Volume 10, Number 3
Jun 1986

New Directions in Paper Conservation

The Institute of Paper Conservation celebrated its tenth anniversary with an international conference at Oxford, England, from the 14th to the 18th of April, entitled "New Directions in Paper Conservation." the conference was followed by three days of tours on April 20, 22 and 23, to three East Anglian workshops (Cockerell, McAusland, and Pickwoad), Barcham Green and Leeds Castle, and Camberwell and the National Maritime Museum. About 600 people came, from over 25 countries, including over 100 from the U.S.

Over 100 papers were given in four days of concurrent sessions. the three lecture halls booked for the purpose were sometimes very crowded, impossible to squeeze into if you did not get there early. Lunch was served buffet style onsite, which saved a great deal of time. The mood was one of celebration and intellectual excitement.

Quite a few significant developments were reported, including the following:

• Bill Minter described a heated tool like a putty knife that greatly speeds removal of pressure-sensitive tape.
• Per Laursen described his new system of continuous leaf-casting with a "fourdrinier leafcaster" which automatically and continuously calculates the amount of fiber needed and which produces, damp-dries and presses four finished folio sheets a minute. He declined to provide details of the mechanism because his patent has not yet been granted.
• Nieves Valentin reported that documents fumigated with ethylene oxide grew mold more readily than untreated documents.
• Bill Wilson summarized research on the effect of environmental factors, and concluded on the basis of his literature review that the strength of paper in use was acceptable from about 20% to about 75% RH; and that light and dust did not cause appreciable damage for materials not on display.
• Bonnie Jo Cullison reported that the Newberry' s book storage building was a qualified success: RH control was not as close as they would like it, and vellum hardcover bindings warped if there was more than a 10% difference between the RH of the storage area and the reading room to which they were brought.
• Vincent Daniels summarized the state of our knowledge about yellowing of paper.
• Don Sebera, in an informal question-and-answer period at an evening panel on deacidification, described the sequence of three fires during December and February at the prototype diethyl zinc deacidification facility in Maryland. Everyone in the room seemed to know about it already; there had been two published reports of it on the bulletin board in the hail. The fires did not injure anyone, no books were involved, and the facility was not destroyed as the Wilson Library Bulletin reported in its May issue; but the temporary building was destroyed, and the facility is inoperable. It may take a year to redesign and reconstruct it. NASA and Northrup have been working with the Library of Congress to set up the facility, and it was NASA's decision to set the explosive charge that resulted in the third and worst fire. (For details see the LC Information Bulletin for March 17.)
• Margaret Hey, who is working in Italy with Fausta Gallo to find out what foxing really is, found eight species of "precursor" fungi in paper, which can grow at 32% RH. They produce water as a metabolic byproduct, which encourages other fungi that require a higher humidity.

In addition to significant developments, there were some interesting facts, reports and publications:

• Document Reprocessors has a new videotape and a book on the salvage of books and documents, reflecting their experience and expertise.
• Simon Green said that gelatin sizing doubles the strength of paper, but causes it to darken with age.
• Guy Petherbridge described the work he has done on descriptions of early Greek manuscripts in book form, and said a book on it was being published. He stressed the Importance of recording the structure and condition of books not scheduled for conservation treatment; of conserving "latent information, the as yet unrevealed areas of meaning of the object, as well as of its perceived physical manifestations."
• Tony Cains did not give the talk in the preprints, but described the way books with deteriorating leather covers are dealt with at Trinity College. They consolidate the leather with Klucel G; make "book shoes" (slipcases without tops, designed to hold books in separate pieces together on the shelf, inconspicuously); clean leather and gilding with Klucel G and a toothbrush; stitch boards back on (a practice still being evaluated); put a thin leather hollow under the old spine sometimes; work new headbands and use them to help attach old boards; and replace rotten cords.

Among the exhibitors were four freeze-dry services: Document Reprocessors and three British firms. Total Information Ltd. (2A Britannia Estate, Leagrave Road, Luton, Bedfordshire LU3 1RJ, England) demonstrated the Archivist, the face-up copier earlier known as the Selectec Duo-Copy; Derek Beck showed the redesigned bookbinding tools he has for sale; and the National Preservation Office of the British Library gave out information about their new preservation services.

Shortly before the conference, there had been two floods at the British Library, resulting from a defective pipe; one flood at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and a bad fire at Hampton Court Palace. None of these was formally discussed at the conference, but there were one or two newspaper clippings on the bulletin board, and the events came up in conversation. Except for the fact that the fire was started accidentally by someone who used candles to light her way around her living quarters, the disasters were very like American disasters: the fire would never have gotten out of hand if the Hampton Court building had been sprinklered; the major institutions had put their disaster plans into effect, and the neighboring cultural institutions lent skilled personnel to help them through the crisis.

Don Sebera had a "poster" (the posters at this conference were more like vertical display panels, one or more per display) that attracted some excited comment. It presented the preservation value of temperature and relative humidity in graphic form, allowing the viewer to pick different combinations of both variables that would be equivalent for paper and other hygroscopic materials. The graphs had curved lines that ran through all points having the same preservative effect-"isoperms," he called them. The temperature and RH ranges permitted by the forthcoming ANSI environmental standards were mapped as rectangles over the isoperms. Other applications of this principle related to biological attack and cost effectiveness of environmental control.

Almost all sessions were taped by the IPC, and negotiations to provide for distribution of the tapes in this country and abroad are underway. The IPC also intends to publish the proceedings. At present, only the Conference Notes are available, but they include a lot: 139 pages of abstracts (some quite long) and accompanying bibliographies; descriptions of 10 posters; addresses of exhibitors and advertisers; and lists of participants with addresses. They can be purchased for £25 from the IPC, Leigh Lodge, Leigh, Worcestershire WR6 5LB, England.