ISR Permanence Workshop Will be Open to All

ASTM's Institute for Standards Research (ISR) is helping ASTM Committee D-6.50 in its effort to plan and stimulate new research on paper permanence. Committee D-6.50 was formed earlier this year by representatives of CTMP pulp mills, but it has attracted a wider membership since then. The anticipated research is intended to "determine the possibility of producing specifications based only on the functional requirements of the end users of printing and writing papers in lieu of current prescriptive-based specifications"--in other words, to see if permanence standards can be written that would be based on what the paper can do, not on what it is made of.

An open workshop to plan this research will be held July 6-8 at ASTM headquarters in Philadelphia. Papers on permanence research and testing will be given the first day by Terry Norris, Paul Banks, Paul Whitmore, Derek Page, Rajai Atalla, Derek Priest, Cyril Heitner, Gordon Leary, Bruce Lyne, Chandru Shahani, Norayr Gurnagul, Helen Burgess, John Havermans and Tom Lindström. On the second and third days, small groups will discuss research priorities, then work for consensus on the scope and priority of research needed to determine the possibility of producing performance-based specifications for permanence. All interested persons, whether or not they have a technical background, are invited to come, hear the papers, and take part in the discussions.

The workshop now has 19 sponsors: Canadian Conservation Institute, Champion, Domtar, DuPont Canada, Fibreco, Guild of F.A.C.T., International Paper, Louisiana Pacific, Lyons Falls, Millar Western, National Archives of Canada, National Gallery of Art, NISO, National Institute for Conservation, National Library of Canada, Potlatch, Slave Lake, Tembec and USDA Forest Products Lab. Eight of these are cultural or research organizations.

For further information, call Kathleen Riley, Executive Director, Institute for Standards Research, 1916 Race St., Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215/299-5527).