Many conservation organizations are urging their members to write to Congress protesting the threatened complete elimination of federal agencies that fund conservation. The Washington Conservation Guild has done a good job of summarizing the issue for members, drafting a "generic" letter to send, and naming the committee members to contact. Hearings have been held recently in the Senate Reauthorization Committee for Education, Arts and Humanities, which Ann Boulton (WCG president?) says were extremely negative and damaging, focussing on controversial activities like the Mapplethorpe exhibit, though with kind words for conservation and preservation. Hearings continue, with reauthorization, if any, to come in early April, probably.
Members of this Committee are:
Republicans: James Jeffords (chair), Nancy Kassebaum, Daniel Coats, Judd Gregg, Michael DeWine, William Frist, John Ashcroft, Spencer Abraham and Slade Gorton.
Democrats: Claiborne Pell, Christopher Dodd, Paul Simon, Thomas Harkin, Barbara Mikulski, Paul Wellstone and Edward Kennedy.
All are addressed as "Hon. [name]" and all have the following address: United States Senate, Washington, DC 20510.
The NHPRC has given a matching grant of $27,404 for the Documenting Michigan Architecture Project, which is being spearheaded by the Bureau of Michigan History and led by Tawny Ryan Nelb, a private architectural records consultant of Midland. There is an advisory board, which will focus first on appraisal strategies and selection of 50 to 100 structures, firms, styles of individuals whose records should be preserved. Caretakers of significant records will be interviewed, repositories surveyed, and six workshops for archivists and architects given on preservation and management of architectural records.
Tawny Ryan Nelb's review of Records in Architectural Offices appeared in the last issue of this newsletter, on p. 98.
The Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (FAIC) announced in December the first three recipients of Samuel H. Kress Conservation Publication Fellowships. They are Nancy Davis (Rochester Museum and Science Center), for a book she is writing, General Conservation Assessments: A Review; Michele R. Derrick (Getty Conservation Institute), for a book on infrared spectroscopy; and coauthors Maria Grandinette and Randy Silverman, for Book Repair: A Guide to Library Conservation Techniques.
The Library of Congress Preservation Directorate invites participants in its Junior Fellows Program, through which qualified college juniors and seniors and graduate students receive fellowships designed to fit the interests and schedules of the fellows as well as to serve the mission of the Directorate and Library. Projects may be in chemistry, material science, museum studies, art history, the humanities, library science and preservation. Contact Merrily Smith, Assistant National Preservation Program Officer, Library of Congress, Washington, DC 20540 (202/707-1840).
The Council for International Exchange of Scholars has announced the competition for 1996-97 Fulbright scholar awards for faculty and professionals. The competition includes grants to conduct research, teach, or study abroad and to make a major contribution to the growth of mutual understanding among countries and individuals. Awards range from two months to a full academic year. Virtually all disciplines and professional fields participate. The deadline for submitting applications is August 1, l995. Information and applications are available from the CIES, 3007 Tilden St., NW, Suite 5M, Box GNEWS, Washington, DC 20008-30009 (202/686-7877). Application requests only may be sent via e-mail (CIES@CIESNET.CIES.ORG). 1D6-->
The Buchbinder-Colleg in Stuttgart, whose year-round offering of short courses ranging from one day to eight days in length was described on p. 34 in the August 1993 issue of this newsletter, has issued its schedule for 1995. Each month has seven to 15 courses, at a cost of about 150 DM (about $90) per day. Low-cost housing is supplied. Among the 31 instructors are Dag Ernst Petersen, Per Laursen, Gotthilf Kurz and Janos Szirmai. All courses are given in German. To apply, write Buchbinder-Colleg, Krefelder Strasse 14, D-70376 Stuttgart, Germany.
The standards committee developing the proposed national standard for "Environmental Conditions for Storage of Paper-based Library and Archive Collections" was not able to achieve consensus on the parameters of the standard. Over a ten-year period this is the second NISO standards committee that attempted to describe a national standard on environmental conditions that reached an impasse. The NISO Standards Development Committee, in consultation with the committee chair, Mr. William K. Wilson, has decided to publish the last committee draft as a NISO Technical Report. The Report will be published in early 1995 and will be available from NISO Press (tel. 301/567-9522). (From the October 1994 Information Standards Quarterly, v.6 #4, p. 12).
In related standards news from NISO, Z85.1-1980, "Permanent and Durable Library Catalog Cards" is undergoing revision; "Environmental Conditions for the Exhibition of Library. . . Materials" is under development in Subcommittee MM; "Library Binding and Library Prebound Books" is under development in Subcomittee ZZ; "Information to be Included in Ads [etc.] for Products Used for the Storage, Binding or Repair of Library Materials" is under development in Subcommittee SS; and the last one ("Physical Preparation of Theses and Dissertations. . .") is in limbo, waiting for the people who care about this subject to come forward and volunteer to be on the committee. Anyone interested in helping develop a theses and dissertations standard can call Pat Harris at NISO's new number, 301/654-2512, or Margaret Byrnes at the National Library of Medicine, 301/496-8124.
On December 8-9, representatives of state, regional and national multi-institutional preservation programs met in Austin, to discuss strategy issues and visit preservation and conservation sites. This group, which has been meeting each December for nearly a decade, provides a forum for the administrators of cooperative programs to focus on areas of mutual interest. Members include state preservation programs of New York, Maryland, Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas, as well as the regional centers SOLINET and NEDCC.
The London Financial Times for February 9 reported, on p. 12, a "Scanner to Protect Frail Book Bindings." It said that a Sussex-based inventor has applied for a patent for a scanning device which avoids damaging tightly-bound books because it works when the book is open by as little as 45°. The system can penetrate a book's gutter using a wedge-shaped scanner witha prismatic device at its end. It can also record watermarks when the book is opened 90° and a light is inserted on the other side of the page to the scanner. A telephone number and a fax are given at the end: (0)171 628 2922; fax (0)171 920 0951.
In this country, Minolta has a new scanning photocopier called the Digital Publication Copying System 3000, which was exhibited at the ALA Midwinter meeting. It has a planetary scanner that automatically compensates for the curve of the page in the open book, so that the image copy will look flat, and it erases the gutter shadow. If it is upgraded to incorporate a PC, the digital data can be sent to a computer, where it can be directly faxed, printed, electronically mailed, stored on optical disk, or distributed over the Internet. It has a short warm-up time and prints 20 pages per minute. It does cost a lot, about $29,000. For more information, contact Carl Disparti at Minolta, 708/882-7700.
The Pittsburgh Regional Library Center has an environmental monitoring kit that they lend out within the area they serve in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland. They also lend outside the area. The kit includes five items of literature and five battery-powered pieces of equipment that have a total value of $777:
Fisher Scientific Thermo-Hygro
Extech Light Meter
Fisher Scientific Hygrometer--Analog
Fisher Scientific Thermo-Hygro Recorder
Psychro-Dyne and case
The most expensive item is the Thermo-Hygro Recorder.
The kit may be borrowed either through inter-library loan or by phone. Phone orders must be prepaid and a loan request form must be turned in before the kit can be sent.
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