Volume 12, Number 4
Jun 1988

Events in the News

• In October 1987, a Consultation Meeting of Socialist Countries on Preservation and Conservation was held in Warsaw, to discuss issues of preservation, conservation, and access to library materials. Representatives from Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany (GDR), Cuba, Hungary, the Soviet Union, Poland and IFLA attended. A report appeared in Internat. Pres. News, May 1988.
• "The Paper Chase: Strategic Developments in the Manufacture and Use of Alkaline Paper," a seminar that was to have been held in March at the University of Madison, was called off about a month before it was to have taken place.
• A new organization, the Southern Archivists' Conference, held its first meeting at the University of Mississippi May 17-19. The program included workshops on "Going for a Grant" (Nancy Sahli, NHPRC) and "Conservation Vendor Services" (Sandy Nyberg, SOLINET) and sessions on the moving image, newspaper preservation, and cooperative preservation planning. For information on the organization contact Linda Overman, PO Box 1151, Jackson, MS 39205 (601/359-1424).
• It used to be known as "Oxbow" when it took place at a resort/retreat of this name in rural Michigan. It has been described as "a summer camp for bookbinders" but it is also a summer camp for papermakers, book and paper artists, conservators, printers and marblers. It is now known as PBI, which is short for Paper and Book Intensive: Resident Workshops in Advanced Paper & Book Crafts. People who have attended in previous years have regularly reported their experience as inspiring or invigorating, though those are not the words they used. Louise Genest-Côté put it this way in the September 1985 Journal de l'Association des relieurs du Quebec: "Oxbow is unique; it has a very special atmosphere. It is said that Oxbow is magic and I tend to believe it." This year it is June 27 to July 10 at Wilder Forest, a new retreat chosen partly for its good management. See Tim Barrett's open letter in the Letters section.
• Sün Evrard, who must have remarkable endurance, will be giving ten consecutive workshops in fine binding and contemporary design from July 4 to Sept. 9, 9-6, Monday through Friday, at AAAV in Chatou, France. Topics: simplified binding; traditional binding; chemise, slipcase and drop back box; decoration techniques; and four different parchment bindings. 1500 FF (about $265) per week covers instruction and all materials but large pieces of leather and expensive decorated papers. For a full listing of workshops write A.A.A.V., 28 his chemin du Tour des Bois, 78400 Chatou, France. Chatou is 30 minutes west of the Arc de Triomphe by Metro-RER.
• The Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of ALA has its own conference before the ALA annual meeting each year. It is called the RBMS Preconference. Although it is not widely announced, anyone may attend; write ACRL/ALA, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611 (800/545-2433). This year it will be July 6-8, in New Orleans. The program includes a slide presentation on making fine books by hand, and sessions on the following topics: lending of rare books; conservation in special collections; care and handling of museum artifacts and art objects in special collections; grant proposals for preservation and access; and risk management in special collections. RBMS committee meetings, programs and the "Information Exchange" (discussion group) are held July 9-11 as part of the ALA meeting. This year one of the programs will be on "Government Documents as Rare Books."
• The program for the TAPPI Paper Preservation Symposium Oct. 19-21 is shaping up. There will be 10 sessions with a total of 63 speakers, who will discuss such topics as optimum storage conditions for books and documents, the manufacture and use of alkaline paper, techniques for deacidification and strengthening deteriorated and embrittled paper, and the different properties of printing papers that affect preservation. Senator Mark Hatfield and Congressmen George E. Brown and Major R. Owens will speak on government support of preservation of cultural works; heads of major libraries and archives will describe their preservation programs; and there will be several round-table discussion luncheons. Until September 9, the fee for TAPPI members and members of conservation and related societies is $300; after that, $400. This includes two banquets and a copy of the proceedings with manuscripts of all presentations. Full-time students in relevant fields may attend free but do not get the proceedings free. Contact the Meetings Department at TAPPI Headquarters, Technology Park/ Atlanta, PO Box 105113, Atlanta, GA 30348-5113 (404/446-1400, ext. 237).
• Beginning in November, the Conservation Analytical Lab of the Smithsonian Institution will be giving conservation training courses relevant to libraries and archives, in the context of their 1988-89 program:

  November: Pest Management (one day)
  Spring 1989: Conservation Administration (lectures in a program for furniture conservators)
  Color, Dyes and Pigments
  Techniques, Uses, Differences and Operating Parameters of Current Paper Suction Tables II
  Summer/Fall 1989: Leather and Hide Conservation

• Plans for all of these are tentative; formal announcements will be made at a later date.
• An international conference, "Managing the Preservation of Serial Literature," will be held May 9-11, 1989 at the Library of Congress, sponsored by four different sections and groups within IFLA. It will continue the discussion on newspaper preservation from the 1987 IFLA conference in Brighton, and will cover the following topics, among others: management issues in preservation, preservation in original and in secondary format, information needs for preservation and a design for an international preservation information program. For information contact Robert Harriman, Chair, IFLA Working Group on Newspapers, Library of Congress, LM-515, Washington, DC 20540.