin 30, Germany.