Quality Systems Update for Dec. 1992 (vol. 2, No. 12) includes a good amount of information showing that standards promote healthy change and growth. The lead article ("World Bank Might Hasten Global Standardization") describes the World Bank's new emphasis on standardization as an economic stimulus for developing nations. It is included in 40 projects and is expected to be more effective than privatizing government entities or removing import/ export barriers. In a sidebar to this story, the key role played by standardization in the development of Singapore's $69 billion economy is described. Although Singapore is a dictatorship, the government chose to adopt a voluntary standards system in order to attract industry participation. Its gross national product has increased 23-fold in the last 33 years.
On p. 4, Lawrence Eicher, secretary-general of ISO, says that environmental standards will enable industry to regulate itself and avoid excessive governmental control. ISO has set up a Strategic Advisory Group on the Environment (SAGE) to study the use of standardization as a way to achieve sustainable growth.
Among the companies in this country that have achieved registration in one of the ISO 9000 standards are:
Weyerhaeuser Columbus Pulp and Paper Complex (in Mississippi), ISO 9002
Akzo Chemicals, Inc., Metal Alkyls Business, Deer Park, Texas (for design, development and manufacture of organometallic chemicals for the petrochemical industry), ISO 9001 (the most comprehensive standard in the set)
Eastman Kodak Company, Black and White Paper Manufacturing, Rochester, NY (for manufacture of black and white sensitized paper for photographic and other purposes), ISO 9002.
International Standard for the Registration of Watermarks has been published by the IPH (International Association of Paper Historians) in a provisional version in English and in German. It can be puchased from the Secretary of IPH at a price of sfr 11/DM 12. A trilingual appendix gives the codes for watermark classes and subclasses. The IPH plans to maintain an international database to keep track of all watermark collections, public and private, so institutions and collectors are requested to contact the Secretary as soon as possible. Contact Sekretariat IPH, Ludwig Ritterpusch, Wehrdaer Strasse 135, D-3550 Marburg, Germany.
On the Road to Preservation: A State-Wide Preservation Action Plan for Colorado. Colorado Preservation Alliance, Denver, 1993. 16 pp. This was produced and published with support from a Library Services and Construction Act grant (Title III) from the Colorado State Library. Strategies under each of the four major goals are described under this well-edited publication. The front cover reproduces an old photograph showing a woman on foot, in touring dress, plodding along a dirt road in the wilderness, resolutely pulling her Model T behind her--an obvious reference to the title metaphor. The Colorado Preservation Alliance's address is: c/o Colorado State Archives, 1313 Sherman St., Denver, CO 80203 (303/866-2057).
Saving the Past to Enrich the Future: A Plan for Preserving Information Resources in Kansas. Kansas Library Network, Topeka, 1993. 50 pp. To order a copy or get information, contact Michael Piper at the Kansas State Library, 913/296-3296. A heroic painting of John Brown, zealous opponent of slavery in Kansas before the Civil war, is reproduced on the front cover. He is brandishing a rifle in one hand and an open book in the other, his long beard blowing in the wind. Both the rifle and the book seem to have been damaged as if on the field of battle. The authors say, "It has been alleged that the fury in his expression was caused by concern about the deteriorating condition of the book in his hand." This published plan is well-illustrated and attractively laid out. The text looks good, except that certain definitions in the glossary on p. 47-49 are inaccurate (for instance, "brittle paper" is defined as "paper that has become yellowed or discolored"!).
Preferred Library Futures II: Charting the Paths. By Richard M. Dougherty and Carol Hughes. Research Libraries Group, Mountain View, CA, 1993. 27 pp. This is not about preservation as such, but about the major trends affecting research libraries for better or worse. Some of the trends, such as copyright pressures, directly affect preservation activities, while others, such as the rapidly increasing cost of information (e.g., skyrocketing costs of serials) indirectly affect them. These trends were discussed in a six-day brainstorming workshop sponsored June 1992 by RLG and attended by representatives of the publishing, university administrative, library and information technology worlds. Dougherty concluded that these stakeholders in the world of information, who disagreed on many important issues, need a far better means of communicating with each other. Single copies of the report are available without charge from RLG Distribution Services Center, 1200 Villa St., Mountain View, CA 94041-1100; faxed requests can be sent to 415.964.0943, attention DSC.
"Preservation and the Library of the Future," by Billy Frye. Commission on Preservation and Access Newsletter, May 1993. p. 1-2. A new phrase has sprung into existence: "the virtual library." This probably means a library where you can go and read a book that isn't really there; it's a downloaded image of a book that resides in a distant computer. Or perhaps the term refers to all the books that have been digitally recorded, regardless of which library they are in. In any case, it seems to be the inevitable library of the future, at least for research collections. Author Frye suggests that there may be a significant relationship between the evolving nationwide preservation program and the evolution of the virtual library. Certain problems that will have to be confronted with the virtual library have already been worked out, at least in part, in preservation. These include shared ownership of digital records and standards for cataloging material in film and electronic formats.
Procedure Writing; Principles and Practices, by Douglas Wieringa, Christopher Moore and Valerie Barnes. $34.95 plus shipping from Battelle Press; call 800/451-3543. Covers topics such as vocabulary, format, organization, emphasis techniques and presentation of cautions. (Announced in Quality Systems Update, Feb. 1993.)
"Preserving Britain's Paper Trail: Mary Goodwin oversees National Trust's cache of paper objects--from globes to wallpaper," by Christopher Andreae. Christian Science Monitor, October 26, 1992, p. 14. Mary Goodwin is the paper conservator for Britain's National Trust. In this profile, she is described as "really knowledgeable--and diplomatic." However, what she says about preservation and conservation in the U.S., for publication in an American newspaper, would make some of us wonder: knowledgeable compared to what? And diplomatic compared to what? She is quoted as saying, with respect to the National Trust's requirement that objects be preserved "forever,"
In the United States, they are far more generous about this. They've decided that "forever" is really a few generations.
Well, in this country, few conservators would agree that most paper artifacts need only be preserved for a few generations. American standards are as high in this respect as those in Britain.
In a sidebar on modern paper, she is quoted as saying that US research has produced stable papers that, in theory, will last 300 years, but cost is prohibitive to many users; recycled paper, obviously good for other reasons, is "very suspect" in terms of longevity.
Very few stable papers were produced as a result of US research; research and production have been remarkably independent of each other here. And stable papers are not priced higher than unstable papers, except insofar as high quality has always commanded a premium, whether the papers have been acid or alkaline. Her comment about recycled paper is probably too sweeping. The quality and longevity of recycled paper depends mainly on the kind of discarded paper it was made of, and the way it was processed. Paper, after all, has included recycled fiber since the very beginning: old rope, rags, and a variety of other stuff.
"Step-by-Step Outline to Grant Proposals," by Dr. Donald Levitan. 501(c)(3) Monthly Letter: A Management Tool for Nonprofits, March 1993, p. 1, 8-10. This is a brief general guide with checklists that looks quite useful. The publisher may be willing to send out copies: call Marilyn Miller in Atlantic, IA at 712/243-5257.
A Core Collection in Preservation. Compiled by Lisa Fox. 2nd ed. by Don K. Thompson and Joan ten Hoor. A joint publication of SOLINET and ALA/ALCTS. Free to SOLINET libraries. Others send $5 to SOLINET Preservation Program, 1438 W. Peachtree St., NW, Suite 200, Atlanta, GA 30319-2955 (800/999-8558); or ALA Order Dept., 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. ISBN 0-8389-7633-6. 48 pp. Under nine subject headings and two format categories, this bibliography lists 115 annotated references to the most useful publications on preservation, including videos and electronic mail, and gives the publisher and price, or says whether the reference is out of print. It is indexed, and refers at the end of each section to related matter in other sections. Guides like this to the literature of preservation are especially important because of a) the nature of the publications (practical guides and manuals), b) the number of new people entering preservation and having to learn by reading, c) the rapid changes in the field, and d) the fact that the literature is hard to find in libraries, because even if an item is in the catalog, somebody else (usually a staff member) has it out on permanent loan.
"Conservation as I Remember It: An Undocumented Hindsight." Preservation Issues (a regular insert in the State Library of Ohio News) #11, March 1993. Two unnumbered pages by Walter Brahm, who organized the North East Document Center in 1972, at the urging of town clerks who had trouble preserving their records. (This was one time when librarians were not in the vanguard.) He remembers when microfilm was introduced in 1930, and he was Director of Development in the Ohio Library Foundation until 1989, so he has had a long professional career.
Managing the Preservation of Serial Literature, An International Symposium. Conference held at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC, May 22-24, 1989. Edited by Merrily Smith. (IFLA PAC Publications 57) K.G. Saur, London and New York, 1992. ISBN 3-598-21783-8. $50. 291 pp.
This is certainly a reader-friendly publication, with an index that spells out all acronyms, a list of participants with addresses, transcriptions of discussion sessions, abstracts in four languages of each paper, footnotes and references, and tables of contents both for the book as a whole and for each section. It must have been a lot of work to put this together, but none of the effort will be wasted. The language barriers and different backgrounds that impeded communication at the time of the conference are finally overcome by the published proceedings.
The six sections into which the papers are grouped are:
Some of the papers with significance outside the serials community are the discussion, "Must Publications be Preserved in Original Format?" in which Margaret Child argued against and Andrew Phillips of the British Library argued for; and the following papers: "Information Needed for Preservation Decision-Making," by Gay Walker; "Implementing Cooperative Preservation at the International Level," by Hans Rütimann; "Strategies for Implementation of Cooperative Preservation Activities at the National Level," by Jeffrey Heynen; and "The Dissemination of Preservation Information," by Merrily Smith.
The Preservation of Archival Materials, A Report of the Task Forces on Archival Selection to the Commission on Preservation and Access. $5 from the Commission, 1400 16th St., NW, Suite 740, Washington, DC 20036-2217 (202/939-3400). 7 pp. Library preservation, which focusses on published materials, has been leading the way, while preservation of the unpublished material in archives has had little attention; however, this report may help to redress that imbalance. It summarizes the problem of preservation in archives, and the concepts of preservation, life expectancy and so on; states four basic principles; lays out its recommendations to resource allocators and professionals; and makes recommendations for projects and future actions.
American Association of Law Libraries, Special Committee on Preservation Needs of Law Libraries. Report and Recommendations. (Occasional Papers No. 13) American Association of Law Libraries, Chicago, 1992. 100 pp. Like the report of the Task Forces on Archival Selection, The Preservation of Archival Materials (above), this offers a reliable foundation on which to build appropriate and lasting preservation programs for a certain type of collection. One might wonder at first whether archivists and law librarians are failing to make use of existing knowledge and precedents established by the research libraries, but these reports reveal that the materials, patterns of use and organization, and sources of funding are different enough from those of academic research libraries to guarantee failure of a copycat program, to some degree if not totally. Because preservation programs of any size require funding of some sort, it is essential to have a credible description of the problems they will address, and efficient and practical solutions to the problems identified. Both of these reports do this.
The AALL publication is a shortened version of the original 1991 report, which resulted in establishment of a Standing Committee on Preservation. The Special Committee that produced this report was chaired by Diana Vincent-Daviss, and included among its 10 members Willis Meredith and Linda Nainis. It did a mail survey of law libraries, which are quite diverse in nature, and reports the findings here. One gets the impression that most law librarians do not believe they have very serious preservation problems--all they need is more space, someone to fix the books, and so on. (At one time, this was what almost any librarian would have told you about their library.) Research law libraries gave more sophisticated and realistic answers. And of course all the libraries that responded did give valuable feedback on collections, staffing, preservation activities, funding, interlibrary loan, and attorney workproduct.
One section of the report reviews 11 "players and resources in the national preservation agenda," such as RLG, OCLC, National Library of Medicine, and state preservation programs, and describes what might be gained by tying in with each one. (At the time, they thought the RLIN database was going to be scrapped, and thought OCLC might be their only hope for facilitating cooperative programs that called for a shared database.) Actually, this section would be useful for almost any kind of library trying to get off to a running start.
One section covers preservation formats and paper quality, another covers treatment options (microfilm, deacidification, electronic format, weeding, etc.). The treatment section seems to be up to date except for its recommendations that leather be treated (oiled) and its recommendation of 50% RH (unnecessarily high, and not supported by research) for the storage of books. The last 14 pages make recommendations for AALL and its committees, most of which sound quite realistic, e.g., continue involvement in development of standards, hold joint programs with other groups, and produce educational/informational materials. In summary, the Special Committee did a good job, and produced a modern and sensible report.
"Fire Suppression and Life without Halon," by Barbara O. Roberts. WAAC Newsletter, May 1993, p. 31-33. The author reviews the available substitutes for halon fire suppressant systems, and is not impressed. She advocates a well-installed, well-maintained wet-pipe sprinkler system, in combination with a number of other sensible measures such as very early smoke detection devices and regular inspection of wiring. She strongly advocates to anyone grappling with this subject a compilation of papers by Paul Baril, Museum Fire Protection Technical Papers, Museums Assistance Program, 300 Slater St., Ottawa, ON K1A 0C8.
Another review of options for institutions giving up halon is on p. 34-36 in the same issue of WAAC Newsletter "Cultural Heritage Fire Suppression Systems: Alternatives to Halon 1301," by Nicholas Artim. He gives eight alternatives, and nominates wet pipe sprinkler systems as the best choice. (Nicholas Artim designed, installed and maintained fire protection systems for the U.S. Capitol, Library of Congress, and Congressional Office Buildings, and is working on systems for five national institutions in three countries at present.)
Book and Paper Group Annual, v. 11, 1992. American Institute for Conservation, Washington, DC, 1992. 204 pp. Partial contents:
The first two papers in the above list were not given at the conference, but were submitted afterward for publication.
Guidelines for Preservation Microfilming in Canadian Libraries.Prepared by the Canadian Cooperative Preservation Project. National Library of Canada, Ottawa, 1993. 45 pp. In French and English. To quote from the Foreword: "The Canadian Cooperative Preservation project was established in April 1990 as a result of a grant received from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The underlying purpose of the grant was to fund the development of an infrastructure in Canada for preservation microfilming." It covers only 35 mm film and jobbed-out microfilming. For broader coverage it refers the reader to the Gwinn and Elkington manuals. Sections cover selection and preparation of material, quality control, bibliographic control, and storage.
"Current Research into the Control of Biodeterioration Through the Use of Thermal or Suffocant Conditions," by John Burke. AIC News, March 1993, p. 1-4. Ten references. This in effect is an update of the research picture, especially relating to the use of inert atmospheres that was presented at the IFLA/ICA Seminar on Research in Conservation and Preservation in 1991. The author describes several papers that were presented at the Second International Biodeterioration Conference in Yokohama in September 1992. He also reports an informal study suggested by Bob Futernick, in which two samples of light-sensitive materials such as newsprint and fugitive dyes were places in transparent vapor-barrier bags, one containing nitrogen and an oxygen scavenger, the other containing air. Both were left for six months in a south-facing window. The materials in the bag without oxygen hardly faded at all.
Integrated Pest Management in Museums, Libraries and Archival Facilities: A Step by Step Approach for the Design, Development, Implementation and Maintenance of an Integrated Pest Management Program, by James D. Harmon. Until June 15, $39.50 from Harmon Preservation Pest Management, PO Box 40262, Indianapolis, IN 46240; then $45.50.
Papers of the Conference on Book and Paper Conservation, held in Budapest 4-7 September 1990. Beatrix Kastaly, ed. Published by the Technical Association of the Paper and Printing Industry and the National Széchény Library, Budapest, 1992. 612 pp. ISBN 963 8271 46 9.
Seven of the 13 posters and all 60 of the papers are included in this volume, and two more papers besides that could not be fitted onto the program at the time. Almost all the papers are in English, because those that were given in Hungarian have been translated. Many of the papers have illustrations or graphs and tables, and most of the papers are short.
The paper by Derek Priest and two coauthors, "Pigment Coated Paper - Experiments on Permanence," reports research on a topic that has gotten very little attention. There are two papers on accelerated aging of deacidified paper in polluted atmospheres, one by Jonas Palm and one by three authors from CRCDG in Paris. One of the posters (short illustrated papers originally posted on panels) is a very interesting one by F. Gallo and G. Pasquariello, "Hypothesis on the Biological Origin of Foxing." Their study confirmed the roles of both iron and certain species of fungi, which interact over the course of time under suitable climatic conditions to produce foxing marks. They produced foxing marks experimentally in the lab and took some nice photomicrographs.
"The Theory of Sharpening," by Frank Hippman. Society of Bookbinders National Newsletter No. 7, Nov. 1992. p. 17-23. This well-written, clearly illustrated paper is the first of two instalments. The next will be entitled "The Practice of Sharpening."
The Changing Role of Book Repair in ARL Libraries. (SPEC Kit # 190) Association of Research Libraries, Washington, DC, 1993. 127 pp. $40 paper; $25 ARL members. This is a compilation of information sheets from library book repair programs that were presentedat the meeting and joint exhibit of the Library Collections Conservation Discussion Group (LCCDG) at the AIC meeting in June 1992. It is a unique, basic and state-of-the-art publication.
A similar meeting will be held at the AIC meeting in Denver, June 1993.
A packet of information on paper permanence and alkaline paper was sent out in 1992 by the National Library of Canada. It consists of 1) a report summary on runability of alkaline paper, 2) a list of available permanent and alkaline papers, 3) a list of alternatives when permanent paper is not available, 4) a discussion of recycled vs. permanent paper, 5) samples of acid and alkaline paper, 6) a statement on use of permanent paper for government publishing, and 7) a fact sheet on permanent paper, giving the specifications of the ANSI standard. It is a great outreach idea, but this will probably not have the impact it should because it is not carefully researched and written. The pH scale is given as 1-14 on one sheet and 0-14 on another (strictly speaking, both are wrong, because the scale does not have precise endpoints); the midpoint, which divides alkaline from acid paper, is given as pH 7.07. In the fourth item above, most mills are said to produce acid paper; this is no longer true either in Canada or in the United States. Wallboard that is made of acid recycled fiber is said here to "go brittle" in five to ten years; but isn't wallboard made of gypsum, an alkaline mineral that never goes brittle? The paper is used only to line it.
In the fourth item above, only 1% of total pulp stock is said to be used for publishing (excluding newspapers). In this country, the American Paper Institute said in 1988 that it is closer to 2%; but the API only counts the tonnage used by the major publishers. The actual tonnage of paper used for publishing and record-keeping is much larger. Private publishing uses a lot of paper, and furthermore, many records that deserve to be kept indefinitely were never published at all; there are millions of such records in our archives, and millions more in private hands.
"Binding it Right: A Survey of American Craft Binders." Bookways, July 1992, p. 12-20. The survey questionnaire that went out to hand edition binders asked them to describe their work and why they did it, and to give a price for a hypothetical job. This article summarizes the price responses ($27.50-$75) and prints the textual responses from Barbara Blumenthal, BookLab (Craig Jensen), Thistle Bindery (David Bourbeau), Campbell-Logan Bindery (Greg Campbell), Cardoza-James Binding Co. (George Caughman), Claudia Cohen, Judi Conant, Christine Covert and Gray Parrot, Sarah Creighton, Jill Jevne and Don Rash.
The February issue of Picture Framing Magazine is a special conservation issue, and includes two letters to the editor, one with bad advice (on heat-mounting parchment) and one with good advice (Barbara Appelbaum on framing works on silk). There are two articles that include conservation considerations, one on removing items from mounts, and one (by Don Pierce) on varnishing of art. There is a regular column by Hugh Phibbs called "Preservation Practices" that discusses acid-free fabrics in this issue and bleaching of foxing spots in the May issue. Finally, there is a tipped-in 38-page supplement on "Preservation/Conservation Framing" by Jared Bark that covers all the bases, even including a recipe for rice starch paste, a bibliography, and a list of conservation suppliers. It is long enough to serve as a mini-textbook even when allowance is made for the space the ads take up. All this seems to indicate that framers and their clients are more aware of conservation issues than they used to be.
The Grade Finder Pocket Edition identifies many of the alkaline papers on the market, and it is the only paper catalog to do this. At $25 it is a steal. Revised yearly. Order from Grade Finders, Inc. (215/524-7070, fax 215/524-8912).
International Preservation News, A Newsletter of the IFLA Core Programme on Preservation and Conservation, is >now being published from France, twice a year. (It is called "PAC Newsletter" for short on one of the inside pages.) It is available without charge to interested institutions; contact Bibliothèque Nationale/Direction Technique; IFLA PAC International Center, 58 rue de Richelieu, 75084 Paris; Cedex 02 France. The International Center is now the Bibliothèque Nationale, instead of the Library of Congress, and has been since January 1992. The Library of Congress is a regional center now.
Jean-Marie Arnoult is the director of the International Center, and Virginie Kremp is the editor. This 16-page issue was the first for their team, and it had to be all in English which was obviously hard for them, because they were not always successful with the translating and proofreading. As they gain experience, though, it will become more professional.
The most recent meeting of the IFLA Conservation Section, it says on p. 10, was at the September IFLA conference in New Delhi, and those present decided (among other things) to revise IFLA's "Principles for the Preservation and Conservation of Library Materials," and are gathering comments and revisions during 1993.
The Midwestern Archivist, v. XVI No. 1, 1991. Four of the five major articles in this issue are on preservation of sound recordings:
Single issues of the Midwestern Archivist are available at $3.50 plus 50e for postage, from Kevin Leonard, MAC Secretary-Treasurer, University Archives, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208-2300.
The Imperfect Image; Photographs, Their Past, Present and Future--Conference Proceedings. £42.00 (drawn on a British bank) from The Conference Convenor, Centre for Photographic Conservation, 233 Stanstead Rd., Forest Hill, London SE23 lHU, England (081-690 3678, fax 081-314 1940). Centre for Photographic Conservation, London, 1993. 412 pp. This is the proceedings from the April 1992 conference. The 52 papers cover history, mounting and presentation, conservation workstudies, collection management, technological developments in recording images, and other topics.
Elizabeth Martin's one-page report of the ICOM Graphic Documents Working Group Interim Meeting in Jerusalem, at an unrecorded date, is published in Paper Conservation News, March 1993. The six-day conference focused on parchment: analysis, deterioration, effect of added materials, history, manufacture and conservation. Tours took them to the Shrine of the Book to see the Dead Sea Scrolls, to a parchment plant where skins of unborn calves (from the USA) were made into Torah scrolls, and to archeological sites. Eighteen papers were given, and there were several evening discussions, during one of which the need for a parchment and vellum conservation catalog, like the paper conservation catalog, was raised. It was quite a successful meeting, the author says. For copies of preprints and information concerning the proposed parchment and vellum catalog, contact Jurek Stankiewicz at the Jewish National and University Library, PO Box 503, Jerusalem 91004, Israel (972 2 584 226 fax 972 2 511 771).
"Preservation of Electronic Media," by George MacKenzie (Head of Technical Services, Scottish Record office, Edinburgh). Library Conservation News #38, Jan. 1993, p. 1-3, 7. This is a summary of eight major optical and magnetic media and their usefulness for long-term information storage. He says optical systems are fast catching up to magnetic systems because they can store so much more data. He says tthe WORM disk appears to be the most promising medium around for long-term storage of computer media, and the modern CD-ROM offers a good degree of stability, but forget hard disks, floppy disks, rewritable disks and videodisks. Magnetic tape and digital audio tape will last 20-30 years if stored properly, and require regular cleaning and copying. The tape itself will last for many centuries, but the coating glves out first.
In the same issue, on p. 7, is "Sound Recordings on Optical Discs," by Peter Copeland (British Library National Sound Archive). [Apparently, in Scotland they spell it disk, and in England disc.] Copeland describes the Archive's search for a sound-recording medium that would would last for decades instead of years, and on which not only digital sound but images and text could be stored. They liked the "moth's-eye" optical disc technology of Plasmon, because of its longevity, but moth's-eye discs are not recordable in a table-top machine, as the Archive requires. The search goes on.
"What Exhibits Can Do to Your Collection," by Catherine Nicholson. Restaurator 13:3, 1992, p. 95-113. This was a paper given at the 1990 NARA Conference called "Exhibits and Preservation: A Delicate Balance." It is a careful summary, by an experienced senior conservator, of all the things a conservator should be aware of when working with curators to plan an exhibit, or at any other time: handling considerations, light, temperature and so on, and the reasons for the precautions to be taken.
"The IIC Congress, Brussels: 'Cleaning, Retouching and Coatings'," by John Hook. AICCM Bulletin 17: 3/4, 1991, p. 87-89. A critical, frank, informal, even rash report of the papers and issues at the 1990 IIC Congress, by the Head of Conservation at the Queensland Art Gallery. The issue causing the most controversy there seemed to be Richard Wolbers' new thinking on the cleaning of paintings, which the author says has "shaken and stirred" the earlier simplified model taught before now. (Robert Espinosa describes Wolbers as a genius.) The author's description of the European conservative reaction to these ideas, and of the way Wolbers' methods have been hastily adopted by enthusiasts with little understanding, is refreshingly frank.
Who Ya Gonna Call ? A Preservation Services Sourcebook for Libraries and Archives. Prepared for METRO by Robert DeCandido and Cheryl Shackelton. (METRO Miscellaneous Publication No. 42) METRO, New York 1992. 132 pp. ISSN 0732-801X. $5 to out-of-state institutions; make checks payable to University of the State of New York; send to Tiffany H. Allen, New York State Library, 10-C-47 Cultural Education Center, Albany, NY 12230 (518/474-6971).
Earlier publications in this series are Hell and High Water and Hold Everything!, which deal (as one might expect) with disasters and storage. All three were funded by the New York State Conservation/Preservation Program, and deal admirably with the questions that preservation administrators in New York and elsewhere have. Who Ya Gonna Call? tells the reader where to get consulting services, treatment services, copying services, and supplies and equipment for preservation maintenance and quick repair. Phone, fax and email addresses (where available) are given, in addition to addresses. Not all of the services are in New York City, or even in the northeast, or even east of the Misissippi, because many of the services operate on a national market. The eight listed companies, for instance, that do bound photocopies of brittle books, are all over the country. Forty-three companies offer nonaqueous deacidification of paper, but no company is listed that does mass deacidification of books.
The reason this publication was not announced earlier was that it was bound with three staples that kept it from Iying open, and it had to be adhesive bound before it could be easily read. If it is reprinted (which it should be, if the demand is as great as it ought to be, and if it is updated from time to time), it should be adhesive bound, preferably with cold PVA
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