Volume 14, Number 5
Aug 1990

Events in the News

Business-oriented disaster control meetings, publications, services and organizations are becoming more common. Since they are business-oriented, they are usually quite expensive, like the Second International Disaster Recovery Symposium and Exhibition in Atlanta, September 19-21, which costs $895 per person. Local ones may be more reasonable, like the October 3 symposium in Salt Lake City, "Contingency Planning for Business Recovery," which only costs $95, despite the fact that nationally recognized speakers will be on the program. It is sponsored by the Utah Chapter of the Association of Contingency Planners and other organizations, and might be just the thing for libraries concerned about maintaining continuity of computerized services in emergencies. Call Roger Forsberg, 801/629-2203; or Charlie Fox, 801/350-6085.

Designer Bookbinders have a series of Tuesday lectures at the Art Workers Guild, 6 Queen Square, London WC1. All begin at 7 pm and cost �1, and are on the first or second Tuesday of the month. Deborah Evetts will speak an North American bookbinders Oct. 9; J.A. Szirmai an "Carolingian Bindings in the St. Gall Abbey Library: The Evolution of the Codex and its Mechanical Properties," Feb. 5; and Marianne Tidcombe on "Binding the Kelmscott Chaucer at the Doves Bindery" Mar. 12. Details from Ann Thornton, 071 937 8868, or Angela Craft, 071 738 7232. (The talks for November through J are not listed here.)

In Paris, October 10-11, there will be a conference on "Tablettes à écrire, de l'Antiquité à 1'époque moderne" (Writing tablets, from antiquity to the present), organized by the Institut de recherche et d'histoire des textes and the Institut de papyrologie at the Sorbonne. Three of the papers will be in English, one in German, and the rest in French. All of them look interesting. Here is a selection:

C. Sirat - Les tablettes de bois dans la tradition juive: Textes et documents

P. Cauderlier - Les tablettes grecques (rapport)

Y. Solier - Inventaire des tablettes de plomb languedociennes inscrites en ibère et en caractères grecs (VI^e-II^e siècles avant J.-C.)

M. Sharpe - The Dakhleh tablets and some codicological considerations

J. Van Haelst - Du codex de tablettes au codex tout court: l'èvolution sèmantique de quelques termes grecs et latins désignant les tablettes à écrire

D. Thomas - The wooden writing tablets in Latin from Vindolanda in North Britain

There is no information about fees or who to contact. It will be held at the Institut de France, and it is called a "colloque international du C.N.R.S."

The October 26-28 seminar on enzyme treatments, sponsored by Technology and Conservation, will include several presentations relevant to book and paper conservation:

Alan J. Russell - What to do when your enzyme does not work: Protein engineering including treatments in non-aqueous media

Pia DeSantis Pell - Use of enzymes in paper treatments: Making up suitable solutions, methods of application, and procedures using agar gels

Season Tse - The degradation of paper by commercial amylase and protease enzymes: Results of several experimental studies

Sherry Guild - Removal of adhesive residues using an enzyme poultice: Choice of enzymes, method of application, and treatment procedures (including a case history of the conservation of two sets of Audubon plates)

Debbie Hess Norris - The use of enzymes in the conservation of photographic materials: Applications and hazards

In Wolfenbüttel, at the Herzog August Bibliothek, Nov. 12-14, there will be an international seminar an book history, "Die Rationalisierung der Buchherstellung van der Antike bis zum Gegenwart" (Development of Book Production Methods from Ancient Times to the Present). Most of the papers will be in German, but six are in English and three are in French. The full program is on p. 55 of the Spring 1990 Gazette du livre médiéval, across from the full schedule of the October Paris conference on writing tablets. Some papers in the November program are:

D. Muzerelle - Progrès de la codicologie

P. Needham - Format and paper sizes in the standardizing of the shapes of printed books

A. Cohen - The division of labour in the production of a manuscript

J. Pyrozynski - Geschriebene und gedruckte Neue Zeitungen des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts

P. Saenger - Silent reading and word separation