Acid Paper and Preservation

I decided I wanted to do a little more in the vein of preservation that I spoke about in my last post, so I decided to do my bibliography on the topic of paper history in general, and acid paper in specific. Wood pulp is naturally acidic, and if the pH of paper isn't neutralized, the paper will turn yellow when exposed to light. However, people only figured this out around 80 years ago, so everything printed before then was printed on acidic paper.

The first thing I did when looking for books is ask my mother if she had any suggestions. She suggested the book Double Fold, which she used in one of her classes. I looked up that book at the library, but was disappointed to find that there were no other books on that topic near it on the shelf. I tried to look in the references for something good to look up, but there are 18 pages of references, and about 25 references per page. I didn't really feel like wading through 450 references to try to find 5 that were useful, so (after considering a change of topic and deciding against it) I went to the computer.

Computers are lovely things. Whoever invented search engines deserves all the money that they are probably making right now. I didn't look up any specific books, I just searched my topic in the library search engines and looked at what kind of call numbers came up. Most of the books were in two main places, so I went and looked through the books in those places and chose some that looked like they dealt with the right subject. Here is what I found:
(I wasn't really sure where to put the links to, since I found them all in print, so I'm just doing it to Amazon)

Baker, Cathleen A. From the Hand to the Machine: Nineteenth-century American paper and mediums: technologies, materials, and conservation. The Legacy Press, 2010. [found when browsing shelves]
This book discusses various processes used to make paper in the 1800s as well as a chapter dealing specifically with preservation. It has quite a few full-color pictures that illustrate various types of book deterioration among other things.

Baker, Nicholson. Double Fold. New York: Random House, 2001.
Double Fold talks about libraries throwing out old texts for what he sees as poor reasons, and how they should instead preserve them for posterity. Baker writes in a very engaging and easy-to-read style.

Cunha, George Martin, and Dorthy Grant Cunha. Conservation of Library Materials: A Manuel and Bibliography on the Care, Repair and Restoration of Library Materials. 2nd ed. Metuchen: The Scarecrow Press, 1971. [found when browsing shelves]
This book presents a wide variety of materials that books can be written on, including paper, and discusses what things cause the most deterioration, how to prevent it, and how to fix it once a book has been damaged.

Hills, Richard L. Papermaking in Brittain 1488-1988: A Short History. London: The Athlone Press, 1988. [found when browsing shelves]
This book provides a good general history of papermaking from the time paper came into wide use until what was, at the time of the book's publication, the present.

Morrow, Carolyn Clark. The Preservation Challenge. White Plains: Knowledge Industry Publications, 1983. [found when browsing shelves]
This gives another look at book preservation, but also discusses how libraries can implement preservation programs, and gives case studies of various preservation and restoration programs.

Swartzburg, Susan Garretson, ed. Conservation in the Library: A Handbook of Use and Care of Traditional and Nontraditional Materials. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1983. [found when browsing shelves]
This book is organized by material and gives historical background and care tips for each material. In the section on paper, it has a subsection about paper acidity and what that means for preservation.

Watt, Alexander. The Art of Paper-Making. London: Crosby Lockwood and Son, 1918. [found when browsing shelves]
I mostly picked this up because it is old, and that is cool. It presents a historical view of papermaking from before the concept of paper being acidic was even discovered. It itself is obviously written on acid paper since the pages are yellowed.


Note (meaning this is mostly about my personal life so only read it if you want to):
Libraries are dangerous.
Seriously, I thought that the internet was distracting and easy to waste time on. Libraries, at least for me, are worse. I went to libraries three times in the past week. The first time it was the Provo Library and was for something other than a book. I ended up browsing the shelves anyway and within 5 minutes found 3 books I really wanted to read and lots more that I sort of wanted to read. At this point I forced myself to choose only one and stop looking at the shelves. Guess what I spent the rest of the day doing instead of doing useful things?

Then I went to the BYU library two days later to do this assignment. I made the mistake of picking up the sequel to the book I was reading earlier before I picked up the books for my bibliography. Yeah...4 hours later I decided it was getting dark and I needed to go home. Fortunately, I have perfected the skill of walking and reading at the same time. It's not even that it was such a fabulous book (meaning, I'm not recommending it unless you are in the mood for something that a mix of Stephenie Meyer, CLAMP, and Demon Slaying). It's just that this is what happens when I pick up a novel. I am reminded why I'm not really supposed to let myself read during the school year. (I probably spent 18 hours over the break reading. I would have done that much even if I had been in school)

Finally I went to the library on Monday because I absolutely had to do this bibliography. Even then I was distracted for an hour and a half by those annoyingly interesting things on the shelves that they call books before I finally got around to doing what I was supposed to do. It's not just "fun" books that distract me. All books distract me. I spent nearly a half hour looking at a book that just listed fonts. This is why I make sure not to wander around the library too often. Staying near the computers is much safer.