The author would like to express his appreciation to his colleagues of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in The Hague: Wim Smit (Conservation & Optical Technology) for direct assistance and useful suggestions, Clemens de Wolf (Collections & Research) and Hans Jansen (Library Research) for their guidance. Yola de Lusenet (European Commission on Preservation and Access, Amsterdam) is acknowledged for her great support. It is due to the willingness of the various contacts listed at the end of the report, to offer personal opinions and expert knowledge that important information on the current status of the different deacidification systems could be included. Don Sebera (preservation consultant, Washington D.C.) and Astrid Brandt (scientific advisor, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris) offered constructive comments on the original draft of this publication.
Reactions on this report can be sent to the following address:
Dr. H.J. Porck
Conservation scientist
Department of Library Research
Koninklijke Bibliotheek,
National Library of the Netherlands
P.O. Box 90407
2509 LK The Hague
The Netherlands
This report is the result of a desk research project aiming to provide an update of the possibilities and limitations of currently available mass deacidification methods. It focuses on the major developments in research and application of the main operational systems.
The Introduction outlines the aims and design of the present study, developed in consultation with the European Commission on Preservation and Access.
The next chapters describe the mass deacidification systems included in this study: Battelle, Bookkeeper, dez, fmc, and Wei T'o. For each system a brief history of the development of the technical process is presented, as well as a condensed description of the treatment principle, an overview of available research and test results, indicating the main advantages and disadvantages of the process concerned, and finally an inventory of actual applications of the system.
In addition several other initiatives are described, involving large-scale rather than mass treatment technologies and essentially combining deacidification with strengthening of paper. These initiatives include the Bückeburg process, the Graft-copolymerization process, the paper splitting process and the Vienna process.
The data compiled in this report do not allow any conclusions in the sense of a recommendation in favor of any of the techniques described. Instead, in a final section some of the main findings are discussed within the framework of a critical evaluation of the current possibilities and limitations of mass deacidification in general.
The References list the literature consulted for this study, publications as well as internal reports. Finally, the List of contacts gives the names of representatives of firms and institutions who offered relevant information about the present state of affairs and/or shared their opinions on relevant issues.
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
Bibliothèque nationale de France
British Library
Bundesarchiv
Die Deutsche Bibliothek, the National Library of Germany
Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the National Library of the Netherlands
Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation
Ministry of Education, Culture and Science of the Netherlands
National Archives of Denmark
National Archives of Finland
National Archives of Ireland
National Archives of Norway
National Library of Finland
National Library of Ireland
National Library of Norway
National Library of Poland
National Library of Scotland
National Library of Wales
National and University Library of Iceland
National and University Library of the Republic of Slovenia
Royal Library of Denmark
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
Swedish Research and Development Project on Paper Preservation
Swiss Federal Archives
 European
Commission on Preservation and Access | P.O. Box 19121-1000 GC Amsterdam
-The Netherlands | ecpa@bureau.knaw.nl | www.knaw.nl/ecpa/ |