Volume 1, Number 1
Jun 1994

Permanent Paper, Standards, Tests

• In Australia, the National Preservation Office, established last year, now has a staff of three and issues an attractive brochure which describes the office and current preservation issues. It lists six functions under the heading, "How the National Preservation Office can Help You." One of them is:

  "National Awareness. The National Preservation Office is committed to maintaining and developing an awareness of preservation issues. It lobbies for the wider use of permanent paper in publishing [and] for the development of standards, and it makes every effort to ensure that preservation issues are covered in the media."

  For information, or to be put on the mailing list of the newsletter, contact the National Preservation Office, National Library of Australia, Canberra, ACT 2600 Australia, (06) 262 1137; fax (06) 273 4493.

• The draft standard for "Archival [i.e., super-permanent] Papers" (ISO/CD 11108) has had most of the work done on it, so it may be out soon. It is primarily "for documents and publications intended to be kept for use permanently because of their high historical, legal or other significant values." It is based on ISO 9706, but in addition it specifies a certain fold endurance and a fiber composition of cotton, cotton linters, hemp, flax or ramie. The full text of the draft ran in the Conservation DistList on April 11.

  Technical Committee 46, Subcommittee 10 (TC 46/SC 10), which drafted the above document, is also working on a standard for edition bindings, WD (Working Document) 11800. It covers binding materials and manufacturing methods for hard cover and soft cover books, at three levels of permanence, each of which has its own maximum kappa number for the paper of the pages, and other differences. Since it is still under discussion, nothing is cast in concrete yet.

  Permanence of board was accepted as a new work item in TC 46/SC 10 at its May meeting in Stockholm. It would cover sheets with a grammage of more than 225 g/m2, including those used for storage, framing and as substrates for art work. Rolf Dahlø is the chair of this group and Ivar Hoel is the secretary.

• France is eager, or at least some people in France are eager, to start using a permanent paper standard. An article in Livres Hebdo for Nov. 12, 1993, said that the French national standards association, Afnor, had introduced an experimental standard, Q15-013, which will be used until ISO 9706 is published. They look forward to being able to use the infinity sign in a circle for papers that meet the standard. "France is behind other countries which have experimented for some time with the elimination of acid and other deleterious substances from paper," the abstract says, "but its papermakers now offer products manufactured in a neutral environment or without optical brighteners and publishers are sometimes using permanent paper without realizing it." (In Europe there is a feeling that optical brighteners interfere with permanence.)
• The ASTM hot extraction and cold extraction tests have been included in the same standard for the first time. It is called ASTM D 778-93, Test Methods for Hydrogen Ion Concentration (pH) of Paper Extracts (Hot Extraction and Cold Extraction Procedures). To order standards, call ASTM sales at 215/299-5430, or the receptionist, 215/299-5400.