ANSI/ISO update

Since the last report, ANSI standards have been disappearing as
they've been replaced by ISO standards. For those who missed the
news, the ANSI (American National Standards Institute) IT9 committee
responsible for the physical properties and permanence of imaging
materials will continue to draft standards for submission to ISO.
ANSI and ISO will ballot these documents in parallel, but only ISO
will publish them as standards. The intent was to streamline the
process of standards production. Although ANSI is an American
standards organization, the IT9 subcommittees include members from
around the world.

Anyway, the process of replacing ANSI standards by ISO standards has
proceeded with a lot of work by Dr. Peter Adelstein, the chair of
both the ANSI committee and the equivalent ISO working group as well
as the ANSI IT9 Secretariat.  Most of these standards have been test
methods and are not of much interest generally to the conservation
community so I won't mention them. (You'll recall that there are
three kinds of standards: specifications, test methods, and storage
documents.) For those of you with ISO standards, the old designation
has been included along with the new number.

Withdrawn ANSI standards:

    The Photographic Activity Test Method

        ANSI/NAPM IT9.16-1993
        <Imaging Media--Photographic Activity Test> was withdrawn
        March 10, 2000 and has been replaced by ISO 14523:1999. This
        was the first document replaced and was too early to get the
        new ISO number 18916. This is the only document that missed
        the 189XX numbering system.

    Residual Hypo

        ANSI//ISO 417:1993, ANSI/NAPM IT9.17-1993
        <Photography--Determination of Residual Thiosulfate and
        Other Related Chemicals in Processed Photographic
        Materials--Methods Using Iodine-Amylose, Methylene Blue and
        Silver Sulfide> was withdrawn December 30, 1999 and replaced
        by ISO 18917:1999 (formerly ISO 417:1993.)

Additional new ISO standards:

    Plate Storage

        ISO 18918:2000
        <Imaging materials--Processed photographic plates--Storage
        practices> was published April 2000. ANSI/NAM IT9.18-1996
        has <not> been officially withdrawn yet, but the action has
        been balloted. ISO 18918:2000 was formerly known as ISO
        3897:1997.

    Print Storage

        ISO 18920:2000
        <Imaging materials--Reflection prints--Storage practices>
        was approved for publication June 6, 2000. Withdrawal of
        ANSI/PIMA IT9.20-1996 has been balloted, but has not been
        officially approved yet. ISO 18920:2000 was formerly known
        as ISO 6051:1997.

    Magnetic Tape Storage

        ISO 18923:2000
        <Imaging materials--Polyester base magnetic tape--storage
        practices> was approved April 2000. Withdrawal of ANSI/PIMA
        IT9.23-1998 has been balloted, but not officially approved.

On another front, many of you are interested in the stability of the
newer digital hardcopy media. Well, so are we (apparently.) The
feeling is that test method standards for comparing color
photographic materials are not bad for now and that a similar
document specifying test methods for determining the stability of
digital hardcopy media is now needed. The ANSI subcommittee IT9-3
responsible for the stability of color materials has become so large
(with over 40 members from around the world) that it is no longer
feasible to draft standards as a sub-committee. At the May 2000
meeting in Washington we agreed to break into 6 working groups each
responsible for one of six digital hardcopy issues. The six issues
were humidity-fastness, thermal degradation, indoor light stability,
water-fastness, outdoor durability, and fingerprints. Each working
group is charged with the task of creating test methods and text
pertinent to their area. Each group will also determine whether
densitometry or colorimetry will be used for their particular tests.

The next ANSI meeting will be December and the next full ISO meeting
will be in October in Tokyo.

Douglas Nishimura
Research Scientist
Image Permanence Institute


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 14:13
                  Distributed: Monday, August 14, 2000
                       Message Id: cdl-14-13-002
                                  ***