The E-Sylum:  Volume 5, Number 1, January 6, 2002, Article 17

MORE ON LIBRARY OF CONGRESS DEACIDIFICATION

  NBS Board member Joel Orosz forwards this article with
  more information on the Library of Congress' efforts to
  deacidify books.  It is from the AP wire, and was published
  in The New York Times January 1, 2002:

  WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 (AP) - The Library of Congress,
  home to the world's largest collection of books, is working to
  preserve a million of them by removing the acid from their
  paper.

  More than 150 years ago, papermakers started using
  chemicals that made their product acidic and thus more
  susceptible to decay. The use of wood pulp instead of rags
  as the basic material in paper made the problem worse, said
  Kenneth Harris, the library's director of preservation
  projects.

  Thus, Mr. Harris has a plan to de-acidify about 8.5
  million of the library's 18.7 million books, a move that is
  intended to add hundreds of years to the life of the books.

  A five-year contract the library signed with Preservation
  Technologies L.P. of suburban Pittsburgh calls for treating
  150,000 books in the 12 months that began Nov. 1, at a cost
  of $2.3 million. The company has already processed 400,000
  books for the library.

  The company's process uses special cylindrical vats. In
  each vat, four books are held spine-to-spine on each of two
  circular shelves. That way, the books have room to open
  completely and a deacidifying liquid in the vat can reach
  every page. The liquid contains particles of magnesium
  oxide that neutralize the acid and leave a residue to
  continue the job.

  "It's a chalky white, like milk of magnesia," Mr. Harris
  said.

  After 25 minutes, the liquid is vacuumed out. In two hours,
  the books are dry.

  Since the 1970's, books from the United States and other
  industrialized countries have been printed in increasing
  numbers on alkaline paper that does not need treatment. But
  in poor countries, much paper is made the old way. About
  half of the 200,000 new books the Library of Congress
  receives each year from around the world will be candidates
  for deacidifying.

  Preservation Technologies will speed production from year
  to year. By the time the contract ends in 2005, the company
  intends to process 250,000 books annually, Mr. Harris said.
  It will also have processed at least five million sheets of
  manuscript.

  Preservation Technologies has developed machinery for
  processing larger items than books - newspapers, maps,
  posters - and Mr. Harris said the machinery would be
  installed next year in one of the library's buildings on
  Capitol Hill.

  The library will train the company's staff to select books
  for treatment and ship them to the company's factory in
  Cranberry Township, Pa., outside Pittsburgh. The library's
  staff will maintain quality control over the process and
  make sure a record of the work on each volume is kept, Mr.
  Harris said."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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