Paper Conservation by New Mass Deacidification Techniques-Phase II

The overall objective of our Phase II research program is to produce a prototype that utilizes this method to deacidify paper, and prevent ongoing, in-situ acid degradation that is rendering it unstable. The workflow can be divided into 1) Mission and 2)Technical Objectives. Mission Objectives:The Library of Congress (LOC) provided the mission objectives for a successful MD treatment in 1990 by issuing a Request for Proposal (RFP) detailing five required performance criteria for an acceptable MD process. Those RFP criteria have been widely adopted and are summarized below: 1.The process must be demonstrated as effective for mass deacidification. 2.The scientific soundness and safety of the process must be substantiated throughout with supporting data. 3.The process must add to the necessary alkaline reserve, treat substrates uniformly and not cause damage to the paper or bound volumes treated. 4.The process must demonstrate satisfactory levels of quality assurance. 5.The process must provide documentation of appropriate inventory and tracking techniques for documents undergoing treatment. Potential users have added criteria, which must be met by a process that is acceptable to their preservation department or institution as summarized below: A.The process must be economically feasible for mass deacidification. B.The process should be applicable for all materials without risk of damage to bindings, paper or ink. C.The successful process must be capable of being carried out in-house by resident library personnel without the presence of extraneous hazardous chemicals or processes and without the necessity of exotic equipment or utilities.Technical Objectives:Most of the work on technical objectives will take place using a scaled-up prototype for the paper treating process. These include: 1.Development of real-scale equipment to study the application variables of the MD process as an aid in the engineering process and to assist in its commercialization. 2.Increased understanding of treatment parameters as well as the optimization of treating formulations. 3.Development and control of a method to uniformly apply treating formulation. 4.Increase in the effectiveness of the treatments. 5.Continued research into the effects of treatments on the properties of treated paper utilizing accepted physical testing protocols and Scanning Electron Microscopy with visual and energy dispersive X-Ray characterizations. The technology above includes development, integration and proof testing of necessary prototype components and sub-systems. This will supply a satisfactory device for treating of single sheets of paper.