Volume 12, Number 8
Dec 1988

Events in the News

• The ICCROM course on conservation of paper was offered for the second time from September 21 to November 13, and emphasized the problems of preserving archival material. Instruction was in English, and was coordinated by Christine Borruso of Germany, and Paul Schwartzbaum. The eight-week program was taught by eight international experts. It covered cellulose chemistry and chemical identification of materials; history of paper and design materials; Western methods for conserving works of art on paper; innovations; conservation of archival paper; climatology for paper; Japanese methods for conserving oriental paper objects; and conservation of photographs.
• The Commission on Preservation and Access held a conference Sept. 29-Oct. 1 in Wayzata, Minnesota, to consider the problem of preserving art history books and other materials combining text and image. These cannot be satisfactorily microfilmed because they have so many color plates, as well as special paper and special bindings; yet they are as vulnerable to deterioration as any brittle book. Solutions used in the past are not considered satisfactory (filming text and image separately or encapsulating color plates and storing them separately from the book). It was an invitational meeting, to which historians of art and architecture, art librarians, publishers and technical experts were invited.
• There are a lot of events in the Netherlands nowadays that book and paper conservators would find very interesting if they went to them. They are almost always in English. On October 18-19 in Zutphen, there was an International Conference on Education and Training with Respect to Restoration and Conservation Techniques, which covered library and archive conservation as well as museum conservation. There was a trade fair, "Restauratie 88" on Oct. 19-21 in the same town, and a symposium on "Mass Conservation" Oct. 21. At Hicoreb, the conservation school operated by the Flemish Bookbinders Guild, not far away in Belgium (Korenlei 21, 9000 Gent, Belgium), a series of workshops began Oct. 24 and runs till April 28. The instructors are: Middleton, Johnson, Duke, De Roover, Flamm, Clarkson, Pickwoad. All but the De Roover workshop are in English, or Dutch and English.

  Perhaps information about the next Restauratie Conference can be had from the address given in the announcement: Restauratie Conference, P0 Box 80, 7200 AB Zutphen, The Netherlands.

• Two eastern archivists' groups recently had preservation workshops at their meetings:
• Nov. 3-4, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference had a disaster recovery workshops with five speakers. There was a session on basic in-house conservation for new archivists and curators on the second day.

  At their Oct. 27-29 meeting, the New England Archivists had three workshops with preservation components, on administration of photographic collections, caring for historical records, and preservation microfilming.

  At the Oct. 29-30 meeting of the Midwest Regional Conservation Guild in Chicago, members heard Jim Canary speak on Tibetan book production and preservation, and Doug Severson and Chris Young speak on ethical and philosophical questions concerning the intensification of photographic images.

• The Western Association for Art Conservation met at Yosemite National Park on Nov. 8 and heard about 20 papers, among them five of interest to paper conservators, not counting the one on conservation of chocolate by Sharon Blank, Clair Dean and Glenn Wharton.
• On March 1, the National Archives and Records Administration will give its Fourth Annual Preservation Conference which will be on "Current Trends in the Preservation of Audiovisual Collections." Each of four main types of materials will have a panel: video, sound recording, motion picture and still picture. Reception afterwards. Registration is $40. For information write Conference Coordinator, Archival Research and Evaluation Staff, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington DC 20408 (202/523-1546).
• The Northeast Document Conservation Center invites applications for a five-day workshop to train about ten paper conservators in techniques for performing general surveys, May 1-5, at the Essex Institute in Salem. The workshop, funded in part by IMS, will review the factors that contribute to collection damage, address a surveyor's clues to their presence, and discuss strategies for correcting problems. Faculty will include Karen Motylewski, the director of NEDCC' a survey program; Ernest Conrad, President of Landmark Facilities Group, a consulting firm specializing in climate control and architectural planning for libraries, museums, and historic structures; and conservators with additional expertise in survey techniques. Fee: $90. Participants will be chosen on the basis of conservation training and experience, geographic representation, communication skills, and opportunity to use the training to benefit institutions in their regions. Contact Karen Motylewski, NEDCC, 24 School St., Andover, MA 01810.
• Three IFLA subgroups under its Core Programme on Preservation and Conservation are co-sponsoring an international symposium May 22-24 at the Library of Congress: "Managing the Preservation of Serial Literature." Speakers will include William J. Welsh, David Clements, Margaret Child, Don Sebera, Else Delaunay (Bibliotheque Nationale), Gerhard Banik (National Library of Austria), and other speakers from six or seven different countries. Fee: $150. For more information and registration form, write Robert Harriman, Chair, Symposium Organizing Committee, Serial Record Division - LM515, Library of Congress, Washington, DC 20540.
• The program for the Columbia University Rare Book School in July is now set, with a faculty of 28. Twenty one-week noncredit courses are offered, five each week. Base tuition is $435 per course. Low-cost housing available; early-evening public lectures will be scheduled. Since Terry Belanger is on sabbatical, Martin Antonetti will direct the school. He is Special Collections Librarian, Mills College. For details and application form, write to Bare Book School, School of Library Service, 516 Butler Library, Columbia University, New York NY 10027 (212/854-4734). Something different this year is the course in advanced preservation, taught by Carolyn Harris.
• As part of the Sept. 10-15 meeting of the American Chemical Society in Miami, the Getty Conservation Institute will co-organize a special symposium on environmental chemistry of art conservation. Issues addressed will include air quality measurements in museums, lab studies of pollutant damage to art objects, theoretical studies, damage by outdoor pollutants, microenvironments, national and international environmental art conservation programs, and mitigation measures. Papers are invited. Contact Dr. Frank Preusser, Getty Conservation Institute, 4503 Glencoe Ave., Marina del Rey, CA 90292-6537 (213/822-2299).
• The IADA Congress for 1991 will be in Uppsala, and will have as its main theme the restoration/conservation of graphic art on paper. In addition, the conservation of archival material, books, photographic material and large-sized maps will be on the program. There will be simultaneous translation from German to English and vice versa. iada=Internationale Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Archiv-, Bibliotheks- und Graphikrestauratoren. For German-speaking conservators, it is the equivalent of the AIC Book and Paper Group. IADA has recently started running English translations of some of the reports and other items in its newsletter" (the yellow pages of Restauro), in line with its new resolve to cooperate more closely with other international organizations in book and paper conservation. N.b. Uppsala is an old university town about 50 miles northwest of Stockholm.