Volume 1, Number 2
Jul 1994

Queries

Q: The following query from Yolanda Warren was posted on the Conservation DistList January 7. As of April 5, she reported she had had no good responses. Perhaps she will have better luck with this posting in the Alkaline Paper Advocate. -Ed.

Our library has been using posterboard for the signs indicating call numbers on the shelves. We have recently gotten more into color coding certain areas and have also used poster board for that. Unfortunately, this board loses practically all of its color after about a year.

We are looking for some more permanent material. It can be paper-based or plastic-based. Since it needs to fit into a slotted holder, the material cannot be any thicker than about 3 mm. Could any of you suggest a material (and a vendor) that would fit my description? Please respond to me directly. Thank you in advance.

Yolanda Warren
Leyburn Library
Washington and Lee University
Lexington, VA 24450
703/463-8662
warren.y@fs.library.wlu.edu

Q: Linda Hee, of the Bishop Museum in Hawaii, posted an e-mail message last spring about alkaline colored file folders. They keep their botanical specimens in these file folders, and the color denotes the part of the world they come from. Now they are having trouble finding a supplier, and have not gotten any good replies from their e-mail query. They would appreciate hearing from anyone who can suggest a source. Note: They do not need the raw stock; they need it made up into folders, which should be durable as well as permanent, because they get heavy use. There is a standard for this, which may help: ASTM D 3301-85 (reapproved 1990), Standard Specification for File Folders for Storage of Permanent Records.

Please contact Linda Hee at 808/848-4112, or Walter Appleby, Collections Manager, at 808/848-4175, to suggest a source. (Hawaii is three time zones away from California. -Ed.

Q: I am writing this with the hope that you can assist me in helping a customer in Japan who is looking for paper mills that produce special boards described by our customer as follows:

1. Super Humidity Controlling Paper/Board: The board is conditioned to a certain relative humidity (RH), e.g. 60%. When the RH around the board falls to 50%, the board releases moisture to keep the RH around it from falling below 50%. Likewise, when the RH around the board rises to 70%, the board absorbs the moisture, bringing the RH back to 60%.

2. AF [acid-free] Board: This is alkaline board (pH 8.5). In picture frames, board is put at the back of the pictures to protect them from [airborne or other acids].

A (from the Editor): We have no information at this office about the paper or board that controls humidity, except through its natural tendency to absorb and give off moisture. (Cellulose is a very efficient buffer of RH.) Perhaps one of the readers will be able to help.

We do have some information here at the office about mills that make archival board, although this information is not easy to find, and we don't expect our list to be complete. Since most board is made to order for convertors, it is usually sold as a private brand (under the brand name of the distributor or convertor) rather than as a mill brand. Companies known to make archival board, whether they market it under their own name or that of some other company, are:

• Custom Papers Group
• Crocker Technical Papers
• Monadnock
• Fox River Paper Co., Rising Paper Div.
• Strathmore Paper
• Specialty Paperboard

Companies that may have made archival board at some time in the past, but do not do so now, are James River and Beveridge Paper Co. (a division of Simkins Industries).

Hurlock Brothers Co. Inc. (800/341-0142) has four private brands of alkaline mounting board listed in the Grade Finder.

Q: We are looking for a list of publishers who publish on acid-free paper. We get requests for such a list and would like to have one to give out.

• University of Michigan Libraries
• Preservation Division

A : This query was referred to Barbara Goldsmith, author and advocate of paper permanence, who replied, "For the last four years, every hard cover publisher and every university press in the U.S. has been using acid-free paper for at least the first printing of hard cover trade books. This is industry-wide."

For more specific information, one could ask the preservation librarians who survey the pH of incoming library books from time to time. Library books are more or less representative of the hardcover market. Such surveys were done at Columbia University in 1983, 1988 and 1993; Brigham Young University in 1989; and Ohio State University (OSU) in 1992. Other studies are being planned or carried out almost every year.

The OSU study used a random sample of 700 books published 1989-1991, in 28 nations. For 1991, 95% of the 128 hardcover books published in the U.S. were on alkaline paper. (More information is in the Abbey Newsletter for June 1992, p. 33.) The 1993 study at Columbia University found that 100% of the monographs published in the U.S. in 1993 were acid-free. (For a copy of the report, or more information about it, contact Lee Dirks at Columbia University, 212/854-4884; fax 212/222-0331; e-mail ld21@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu.)