Light sheet

Does anyone have any experience with the "Fiber Optic Light Sheet?"
This item was brought to our attention at Chicago by one of our
faculty.

    "... stopped by the other day to tell me about a new tool he had
    used on his last research trip to France. It is a "Fibre Optic
    Light Sheet," a thin piece of plastic that is inserted between
    pages of a book/mss to examine paper, watermarks, erasures etc.
    It claims to be a heat-free and UV-free light source.  He said
    it is flexible and safe (he used it at the BN) and amazing in
    what it reveals. He just raved about the ability to look even in
    tightly bound books w/o damage. He brought along the spec sheet
    from a British supplier (also in French). The manufacturer is
    Preservation Equipment Ltd. (PEL), European distributor is
    Lineco. Here is the link to the manufacturer's description with
    a picture:
    <URL:http://www.preservationequipment.co.uk/428.html>"

I also found it in the University Products catalog, but for more
than twice the cost. I think it is the same item, though.

Can anyone share their experiences with this or other similar items?

Theresa Smith
Lead Preservation Specialist
Dept. of Special Collections
Regenstein Library
University of Chicago
773-702-6027


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 15:20
                 Distributed: Tuesday, August 28, 2001
                       Message Id: cdl-15-20-014
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