ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 888 / C&RL News ■ Decem ber 1998 P r e s e r v a t i o n N e w s Jane H edberg SOLINET o ffe rs p u b lication s on WWW The Southeastern Library Network, Inc. (SOLINET) has mounted a number of their preservation leaflets on the Web. As o f this writing, the list includes nine bibliographies, three compilations of Internet resources, four vendor supply lists, three general preserva­ tion handouts, and five disaster preparedness handouts. The bibliographies entitled “Re­ sources for Preservation Staff and User Edu­ cation,” “Funding Resources for Preservation,” and “Selected Resources On Digital Imaging” are of special interest. SOLINET has also m ounted Michael Trinkley’s report, “Protecting Your Institution from Wild Fires: Planning Not to Burn and Learning to Recover.” This document provides much valuable advice about dealing with wild fires, a topic often ignored in disaster pre­ paredness literature. Trinkley covers the dif­ ferences between urban and rural fires, fire- proofing, surviving nearby fires, evacuation, personal protection equipment, and salvage o f fire- and smoke-damaged collections. This report may also prove a useful resource for members of the general public in areas at risk for wild fires. The URL for the leaflets is http://www. solinet.net/presvtn/leaf/Ieaflets.htm and the URL for the report is http://www.solinet.net/ presvtn/new/fire.htm. "S a lv a g e at a g la n ce " The Western Association for Art Conserva­ tion (WAAC) has published Betty Walsh’s article “Salvage Operations for Water Dam­ aged Archival Collections: A Second Glance,” with her previously published chart “Salvage at a Glance” in its Web newsletter. The ar­ ticle gives an overview of appropriate actions to be taken following both minor or major disasters in archives. The chart gives brief descriptions of sal­ vage priority, handling precautions, packing techniques, and drying methods for a variety of media, including paper documents, maps, plans, books, manuscripts, works of art on paper, paintings, com puter media, CD’s, sound recordings, photographs, motion pic­ tures, and microforms. The layout of the chart makes it very easy to consult during an emer­ gency. Both documents are available in the WAAC newsletter, v.19: no. 2, on the CoOL Web site at http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/waac/. A g in g te sts fo r paper Research by the preservation directorate at the Library of Congress has developed a new accelerated aging test for paper that is both faster and more accurate than previous tests. Researchers compared the products of deg­ radation from samples of paper naturally aged in the dark with the products from three types of artificially aged paper. The results indicate that paper strips in capped glass tubes heated in a dry oven for less than a week most nearly resemble the paper aged naturally. The pre­ viously used testing methods required heat­ ing under controlled temperature and humid­ ity conditions for 30 days. This new testing method will be submitted to the Institute for Standards Research of the American Society for Testing and Materials in June 1999- For more information, contact Chandru Shahani, preservation directorate, Madison Building, LM-G21, Library of Congress, Wash­ ington, D.C. 20540-4500; fax: (202) 707-3434; e-mail: csha@loc.gov. Y e a r 2000 alert Preservation systems are not immune to Y2K problems. In addition to the more obvious computer-related devices like dataloggers, systems for heating/ventilation/air condition­ ing (HVAC), security, and fire suppression may have internal clocks that are not pro­ grammed to handle the transition to a new century. Thanks to William Real and Walter Henry for the reminder that we should be looking into this. ■ Jane Hedberg prepares this column fo r th e College Libraries C o m m itte e , Com m ission on P reservation and Access. Submissions m ay be m a d e t o Jane H edberg, W ellesley College; JHEDBERG@WELLESLEY.EDU; fax: (781) 283-3690 http://www http://www.solinet.net/ http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/waac/ mailto:csha@loc.gov mailto:JHEDBERG@WELLESLEY.EDU C&RL News ■ D ecem ber 1998 / 889