Volume 9, Number 5
Sep 1985

PLMS in Chicago in July

The Preservation of Library Materials Section (PLMS, pronounced "plums") met during two days of the week-long annual meeting of the American Library Association in Chicago in July. Highlights from that meeting can be summarized under two headings: followup on forthcoming publications, and miscellaneous news.

Followup on Forthcoming Publications

• Guidelines for preparation of permanent and durable theses and dissertations: These are in the process of being printed by RTSD (a major division of ALA) and will be sold from the Chicago office of ALA. There is a long version, and a shorter version for students.
• Standards for environmental storage of paper-based materials: This has been in the works for about five years with a committee of the National Institute for Conservation. (Since the ALA meeting, it has been sent to the American National Standards Institute for review.)
• Guidelines for preservation photocopying: This is in the last stages of preparation, and will be sent to the PLMS executive committee at the Midwinter meeting.
• Preservation Education Directory: in September the last corrections will be made, and it will be sold by RTSD, probably for $3-S per copy.
• Proceedings of the library binding preconference in Los Angeles, June 1983: This project has been hung up in committee, but is not dead. A resuscitation effort is under way, and we may see the results before long.
• The revised Library Binding Institute Standard: the main section is done, but the specifications for materials are not. Nevertheless, Sally Grauer at the LBI office will send a copy of the current draft to any library that is writing up new specs. (New address: 150 Allens Creek Rd., Rochester, NY 14618.) a manual to use with the standards is being drafted.

Miscellaneous News

• There are 1668 members in PLMS, though only about 2% ever come to meetings. (ALA members can belong to several sections at once.)
• The Stanford conference on book repair and routine conservation appears likely to sell out. The Mellon Foundation contributed $15,000 for videotaping the proceedings and for later retakes as necessary.
• Pat Harris of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) is asking for volunteers to work on a new standard, this one for publishers' bindings.
• PLMS's Education Committee has a task force on library school education for conservation, which is just beginning its work. Ann Russell and Josephine Fang are on it. Next March there will be a conference, organized by several international organizations (FID, ICA and IFLA) under Unesco, at which guidelines for teaching preservation will be drawn up and discussed.