Preservation Office

I have been encouraged and advised by Frazer Poole, Assistant Director for Preservation at the Library of Congress, and Peter Waters, Restoration Officer. I also have been greatly helped by the staff of the Preservation Office. To all these, my grateful thanks. 

Data from Tang of the Library of Congress Preservation Office Laboratory. 

The present report is concerned with explorative investigations undertaken in the Preservation Office Laboratory of the Library of Congress on the role of the transition metal catalysts in the oxidative degradation of paper. 

Resistance to Polluted Atmospheres. There is general agreement that it is desirable for a deacidified paper to have built into it some degree of protection against future inadvertent exposures to acidic atmospheres. The buffering capacity of a paper above pH 7.0 is termed "alkaline reserve. There is no consensus as to the necessary extent of this reserve, but the Preservation Office of the Library of Congress has suggested 3% as a reasonable level for reserve alkalinity, expressed as calcium carbonate. 

It is of interest to compare these positives and negatives with the requirements for the ideal process, published by the Library of Congress Preservation Office in John Williams and George Kellys paper (4) of 1974 entitled Research on Mass Treatments in Conservation/ ... 

Waters, P., Restoration Officer, Preservation Office, Library of Congress,... 

My thanks to Mr. Norman Shaffer of the Preservation Office of the Library of Congress for his encouragement and support of this project. 

Not necessarily as a result of this conference, but following the event, the Library of Congress appointed a National Preservation Program Officer in July 1977. The function of this office is to work with the various Preservation Office heads to develop the advisory and direct services that the Preservation Office can provide. The office also represents the Preservation Office in cooperative preservation projects such as the United States Newspaper Project and will explore theoretical and practical long-term managerial approaches and solutions to national library preservation problems. 

The Library of Congress national preservation program provides both direct and indirect services to the library, archival, and preservation community. Direct services are performed in that members of the Preservation Office respond to invitations to speak on various aspects of preservation, conduct workshops for outside groups, and participate in formal academic conservation and preservation courses. In addition, some limited collection survey work is done and consultations on library and fire disasters are a frequent contribution. The Preservation Office... 

In the near future, the Preservation Office will be issuing a newsletter entitled, The National Preservation Report. The Preservation Office does this in response to a long-felt need and will attempt to provide news of preservation activities to the librarian, archivist, conservator, and scientist. 

In 1973, the Library of Congress Preservation Office initiated the use of polyester film encapsulation as a technique for the conservation of maps, manuscripts, posters, and carefully selected works of art on paper. 

As a postscript to the meeting, Norman J. Shaffer, then Chief of the Library of Congress Preservation Office, wrote in January 1980 in the preface of the proceedings of the December 1976 conference (24), While the recommendations made at the planning conference are laudable and achievable at sometime in the future, day-to-day realities argue for doing now what can be done with available resources. ... 

A National Preservation Program, Proceedings of a Planning Conference Preservation Office Library of Congress Washington, D.C., 1980. 

The U.S. Department of the Interior s Cultural Resources Office recommends that the historical significance, integrity, and architectural character of a historic building be assessed before work is undertaken. Your State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) can provide names of preservation professionals to do this type of evaluation. For a directory of State Historic Preservation Offices, contact the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, listed in Appendix B, under Historic Restoration. For sources of more specific information on lead paint hazard control and historic buildings, see the resources listed in Appendix B, under Historic Restoration. 

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