Literature

A report of the October 27-28 conference on enzyme treatments in Cambridge is in the McKay Lodge Conservation Report for Spring 1991. Each speakers topic is summarized in a short paragraph.

The December Paper Conservation News carries half-page or full-page summaries of five talks, tours or meetings, including Deborah Evetts's talk at the Institute of Archaeology in London October 12; the Conference on Book and Paper Conservation, Budapest, September; Katsuhiko Masuda's course on the restoration of Japanese art an paper in Geneva last August; and The Campbell Center's course last September on Repair of Tears and Losses with an Emphasis on Pulping.

An Environmental Controls Resource Packet has been prepared by the New York State Library's Conservation/Preservation Program, which is being offered for sale outside the state. At $10, it is a real bargain, because the documents it contains are better than anything else available: 1) a new 88-page publication, Conservation Environment Guidelines for Libraries and Archives, by William Lull with assistance of Paul N. Barks, 2) Hold Everything! A Storage and Housing Information Sourcebook for Libraries and Archives, published by the New York Metropolitan Reference and Research Library Agency (MEMO), and 3) articles on environmental standards and specifications. The Lull/Banks Guidelines discusses general collection environment criteria, assessment, monitoring and goals for an improved conservation environment. It also addresses general building environments and system that can create a good conservation environment, including various possible compromises. It is unique, clearly written, amusing, authoritative and helpful. To get the packet, send check for $10, payable to The University of the State of New York, plus name, address & phone number, to Tiffany H. Allen, New York State Library, 10-C-47 Cultural Education Center, Albany, NY 12230 (518/474-6971).

Preservation Program Models, a report prepared by Jan Merrill-Oldham, Carolyn Clark Morrow and Mark Roosa, is based in part on an analysis of current academic library preservation program and of the 1988-89 ARL Preservation Statistics. It includes a discussion of the 10 components of a comprehensive preservation program of most concern to library administrators. The model describes four size groupings of ARL libraries, and for each size grouping, four levels of program maturity, with benchmarks for personnel, production and budgets. $20 to ARL members, s40 nonmembers, according to a May 8 ARL press release; $40 to ARL members, $60 nonmembers, according the ARL newsletter for May 8. Call them up and ask which price applies: 202/232-2466, and ask for Jutta Reed-Scott (fax 202/462-7849).

"Humidity Dependence of Deterioration in Acetate and Nitrate Base Films," by Adelstein, Reilly, Nishimura and Erbland, was announced as available from SMPTE on p. 142 of the December issue of this Newsletter, but it was never written up as a paper; it was a verbal report of two research reports. The research reports themselves, however, are available. Doug Nishimura sent the following information about them by electronic mail in April:

"The final report for NEH/NHPRC on the use of potassium polysulfide toning for the enhanced permanence of microfilm and the final report for NEH on the stability of safety film are both completed.

"The polysulfide report contains the development of IPI's polysulfide toner formulation, toning methods, recommended starting point for anyone attempting the toning method (time, temperature, etc.), and test methods for quality control. The total volume is about 174 pages long and is public information. Copies are available, although we must charge for copying, binding, shipping and handling. Total cost is $20.

The safety film project report contains information regarding the relative stability of cellulose ester based films (triacetate, acetate propionate, acetate butyrate, diacetate, nitrate) and polyester. Acetate butyrate film is used in contemporary and historic sheet film by Kodak. Effects of storage temperature and humidity a-re explored. This volume is about 103 pages long and is also $20.

"Copies of either report can be obtained by writing to the Image Permanence Institute."

A report on the National Conference on the Development of Statewide Preservation Programs held March 1-3, 1989, at the Library of Congress, is being distributed by the Commission on Preservation and Access free of charge to its sponsors, state library and archives agencies, and others on its mailing list. Like the conference itself, the report was a cooperative effort. Contributing to its publication were: Harvard University Library (design and production), the Library of Congress (photographs), and the Commission (costs of publication and distribution). The report was edited by Carolyn Clark Morrow, Harvard's Malloy-Rabinowitz Preservation Librarian, to be a practical tool for states interested in developing preservation plans.

Copies of the report remaining after its complementary distribution will be available, while supplies last, for $15 (U.S. funds required) from the Commission (1785 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Suite 313, Washington, DC 20036-2117). Send checks made payable to "Commission on Preservation and Access" to Trish Cece, Publications Assistant.

Bibliographies & Other Lists

Directory of Conservation Research in the United Kingdom. The Conservation Unit, Museums & Galleries Commission, 16 Queen Anne's Gate, London SW1H 9AA. Feb. 1991. 27 pp. £2. Quite a lot of book and paper research is listed, on pp. 1, 5, 7-11, 16-19, and 22-23. Addresses of the institutions are given, and research project titles (including some Ph.D. dissertations) are listed for each institution. Addresses, telephone numbers and contact persons are provided.

Bibliography on Mass Deacidification, by Carole Zimmerman. Library of Congress, Preservation Office, Washington, DC, 1991. On permanent paper. 259 references, grouped by date. No annotations, but there is an author index. Half the citations are 1987 or later. (The most recent published bibliography on deacidification had 180 references, and was published in the 1986 Restaurator; the author was Danielle Mihram.)

Preservation Education Directory, 6th ed. American Library Association, Order Dept., 50 E. Huron, Chicago, IL 60611. $5. The 5th edition, published in 1988, was announced in the December issue of this Newsletter.