Volume 15, Number 4
Jul 1991

News

RLIN Lives

The Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN), a shared computer system that makes possible an enormous shared bibliographical database for cataloging, ordering and preservation, is so important to the libraries that use it that some librarians may have grown distinctly uneasy, not to say anxious or panicky when they read about the far-reaching changes planned by James Michalko, the new president of the Research Libraries Group (RLG), which owns RLIN. At the March meeting of the RLG's Board of Governors, he said, "Alternative sources have emerged for many of the products RLG provided during the 1980s. RLG's efforts in the 1990s should complement rather than replicate services scholars can obtain through local systems or other established services." Negotiations were underway to transfer RLG s' current cataloging activity from RLIN to OCLC (another "established service," coincidentally); and economies in operating costs were (and are) seen as important.

Well, it turned out that was not what he meant at all. After the June Board meeting a press release was issued, in which Michalko was quoted as saying that RLG will continue to maintain the RLIN system as a full, current resource for processing, shared resources, preservation, and other cooperative activities. As you were.

Raise your own Kenaf

Charles Raney, an Iowa hand papermaker, has responded to a request for information about kenaf, a plant that may one day be used in commercial papermaking in the U.S. to replace wood fiber. He says, "Kenaf for the hand papermaker will produce excellent papers, and its fibers are recommended for use in the pure state or as a supplement to other fibers in handmade papers.... A firm in Albuquerque wrote to inform me that they had kenaf seeds for sale. Their address is IT Products, Box 4795, Albuquerque, NM 871964795. In addition to seeds they have partially processed fiber and a couple of brochures."

A 1988 article on kenaf from the New York Times is summarized an P. 74 of the 1989 issue of this Newsletter.

New Addresses

• AMIGOS Bibliographical Council has a new address, effective July 22: 12200 Park Central Drive, Suite 500, Dallas, IX 75251. The telephone number and fax are new: 214/8518000; fax 214/991-6061. The 800 number is unchanged: 800/ 843-8482.
• Colonial Williamsburg has a new post office box number, so the address is now P.O. Box 1776 MHW, Williamsburg, VA 23187.
• The Flemish Hand Bookbinders Guild (Vlaamse Handboekbindersgilde) has moved to Krommenelleboog 5, 9000 Gent, Belgium. This is the organization that operates the school for book conservators, called HICOREB.

Photographic Materials

• The September 1990 Popular Photography, p. 44-48, has an article called "Big Prints Pronto," about getting enlarged prints of color or B/W prints, negatives, and slides. The two color copiers that do this are the Kodak Create-a-Print enlarging station (do-it-yourself, analog, fast) and the Canon Laser Copier 500 (must be run by a specialist, digital, fast). In the table comparing the various features of the two processes, permanence (bright storage/dark storage) is given as 12.7 to 80+ years for the Create-a-Print, according to Henry Wilhelm, and one mouth to 10 years for the Laser Copier in normal storage, according to Canon. To find out where the nearest machine in your area is, call Canon at 800/628-1924 or Kodak's distributor Noritsu America at 800/445-6325.
• The Nov. 2 Variety, in an article called "Pic Preservation Board Wants to Shed Labeling," explains the political obstacles that will keep the Library of Congress and the National Film Preservation Board from continuing its practice of labeling movies that have been "colorized" or electronically altered. Congress does not seem likely to reauthorize the Board if it continues its practice of labeling altered films as such. Roddy McDowall, representing the Screen Actors Guild, called such changes "desecrations" and said, "We have failed to protect works in their original form. I feel part of a partial lie and I'm not comfortable with that. It was the fault of the law, which prevented the real thing from being done."
• Work has begun on a Photographic Materials Conservation Catalog, by members of the Photographic Materials Group of the AIC. A meeting was held in Ottawa to discuss it, recruit volunteer authors, reviewers and contributors, and plan future outline topics. The first publication is expected in June of 1992.
• ANSI's IT9 Committee met in May in Ottawa and approved a change in the recommended relative humidity for storage, from 15-507 down to 20-307., because gelatin, dyes and film support all last much longer at lower humidity. It also replaced the term "long term," "medium term," and "archival" with "LE" (life expectancy) members.

Company News

• The Barrow Restoration Shop in Richmond, Virginia, carried on for 14 years after the Barrow Lab closed down, and 24 years after the death of William J. Barrow. On Feb. 1 it was closed down for personal reasons, according to Greg Minnick, the most recent director, and all the equipment sold. Most of the lab a papers and artifacts have already been turned over to the Virginia Historical Society, and the rest will go there too.
• Scott Paper, which owns the S.D. Warren Go., is selling assets not essential to its core businesses. One of those assets is the Warren mill in Westbrook, where E. Sutermeister worked from about 1900 to about 1952, always promoting the use of alkaline paper made with calcium carbonate (unfortunately, alkaline size had not yet been invented. The papers from his research lab are still there today.

Trusts and Endowments

• The Getty Grant Program of the J. Paul Getty Trust and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation have approved endowments totaling $500,000 to support internships for students in the Art Conservation Department at Buffalo State College.
• A former U.S. Senator from Florida has just donated an endowment trust of $20 million for materials acquisitions and preservation at the University of Florida Libraries.
• They will be renamed the George A. Smathers Libraries in his honor.
• The National Manuscripts Conservation Trust was established about two years ago in England to fund preservation of archives and manuscripts in record offices, libraries ad other publicly funded institutions. A sum of S100,000 was set aside annually over a three-year period for funding of repair, binding, listing, microfilm, and other preservation measures, on a matching basis. The 1990 annual report of the Trust lists and describes the projects funded in that year. Address: c/o The British Library, Research and Development Department, 2Sheratm St., London W1V 4BH.