Volume 12, Number 1
Jan 1988

Events in the News

• An intensive two-weak course in preservation for archivists and related professionals was given last June 5-19 at Simmons College, sponsored jointly by SAA and NEDCC. Participants were selected competitively. It was called the Preservation Management Institute, and is reported in National Preservation News, October 1987.
• The Jubilee Conservation Conference of the London Institute of Archaeology, July 6-10, 1987, saw the presentation of the following papers:

  G. Banik: Salt Migration in Papyrus Fragments.

  N. Bortolani et al.: High Performance Gel Permeation Chromatography and Other Chemical and Physical Tests to Evaluate Permanence of Paper Treated with Calcium Hydroxide, Calcium Carbonate and Borax.

  D. Erhardt and N. Firnhaber: Identification of Oils in Tapa.

• The Society of Bookbinders and Book Restorers, at their biennial conference in Chester, Sept. 3-5, had 12 presentations, several of which had demonstrations. Presenters, half of whom were book conservators, included Brian Hoy, James Brockman, Bernard Middleton, Arthur Johnson, Trevor Jones and William Topping; they spoke on parchment repair, sausage casing repair of parchment, vellum binding without dampening the vellum, sewing the Domesday Book, paper marbling, bookbinding education and other topics. Julian Thomas won first prize in the bookbinding competition.
• The International Council of Museums (ICOM) Conservation Committee met Sept. 6-11 in Sydney, Australia, and had 17 papers of interest to paper conservators. Judith Hofenk de Graaff gave a paper entitled "The Development of Standard Specification for Permanent Records in the Netherlands." Other presenters included Klaus Hendriks, Françoise Flieder, Pieter Hallebeek, Ingrid Rose, and Janet Stone.
• The meeting of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) on October 21-22 was mostly on preservation, and the talks were addressed to the needs of the library directors there, many of whom did not have preservation programs yet. Two speakers were directors themselves. David Weber (Stanford) said a recent survey revealed that only a handful of ARL libraries are meeting the minimum standard expenditure for preservation, 5% of the budget (it used to be 4%). William Studer (Ohio State) saw preservation as the other side of the collection development coin, and the measure of a director's accomplishment during his tenure. He listed six things a director should do to start a preservation program: 1) Gain a conviction and understand the problems; 2) be willing to talk about the costs involved; 3) be willing to reallocate internal resources; 4) be willing to lobby for university and external funding; 5) do an ARL self-study to determine where you are (after the study, the entire library staff will be more supportive); 6) help establish a priority sequence for action. Other speakers included Jan Merrill-Oldham, Carolyn Morrow Manna, Gay Walker, Wesley Boomgaarden, Barclay Ogden, Patricia Battin, James Morris and Merrily Smith. Carolyn Manna, in her talk about staffing the preservation program, said the position of preservation librarian could report to the director or to one of the assistant directors. She argued for having the preservation program under the assistant university librarian for collection development, because the builder and the maintainer of the collection should be the same person.
• Seventeen members of the Guild of Book Workers have all bound copies of the same book in their own style, and the resulting volumes form the core of an exhibition that will be shown February through December, at Swarthmore College, University of Colorado at Boulder, Mills College Library, University of Chicago, Tulane University, Museum of New Mexico, University of Texas at Austin, and the MIT Museum, for about a month in each place. Catalog: $15 + $2.50 shipping. The book is Melville's Billy Budd, Sailor. For a catalog or description of the exhibition, contact Guild president Frank Mowery, Folger Shakespeare Library, 201 E. Capital St. SE, Washington, DC 20003 (202/544-4600).
• In conjunction with the opening of the Sobota/Rennie exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, on Feb. 4 to be exact, Silvia Rennie will give a brand new slide lecture, illustrating and explaining every step in the making of a full-leather binding, including rough-gilding and onlaying. It will be at the Swiss Institute, 37 W. 67th St. (873-3761), at 6:30 pm.
• The University of Victoria in British Columbia has a new Medieval Studies Program, which will host two workshops in February. "The Book in the Middle Ages" on Feb. 12-13 will be mostly about text and illustrations, though there will be one talk on the Vatican Library and one talk on codicological detective work. "The Making of the Medieval Book," Feb. 14, will have one lecture and two demonstrations on each of three topics: paleography (Mark van Stone), William Morris and Medieval printing (Crispin Elated), and bindings (Courtland Benson). There will also be displays and suppliers' booths. The fees are $30 and $20 respectively, or $40 for both ("Southern friends alarmed about our charges should remember to multiply them by 75%"). Write John Tucker, Medieval Studies Program, P0 Box 1700, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada V8W 2Y2.
• The spring program of the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild includes Tim Ely's slide talk on his unique bindings (Feb. 29) mini-demonstrations in March annual meeting with slides by Michael Wilcox, April and Deborah Evetts in May. Tim Ely will also be giving a workshop on book cover surfaces and doublures Feb. 27-28 ($100 members, $120 nonmembers). Contact Shelagh Smith, 92 Monsheen Dr., Woodbridge, Ont. L4L 2E7, Canada (416/851-1554).
• There will be a one-hour statewide teleconference in New York State April 12, titled "Fighting Slow Fires," broadcast on PBS live to allow viewers to call in questions. It is designed to inform people about the State Education Department's program for the conservation and preservation of library research materials. Since 1984 over $3 million has been awarded to 11 New York libraries designated comprehensive research libraries for the state. An additional $1.2 million has been awarded to 118 other libraries, archives, historical societies, museums and other institutions, for preservation and treatment.
• A Preservation Microfilming Institute, sponsored by the Reproduction of Library Materials Section of ALA will be held April 21-23 at Yale University. It will cover the daily management of microfilming operations and will include tours, small group sessions, and discussion. Contact Ann Menendez, Resources and Technical Services Division, ALA 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611 (312/944-6780).
• "Exhibition: The Cooperative Venture" is the IIC-CG Pre-Conference Training Seminar, May 25-27, in Toronto. It will cover exhibitions in all kinds of cultural institutions, with case histories, workshops and panel discussions. Write Training Seminar - Conference 88; PO Box 956, Station F; Toronto, Oct., M4Y 2N9; Canada (416/977-0414).
• This year's "Technology of the Medieval Book Seminar" (June 19-July 2) will be $800, not $600 as previously announced, and it will last 14 days, four days longer than last year (see the report of last year's workshop in the October issue of AN, p. 111). For information or to register for the workshop, write to Jack Thompson, Thompson Conservation Laboratory, 7549 N. Fenwick, Portland, OR 97217 (503/248-0046). Since much of the material must be prepared well in advance, Mr. Thompson needs to know by the end of March how many participants there will be. A 50% deposit is required by the end of March, and there is a penalty for cancellations received after that.
• An educational exchange between the University of Alabama's Institute for the Book Arts and two French binding schools is in the planning stages, and will be held June 23 to August 7. It will include courses at the two schools (Atelier d'Arts Appliques du Vesinet in Paris, and the Centre Interregional de Conservation des Libres in Arles) and field trips to book-related museums, libraries and ateliers. Graduate credit; total cost about $2900. Write Paula N. Gourley, G.S.L.S., P0 Box 6242, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487 (205/348-4990). She is coordinating the exchange.
• Philip Smith will be in the United States next September and October, in connection with an exhibition entitled "Aspects of British Book Art Today" at Saturdays' Book Arts Gallery in Euclid, Ohio. He has been invited to attend the opening and give lectures. While he is here, he will be available to take part in programs of book arts centers and other organizations. His slide lectures are technical/ artistic (step-by-step sequences in the making of various works) visual workshops/discussions. He can be contacted at The Book House, Yatton Keynell, Wiltshire, SN14 7BH, England (tel. Castle Combe [0249] 782597).
• The Annual Instructional Meeting for archive conservators, archivists and librarians will be held at Nottingham University in England, Sept. 6-9, organized by the Society of Archivists Technical Committee and Nottingham University Dept. of Manuscripts. The program is based on the theme of quality control and will include contributions from conservators, chemists and curators, with case studies to illustrate the importance of checking and testing, especially with exhibitions. There will be tours, a trade fair, annual general meeting and a social event. Contact Tony Upton, Dept. of Manuscripts, Nottingham University, Nottingham NG7 2RD England.
• A conference entitled "Papermaking by Hand in America" will be held at Indiana University Oct. 20-24, in connection with the annual meeting of the Friends of the Dard Hunter Paper Museum, and cosponsored by that group and the Friends of the Lilly Library. There will be a tour to the Twinrocker Handmade Paper Mill on Oct. 21. Nonmembers should write to Friends of the Lilly Library, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405.
• The 30th Allerton Institute will be held Nov. 6-9, sponsored by the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The one in 1981 was on "Conserving and Preserving Library Materials" and the proceedings were published as a book in 1983. In that book, Gerald Gibson had a chapter on preservation of nonpaper materials, in which he protested that the scope was far too broad for the time allotted. He must have made his point, because this time the whole conference is devoted to preservation of films, paintings, photographs, newspapers, sound recordings, maps and so on. Contact the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois, 410 David Kinley Hall, 1407 W. Gregory Dr., Urbana, IL 61801 (217/333-6191 or 0757).