The following announcement from the Image Permanence Institute may be of
interest to this list.  Several new publications are now available or will
be later this month.  Most IPI publications are available for free as PDF
files on the IPI web site listed at the end of this announcement.
Iona McCraith, AAO Preservation Consultant
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For those of you who have already heard from me
personally, the only new addition is the late announcement that ISO
18929 Imaging-materials--Wet-processed silver-gelatin type black-and-
white photographic reflection prints -- Specifications for dark storage
was officially released December 1, 2003 and is now available. It is
the print equivalent to ISO 18901, the film specification document. Of
potential interest to the group will be the specifications for maximum
residual silver and maximum residual hypo. The physical properties
requirements are really out our control and are written for
manufacturers. The standard is specifically for dark stored materials
because of the RC display problem.

The other publications are from IPI. One is called A Consumer Guide to
Traditional and Digital Print Stability. It doesn't tell you what to
use, but describes what the issues and concerns are. It was created
with the support of Creative Memories. It's available for free from our
web site as a pdf file. We should also have some printed copies
available soon that are also available for free. I should add that
texts of other publications such as Franziska's Digital Imaging for
Photographic Collections: Foundations for Technical Standards and the
IPI Storage Guide for Acetate Film are also available on our web site
as free pdf files. The Consumer Guide is written for a lay audience and
is therefore a very non-technical publications that discusses the
issues of atmospheric pollutants, temperature, humidity, and light with
regard to the stability of chromogenic color and so-called, digital
prints. Remember that you'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to access the
files, but Acrobat is available for free from the Adobe web site.

The next publication fresh off the presses deals with storage
environments for "mixed media" collections. So the ISO standard for
plate storage says that your glass plates should be stored at x degrees
and y% RH. The ISO standard for magnetic tape says that tape requires X
degrees and Y%RH. We have to store both things in the same room, what
conditions should we use? This publication discusses the issues and
sorts through the recommended conditions in the ISO standards for each
material and suggests compromise conditions for combinations of
materials. We knew that institutions were already having to do this,
but our reference would make the job easier. ISO is also working on a
standard dealing with the same issue. The publication does not condone
compromise conditions for the storage of single materials (in which
case one should refer to the relevant standard). Nor do we recommend
the storage of mixed materials together. However, we recognize the
reality of such mixes in institutions and if there's no way around it,
we'll try to help to do it in the best possible way. The range of
realistic environmental conditions are divided into four defined
groups: room, cool, cold, and frozen. Each material has one of four
ratings associated with each condition group: No ("likely to cause
significant damage"), Fair ("Does not meet ISO recommendations, but may
be satisfactory for extended periods"), Good ("Comparable to ISO
standards"), and very good ("Will provide an extended lifetime.") Such
information is provided in wheel form which also includes preservation
issues (what are the primary modes of decay ie silver image
deterioration, mold, glass deterioration, etc.) And also presents some
recommendations. The material X condition group X rating is also
presented in tabular form allowing the user to pick the best
environment for their particular group of materials. Materials are
limited to
Nitrate film
Color acetate film
Black and white acetate film
Color polyester film
Black and white polyester film
Color photographic paper prints
Black and white photographic paper prints
Ink jet prints
Magnetic tape on acetate base
Magnetic tape on polyester base
CDs and DVDs
Glass plates

We didn't include materials that we didn't know anything about or that
didn't have ISO storage standards. (The one exception is acetate base
magnetic tape.)
The MSQR was modelled after the academic quick references that seek to
compress the essential material of a course into a few pages. The quick
reference is 10 pages long, printed on a light cardstock and also has a
wheel associated with it. The text of the booklet will be available as
a FREE pdf off our web site. Printed copies are US$25 per copy plus
shipping and handling. Be aware that the texts of a number of other ipi
publications (as pdf files) are also available for free off the web
site. As always, any revenue above printing cost recovery is rolled
back into other IPI research. The expected release date of the MSQR is
March 23. The creation of this publication was supported by a grant
from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation through the National Film
Preservation Foundation.
Our web site is located at http://www.rit.edu/ipi

-Doug
Douglas W. Nishimura
Senior Research Scientist
Image Permanence Institute
Rochester Insitute of Technology
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