Volume 19, Number 5
Nov 1995

Editor's Page

A Thank-You to Supporters

The editor and trustees of Abbey Publications, Inc., a nonprofit corporation, want to express our appreciation for support received from the people and organizations listed below, as well as from those who gave smaller amounts.

All donations are considered to be intended for Abbey Publications (thus contributing to the Abbey Newsletter, the Alkaline Paper Advocate and other publications and products of this office). In the last 12 months, donations from readers have totaled $6969.

A Trustees' Fund was set up in December 1993 to receive donations from Abbey Publications' trustees. As of August 9, 1995, it had $2250 in it. This brings the total of donations for the last 12 months to $9,219.

Donors are listed below as Benefactors ($1000+), Sponsors ($500+), Patrons ($100+), and Contributors ($25+).

Benefactors

Cross Pointe Paper Corp., Miami Mill
Barbara Lubin Goldsmith Foundation

Sponsors

Bridgeport National Bindery
Gaylord Bros.

Patrons

Acme Bookbinding
Joan T. Batchelor
Benchmark
Brown's River Records Preservation Service
Campbell-Logan Bindery
Custom Manufacturing, Inc.
Paula DeStefano
Disaster Recovery Services
Information Conservation Inc.
Ingrid Rose Co. Ltd.
Metal Edge West
National Institute for Conservation
Tawny Ryan Nelb
New York Community Trust - James Talcott Fund
Terry O. Norris
Ocker & Trapp Library Bindery
Restoration Source
Nancy Russell
Elaine R. Schlefer
Nancy Carlson Schrock
Marshall Swartzburg
William Minter Bookbinding

Contributors

Nelly Balloffet
Tim Barrett
Sidney Berger
Bookmakers International Ltd.
Michèle Cloonan
Lisa Cziffra
Jane Dalrymple-Hollo
Betsy Palmer Eldridge
Evelyn Frangakis
Robert Frase
William Fuller
Carolyn Jane Gammon
Mary Todd Glaser
Maria Grandinette
Harlan M. Greene
Pat Grey
Heugh-Edmondson Conservation
Fred Jordan
Hilary A. Kaplan
Mary Wood Lee
Jan Merrill-Oldham, in memory of Carolyn Harris
Robert Milevski
Museum Services
Brian E. O'Connell
Elissa O'Loughlin
Jeff Rigby
Ruth-Ann Rohman
Eric C. Shoaf
Norma Spector
James G. Stephens
Ann Swartzell
Mary Ann Tyrrell
Utah (state)
Duane Watson
John C. Wright
Marie-Daniele Zartman

Abbey Newsletter is 20 Years Old and Counting

In August, 1975, the firstAbbey Newsletter was typed up on a manual typewriter, headlines hot-stamped with carbon foil, and run off at the local photocopy center. It was a single sheet, copied onto the letterhead of the Academy Book Bindery (proprietor: Ellen Fink, now Ellen McCrady). It was used as a handout at the front desk, to drum up business; also as a means of communication among bookbinders in the rest of the country, whose only way of hearing about recent developments and meeting each other at that time was through traveling salesmen or personal visits to each other's shops.

There were three stories:

Medical Journals Reminder
Bookbinding Class to Start Sept. 16
Tours

In those days it was hard to find enough news to fill up a newsletter. An enormous cartoon, clipped from some magazine, helped fill the empty space on p. 2.

Not only was it hard to find news in the early days, it was hard to find time to put a newsletter together, so the second issuewas edited and run off for me by a friend. Although most of the raw material had been furnished by me, and although its predecessor had been promotional in purpose, the overall impact of the second issue was too commercial for me. This is why it is no longer offered for sale. Commercialism is so abhorrent to me that I never use coupons or enter contests; I regard all ads as lies; never read display ads in the newspaper; throw away unopened any mail that looks like a come-on; and do not accept ads for the Abbey Newsletter.

Although I had been aware of conservation since the late 1960s, I did not emphasize it at first. Then in No. 9, July 1977, I asked readers for reactions to an article entitled "Kitchen Chemistry in the Care of Books," by Robert Bray Wingate in the June 6, 1977, issue of AB Bookman's Weekly. He had advocated rubbing mildew stains in rare books with chlorine-containing scouring powder, and other ghastly techniques that one would not expect of someone who was said to be a chemist, and who was Chief of Rare Books and Special Collections at the State Library of Pennsylvania. I printed comments from Robert C. Morrison of NEDCC, Margaret Hey, and others in #10and 11. That episode turned me into an investigative journalist and an advocate of conservation and preservation.

The rest of the story is in "The History of the Abbey Publications," which was published in LRTS (Jan. 1991) and the Abbey Newsletter(May 1991).

The Abbey Newsletter: Bookbinding and Conservation is issued eight times a year and has about 1250 subscribers. All subscriptions are for the calendar year. New subscribers automatically receive all issues published in the current year, unless they request otherwise, until October 1; after that, it is assumed that the subscription is for the following year. Checks or international money orders may be made out in U.S. dollars, payable to Abbey Publications; send to 7105 Geneva Dr., Austin, TX 78723, USA. Foreign checks must have the name of a U.S. bank printed on the front. International payments can be made by VISA or Mastercard.

    Full-time students & unpaid interns   $20
    Personal subscriptions:               $40
    Institutional subscriptions:          $49

Paid advertisements, except for job ads, are not accepted. Job advertisements are billed at the rate of $50 for the heading and the first ten lines (55-60 characters per line), plus $2 per line thereafter. Any notice that is appropriate and newsworthy will be printed if there is room for it. Claims for issues never received will be honored within a year of publication. Defective issues will be gladly replaced on request.

The Abbey Newsletter is selectively indexed in Art & Archaeology Technical Abstracts, and the Institute of Paper Science & Technology Abstract Bulletin. All issues but v.1 #2 are in print, and each volume has its own index. It is the policy of Abbey Publications to use permanent paper for both newsletters.

The Editor encourages readers to photocopy freely from the Newsletter; but the Editor's permission must be obtained before making more than 20 copies of lengthy or signed articles. This allows us to make any necessary corrections or updates, and to contact other copyright holders for permission to reprint.

Abbey Publications is a nonprofit corporation set up to encourage preservation of the written record, including the use of lasting materials in the creation of records. Its other publications are the Alkaline Paper Advocate and the annual North American Permanent Papers. The corporation has five trustees (Ellen McCrady, Gary Frost, Roberta Pilette, James Wellvang, and Thomas Clareson), and five officers (Ellen McCrady, president; Susan Swartzburg, first vice president; Roberta Pilette, second vice president; Gary Frost, secretary; and Paul Banks, treasurer).