Very soon the market will be almost crowded with photocopiers designed for books. Two of them were displayed at the ALA meeting: Dual Copy Systems' Selectec 1603 (not the same as their 1635H copier, described in the February issue, p. 31) and the Xerox BookSaver Copier, which is too new yet to have a number. The Selectec, which allows the book to hang off the front edge, is based on a Mita copier; for information call 312/534-1500 (Dual Office Suppliers in Chicago). The Xerox, which seems to copy a little bit further into the inner margin, is still in the test phase. One of the test sites is the Fairport Public Library in Fairport, New York 14450. The copier is scheduled for controlled introduction in the Raleigh-Durham area in late October, and will not be available to the general public until after January. It lets the book hang off the side.
Another one is a recently modified version of the Océ, last covered in this Newsletter in March 1987, p. 34. Information has not been received on this most recent version yet.
The Archivist, a face-up copier, has been modified too. The original model took 220 volts of current; the current one takes 110 volts and is now assembled in the U.S., with spare parts available from 500 dealers. There are said to be about 20 in the U.S., 100 worldwide. U.S. owners include New York Public Library, Georgetown University, Winterthur Museum, Frick Art Reference Library and Atlantic Richfield Corp. Cost: $13,950 from Total Information Group Ltd., 4 Marylands Court, Marylands Ave., Hemel Hempstead HP2 7DE, England.
An improved book cradle for microfilming, large enough to hold bound newspapers, has been developed for MAPS by Amitech Corporation, 2721-E Merrilee Drive, Fairfax, VA 22031 (703/698-5057). It is, as Lee Jones says, "a robust cradle with the capacity to handle very brittle books with care" when it has been decided not to cut off the binding. However, it cannot capture the text from the gutters of closely bound books. The small one is $1,100 and the large one is $1,299. To see one in operation, go visit the Mid-Atlantic Preservation Service, Lehigh University Mountaintop Campus, 118 Research Drive, Building J, Bethlehem, PA 18015. Call first: 215-758-5390.
We have a floor model Bostitch electric stapler which uses 25-½", 25-3/8", etc. staples. Does anyone know where stainless steel staples may be acquired for this machine?
Scott Kellar
Collections Conservator
Northwestern University Library
Evanston, IL 60201
Leather. Karen Crisalli of the Bookbinder's Warehouse (45 Division St., Keyport, NJ 07735, 201/264-0306) writes that the Hewit Tannery has, for several years, been developing a line of archival leathers that would meet the recommendations that were based on the research of BLMRA, and is now offering them for sale, under the names of Clansman Goatskin and Archival Calfskin. Samples and price lists are available. They are retanned with 2% aluminum.
At PBI '88, Tony Cams showed sample pieces of other leathers, some goatskin with a mixed vegetable tannage and 6% aluminum retannage, rather hard to pare, from Pearce & Co., Ltd., Billing Park, Northampton, England; and some semi-chrome goatskin from Harmatan, which is a bit stretchy and contains no aluminum but is more durable than most.
Paper. Infusion Ltd., Hankyu Inc., 7223 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046 (213/934-5489), is offering 30 kinds of handmade and eight kinds of machine-made Japanese papers. The price sheet tells the kind of fiber is used, the size and weight of the sheet, the pH, and the use for which the paper is prepared. Apparently there is a minimum of 100 sheets, but the prices start at 63�/sheet. Shipping and import duties are extra. (The sample book says on the first page, "Japanese Hand-Made Paper Sample Note, For Conservator & Printer. FUJI Paper Mills Cooperative, 136 Kawahigashi Yamaka-cho Oe-gun, Tokushima; 779-34.") There are also some large samples of Hon-Mino-Gami paper made by Kozo and Sayoko Furuta, who have been designated Living National Treasures.
Alfredo de la Rosa has some craft bookbinding tools to sell: handle tools, handle letters, skiving knives, antique standing presses, a lying press and plough and so on. He can only be contacted by mail: P0 Box 280, Taos, NM 87571.
Sewing hole punching jigs, sewing frames and paper-molds. Timothy Moore, P0 Box 793, Albion, Ml 49224 (517/ 629-4449).
Litho stones. Dave Churchman, Pendragon Press, P0 Box 50096, Castleton, IN 46250. Also from Sterling Type Foundry, P0 Box 50234, Indianapolis, IN 46250, 317-849-5665.
Typeholders for single pieces of type, �3.75 each or �32.80 for ten, probably with an extra charge for overseas postage, from Teasdale Brown, 103 Heath Road, Widnes, Cheshire WA8 7NU. (This was copied from the August 1988 issue of the Society of Bookbinders and Book Restorers, Chester & North Wales Region, Newsletter, and Mr. Brown was not consulted on whether he wanted to do any export business; inquire first.)
Information Conservation, Inc., of Greensboro, North Carolina, has begun to offer a mass deacidification service to libraries. ICI sends the books to a company called Book Preservation Associates, which uses chemicals that include ammonia and ethylene oxide. The resulting compounds are a mixture of ethanolamines. The high vacuum technique used "essentially" removes any unreacted low molecular weight amines, ammonia or ethylene oxide, they say; but no figures are offered to quantify the outgassing of ethylene oxide afterwards. EtO is known to outgas from leather books and certain other objects for months after sterilization, even when they have undergone dozens of air washes. We need more information. Trial jobs were done for Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Ohio State, Rutgers, Stanford, and the Universities of Delaware, Maryland, Michigan and North Carolina, but there is no indication of which ones, if any, were performing their own evaluations of the safety and effectiveness of the process. The ICI report of formal tests performed for them by North American Science Associates of Irving, California, does not give enough information to be useful.
Can this be the same company whose process was described on p. 97 of the OTA report? It says, "Just when OTA was completing this report, another U.S. firm from Linden, New Jersey announced a new process they had tested, 'The Booksavers MGD process.' It is a system based on existing industrial processes for mass sterilization of medical products and food ingredients. Ammonia gas, moisture, and ethylene oxide are introduced into a vacuum chamber to react with paper components to form long-chain amines within the cellulose matrix of the book paper... ." Who is behind this process? Do they understand what the conservation/preservation community wants, and what it considers important? What professional papers have they published on the process? Who has visited their plant? What quality control tests (e.g. those in Appendix D of the OTA report) has it been submitted to, and how did it perform?
ICI is at 911 Northridge, Greensboro, NC 27420 (919/ 299-7534). Ask for Don Etherington or Jack Fairfield.
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