Volume 23, Number 5
1999

Editor's Page

A Thank-You to Supporters

The editor and trustees of Abbey Publications, Inc. a nonprofit corporation, are grateful for the support listed below, as well as for numerous smaller amounts. Since we are now listing donations for the calendar year, rather than for the preceding 12 months, and since the last report was in October 999, this report will present donations for 1999 first, and then start a separate report for the current year.

In 1999 we received a total of $6091. Donations are listed below for Sponsors ($500 or more), Patrons ($100$499), and Contributors ($25-$99). The trustees sometimes donate to the corporation too, but they have not been listed by name. In 1999 $1000 of that $6091 was a trustees' donation.

So far in the year 2000, we have received $1999, and a trustees' donation of $100, which brings the total to $2099. There has been a heartening response to a letter I sent out to subscribers who had not renewed yet for 2000. That letter, reprinted below, describes the insight I gained into a fiscal crisis that developed here last fall, and the overdue policy changes I made to resolve it.

Donations are listed below for Sponsors ($500 or more), Patrons ($100-$499), and Contributors ($25-$99).

Ellen McCrady, Editor

1999 Sponsors

New York Community Trust (J. Talcott Fund)
Terry O. Norris
Isamu Sakamoto

1999 Patrons

Bette Abeel
Elizabeth S. Banks
Bark Frameworks
Joan T. Batchelor
Ernst Becker
John Boral
Brown's River Bindery
Sally Buchanan
Margaret S. Child
Robert L. Feller
Maire and David La Touche
Mekatronics, Inc.
Metal Edge, Inc.
Tawny Ryan Nelb
Ralph & Christina Ocker
Ocker & Trapp Library Bindery
Marcia Oliver (in memory of Catherine Stanescu)
Preservation Source
Nancy Russell
Nancy Carlson Schrock
Richard Daniel Smith
Michael Waters - Custom Manufacturing

1999 Contributors

Baldwin's Book Conservation Service
Julie Biggs
Betsy Palmer Eldridge
Dr. Robert L. Feller
Duane Watson
Walter R. Font
Frames of Mind
Carolyn Jane Gammon
Mary Todd Glaser
Maria Grandinette
Patricia Grey
Margaret H. Johnson
Hilary A. Kaplan
Jeanne F. Lewisohn
Kathleen A. Ludwig
Gerald Lundeen
Neschen Corporation
Sandra Nyberg
Cynthia Ostroff
Abigail Quandt
Jeff Rigby
Martha M. Smith
Nathan Stolow
Ann Swartzell
Tamara Swora-Gober
Thomas O. Taylor
Hariklia Tziamtzi
Deborah J. Wender
William Minter Bookbinding

2000 Sponsors

Nancy P. Russell

2000 Patrons

Elizabeth S. Banks
Jack Bendror, Mekatronics
Jean & Lily Froissard
Lilly Hollander
Duane A. Watson

2000 Contributors

Nelly Balloffet
Carolyn Jane Gammon
Mary Todd Glaser
David B. Gracy, II
Kathleen A. Ludwig
Susan Lunas
Cynthia Ostroff
Jeffrey M. Rigby
Martha M. Smith
Marilyn Kemp Weidner
Deborah Wender

Recent Changes at the AP Office

The following letter was sent as part of an "early renewal notice" to '99 subscribers who had not yet renewed for 2000. It explains the administrative changes made recently at the Abbey Publications office.

The price for Abbey Newsletter subscriptions has just been lowered from $45 per year to $35, starting with the next volume.

We are writing to invite you to renew now, although the current volume (v. 23) still has four issues to go ....

Why we are asking for renewals before the current volume is complete: All through 1999, it was hard to tell just what our financial position was, because of rapid turnover in the position of administrative assistant for a variety of reasons: illness, retirement, a sudden move to another town, and so on. The reports I always rely on to guide management decisions never came through, the 1998 financial records were lost, and for weeks at a time there was no one to do payroll or bring the books up to date.

In the fall of 1999, it looked like both our bank accounts (savings and checking) were running low for some reason. Finally I studied the subscription records and income statements for 1997-99, and found some answers. Forty percent of the individual subscribers had dropped their subscriptions since 1996, the year I increased prices from $35 to $45. The price had been too high!

Income from other sources had also fallen, as I expected, since two of our publications (the Alkaline Paper AdvocateandNorth American Permanent Papers)were no longer appearing. Furthermore, pH pen sales have been falling for the last ten years, but our expenses have remained at the same level as before.

To get us on an even keel again, I decided to lower the subscription price for individuals, and invite dropouts to resubscribe; also, to get a periodicals mailing permit, which would cut postage to a fraction of its usual cost and provide faster delivery as well, especially for overseas subscribers. I decided to solicit advertising from selected suppliers, which will provide information for readers as well as increase our income, and to downsize by cutting staff hours, going to fewer conferences, and putting out shorter but more frequent newsletters. Finally, I decided to promote the newsletter through small targeted mailings.

This "Early Renewal Offer" is one of those mailings ....

Progress report, as of 12 February: The renewals came in, and we are no longer worried about meeting payroll. The subscription price has been put back where it should have been. (Note: Anybody who has paid one or more years ahead at the old price may have a refund for the difference-$10 per year-by asking for it.)

The periodicals mailing permit will be very complicated; we haven't done anything on it yet. However, we will soon be running ads with news value, so to speak. We will invite ads from suppliers offering important new products, or planning to enter the preservation market.

Staff hours have been cut; there are fewer conventions on my calendar for 2000; and I have gathered material for about four more targeted mailings. Finally, the series on mold will continue, and may attract additional readers.

-Editor

Abbey Online

Updated 8/99

These are the back issues of the Abbey Newsletterand theAlkaline Paper Advocateon our Web page in CoOL (http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byorg/abbey). A volume is judged to be "complete" in COOL when the longer features of each issue are posted.

Also posted on our Web page are Useful Addresses, Useful Websitesand selections from North American Permanent Papers 1998.

Authors Please Take Note

Authors of articles and other contributions accepted for publication in theAbbey Newsletterwill be assumed (unless they notify the editor otherwise) to be granting permission to publish their work in both print and electronic form, and to archive it and make it retrievable electronically. Authors retain copyright, however, and may republish their work in any way they wish.

Similarly with previous publishers of material who have given permission for their copyrighted material to be published in theAbbey Newsletter,the permission will be assumed to cover the electronic as well as the printed form.

TheAbbey Newsletter: Preservation of Library & Archival Materials is issued eight times a year and has about 1000 subscribers. Checks or international money orders may be made out in U.S. dollars, payable to Abbey Publications; send to 7105 Geneva Dr., Austin, TX 78723, USA. Foreign checks must have the name of a U.S. bank printed on the front. Payment may be also made by VISA or MasterCard.

Personal subscriptions are $35; institutional subscriptions are $55, and subscriptions for full-time students and unpaid interns $20. Overseas first class air mail is $10/year. (All rates but those for institutional subscriptions have recently been reduced.)

Job announcements are billed at the rate of $50 for the heading and the first ten lines (50-55 characters per line), plus $2 per line thereafter. Any notice that is appropriate and newsworthy will be printed if there is room for it. Claims for issues never received will be honored within a year of publication.

All issues are in print, and each volume has its own index. It is the policy of Abbey Publications to use permanent paper for all publications.

The Editor encourages readers to photocopy freely from the Newsletter; but the Editor's permission must be obtained before making more than 20 copies at a time of lengthy or signed articles. This lets us make any necessary corrections or updates, or contact other copyright holders for permission to reprint.

Most back issues from 1981 onward are on our Web page in COOL <http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byorg/abbey/>.

Abbey Publications is a nonprofit corporation set up to encourage preservation of written or recorded information, including the use of lasting materials in the creation of records. The corporation has five trustees (Ellen McCrady, Gary Frost, Roberta Pilette, James Wellvang, and Thomas Clareson), and five officers (President Ellen McCrady; first vice president Gary Frost; second vice president Jim Wellvang; secretary Tom Clareson; and treasurer Paul Banks).