School of Information, Kilgarlin Center
University of Texas at Austin
Karen L. Pavelka, Lecturer
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
TECHNOLOGY AND STRUCTURE OF RECORDS MATERIALS
INF 392E
Fall 2009
Unique # 28165
Wednesday, 9-12, CDL Paper Lab, B101B
Lecturer: Karen Pavelka, UTA 5.122?
Office hours: Wednesday 1-3 and by appointment
Email: pavelka@ischool.utexas.edu
Office phone: ?
Course Overview:
Underlying factors in the quality of records materials; concepts of permanence and durability and their
assessment; introduction to paper technology and characteristics; other materials used in books, paper and nonpaper records; photographic and printing processes. Context of conservation and preservation practice.
Objectives:
1. To impart understanding of the materials most frequently encountered in books and documents in
library and archives collections through emphasis on common, underlying factors in stability and
deterioration.
2. To allow the student to gain an understanding of the conservation and preservation literature.
3. To emphasize the importance of understanding materials generically rather than by trade names and
manufacturers' or distributors' claims.
4. The viewpoint of discussion of each material will be primarily on "inherent vice," chemical instability that
leads to unduly rapid deterioration, and on identification.
5. Secondary emphasis will be placed on methods of fabrication, especially as they relate to durability or
physical toughness of materials.
6. Historical development of materials will be discussed especially where it is relevant to understanding the
range of materials likely to be encountered and where it bears on lasting qualities.
Research Paper
The research paper is designed to provide you with experience in framing a question about the nature of
materials, becoming familiar with the resources available for conservation and preservation technology, evaluating
citations critically, and communicating with other conservation and preservation professionals. The topic must be
approved by the instructor. You may want to look at the papers from previous years before selecting a topic.
The paper will be submitted in three stages:

A complete paper including the bibliography is due October 21. This version of the paper is to be
posted on Blackboard and shared with the rest of the class. This version will not be graded; it is intended
to promote an exchange of ideas and observations.

October 28 each student will present the work they have done and respond to questions. The format
may vary according to class size. The presentation is 15% of your final grade for the class.

The final copy is due November 25; please post directly to Blackboard. This version will be graded
and counts for 20% of your final grade for the class. The papers will be kept on file in the CDL Center Lab
Ante Room unless individual students request otherwise.
School of Information, Kilgarlin Center
2
University of Texas at Austin
Karen L. Pavelka, Lecturer
Useful dates to remember
September 16:
Research proposal due; post directly to Blackboard. Students are strongly advised to
meet with the instructor before submitting a proposal. Please note there are only 5
weeks until the draft of the paper for discussion is due.
October 14: Take home test due October 16.
October 21:
Draft of research paper due. Please post directly to Blackboard. Students are
expected to read all the class papers and be prepared to offer comments and
suggestions. You may choose to ask for comments on specific issues or sections of
your work.
October 28:
Class discussion of draft papers. Collegial. Food provided.
November 25:
Final papers due; post directly to Blackboard.
December 2:
Take home test due December 4.
Quizzes
There may be one or more surprise quizzes or article reviews.
Grading
Grade points will be distributed as follows:
Research paper
Presentation
Tests
Attendance and participation
20%
15%
40%
25%
Course Readings:
A course packet is required for this class; it can be purchased at UT Copy Center, Business School (471-8281).
Additional required readings will be on reserve in the ante room to the labs. Do not remove the reserve items
from the UTA building. Please handle these books and magazines with care! Some required readings are
available electronically.
Course policies:
1. The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for qualified
students with disabilities. For more information, contact the Office of the Dean of Students at 471-6259, 471-4641
TTY.
2. All assignments must be written in a gender-inclusive language.
3. All assignments must be typed in a 12 point font, double spaced and single sided.
4. Submit all your assignments on time. Late submissions will not be accepted unless an emergency is involved. In
the event of an emergency, the student must contact the instructor as soon as possible.
5. The instructor will provide any assistance upon the student's inquiry. However, the student is responsible for
his/her own effort to complete the assignments.
6. Students are required to attend class and to be on time. Any absence or lateness will affect the class
participation grade.
7. The instructor reserves the right to issue a course grade of F if any assignment is not completed.
8. The instructor welcomes feedback from the class.
Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Evidence of plagiarism will result in either and F for the assignment, an F for
the course and/or referral to the Dean of Students.
School of Information, Kilgarlin Center
University of Texas at Austin
Karen L. Pavelka, Lecturer
3
<<<<< Class 1 - 26 August >>>>>
NATURE OF RECORDS
CONTEXT FOR MATERIALS
Required Readings
Course Packet
Barker, N. (1994). The character of a trimmer: Bibliography and the conservator. In N. Swift & K. Swift (Eds.),
Conservation and preservation in small libraries (pp. 20-22). Cambridge: Parker. !!!
Beck, J., & Daley, M. (1993). Introduction. In Art restoration: The culture, the business and the scandal (pp. 1-22).
New York: W.W. Norton. !!!
Greene, V. (2006). Using case studies to examine the decision-making process for cleaning ethnographic objects.
Journal of the American Institute for Conservation, 45, 183-199. !!!
Jury, L. (2006, May 27). Sent to the tower: The books too lowbrow for Cambridge. The Independent. missing
Mertzani, Maria; Malea, Ekaterini; Maniatis, Nikolaos; and Panagiaris, Georgios. (2008) Towards a binding code of
ethics for the conservation and display of human remains. In 15th triennial conference, New Delhi, 22-26
September 2008: preprints/ICOM Committee for Conservation. Bridgland, Janet (Editor). ICOM Committee
for Conservation pp. 364-369 missing
Taylor, T. W. (1991). In Texfake: An account of the theft and forgery of early Texas printed documents (pp. 3-9).
Austin: Thomas Taylor. !!!
Electronic
Chioco, K., & Elder, R. (n.d.). Conserving Texas history [Video]. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from Kilgarlin Center, School
of Information, University of Texas at Austin Web site: http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/%7El381ss02/
index.html
Lubow, A. (2003, July 27). The secret of the black paintings. New York Times Magazine. Poggioli, S. (2003, August
11). Restoring Michelangelo’s David [Audio and transcript]. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from
http://www.npr.org/display_pages/features/feature_1390379.html
Palmer, J. (2008, August 13). ‘Slow’ light to speed up the net. In BBC news [Article]. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7557280.stm
Will Mona Lisa smile more when she’s clean? The science of art conservation. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from
http://www.scientificblogging.com/scientific_notation/will_mona_lisa_smile_more_when_shes_clean_th
e_science_of_art_conservation
Lab Ante Room (Some may be found on-line)
Hennegerger, M. (2002, April 21). The Leonardo cover-up. New York Times Magazine.
Landesman, P. (1999, July 18). A 20th century master scam. New York Times Magazine. Scigliano, E. (2005, August).
Inglorious restorations: Destroying old masterpieces in order to save them. Harper’s Magazine, 61-68.
<<<<< Class 2 - 2 September >>>>>
NATURE OF PAPER
Required readings
Course packet
Bower, P. (2002). Blues and browns and drabs: The evolution of colored papers. In H. K. Stratis & B. Salvesen (Eds.),
The broad spectrum: Studies in the materials, techniques and conservation o color on paper (pp. 42-48).
London: Archetype. !!!
Krill, J. (2002). Introduction. In English artists’ paper: Renaissance to regency (pp. 1-41). Winterthur, Delaware: Oak
Knoll. !!!
Schweidler, M. (2007). Paper manufacture. In R. Perkinson (Ed. & Trans.), The restoration of engravings, drawings,
books and other works of paper (pp. 41-45). Los Angeles: Getty. !!!
Turner, S. (1998). In The book of fine paper: A worldwide guide to contemporary papers for art, design and
decoration (pp. 209-222). New York: Thames and Hudson. !!!
Electronic Resources
School of Information, Kilgarlin Center
4
University of Texas at Austin
Karen L. Pavelka, Lecturer
Slim Chips (2008). Retrieved July 16, 2009 from http://hafsteinnjuliusson.com/index.php?/projects/slim-chips/
Lab Ante Room (Some may be found on-line)
Goho, A. (2004, January 10). News that’s fit to print and preserve. Science News, (165), 24-25.
Hiromi paper catalogue (4th ed.). (2004).
Hunter, D. (1978). Chronology. In Papermaking: The history and techniques of an ancient craft [Afterword]. New
York: Dover. (Original work published 1947)
<<<<< Class 3 - 9 September >>>>>
CHEMISTRY OF PAPER
Required readings
Course Packet
Stephens, C. H., Barrett, T., Whitmore, P.M., Wade, J., Mazurek, J., & Schilling, M. (2009). Composition and
condition of naturally aged papers. Journal of the American Institute for Conservation, 47, 201-216.
missing
Priest, D. J. (1994). Artificial aging of paper: Correlation with natural aging. In Proceedings: Workshop on the effects
of aging on printing and writing papers (pp. 50-62). Philadelphia: Association for Standards and Technical
Management Institute for Standards Research. !!!
Strlič, Matija; Cassar, May; Kolar, Jana; Lichtblau, Dirk; Anders, Manfred; Trafela, Tanja; Cséfalvayová, Linda; de
Bruin, Gerrit; Knight, Barry; Martin, Graham; Palm, Jonas; Selmani, Nikša; and Christensen, Mads Chr.
NIR/Chemometrics approach to characterisation of historical paper and surveying of paper-based
collections. In 15th triennial conference, New Delhi, 22-26 September 2008: preprints/ICOM Committee for
Conservation. Bridgland, Janet (Editor). ICOM Committee for Conservation pp. 364-369 missing
Whitmore, P. M. (1994). The mechanisms of chemical deterioration of paper. In Proceedings: Workshop on the
effects of aging on printing and writing papers (pp. 22-31). Philadelphia: Association for Standards and
Technical Management Institute for Standards Research. !!!
Electronic Resources
Eka chemicals. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from http://www.eka.com/Home
Periodic table videos. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from http://www.periodicvideos.com/#
Stephens, Catherine H.; Whitmore, Paul M.; Morris, Hannah R.; and Bier, Mark E. Hydrolysis of the amorphous
cellulose in cotton-based paper. Biomacromolecules 9, no. 4 (2008), pp. 1093-1099
Lab Ante Room
Roberts, J. C. (1996). The chemistry of paper. Cambridge: Royal Society of Chemistry.
<<<<< Class 4 - 16 September >>>>>
PRINTING PROCESSES
Required readings
Required text
Benson, R. (2008). The printed picture. New York: Museum of Modern Art.
Course packet
Stanley, T. (2006). Short communication. Mezzotint under glass: A historical review of the glass print. Journal of the
American Institute for Conservation, 45, 147-154. !!!
Lab Ante Room (Some may be found on-line)
Gascoigne, B. (1995). Hot to identify pronts: A complete guide to manual and mehanical processes from woodcut to
ink jet. London: Thames and Hudson.
Griffiths, A. (1996). Prints and printmaking: An introduction to the history and techniques. Berkley: University of
California.
Kissel, E., & Vigneau, E. (1999). Architectural photoreproductions: A manual for identification and care. New York:
Oak Knoll Press.
School of Information, Kilgarlin Center
5
University of Texas at Austin
Karen L. Pavelka, Lecturer
Rhodes, B., & Streeter, W. W. (1999). Before photocopying: The art and history of mechanical copying: 1780-1938.
New York: Oak Knoll Press.
Electronic resources
Atlas of early printing. (2009) Retrived July 16, 2009 from, http://atlas.lib.uiowa.edu/index.html
Descriptions of printing processes. (2007). InviteSite. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from http://www.invitesite.com/
white_pages/printing_processes.html
Digital print identification (2004). Retrieved July 16, 2009, from http://aic.stanford.edu/sg/emg/juergens/
What is a print? Retrieved July 16, 2009, from
http://www.moma.org/interactives/projects/2001/whatisaprint/flash.html
<<<<< Class 5 - 23 September >>>>>
PRINTING PROCESSES
<<<<< Class 6 - 30 September >>>>>
VISIT PRINTING PRESS
Ask for Deirdre
<<<<< Class 7 - 7 October >>>>>
INKS AND COLORANTS
The breadth of the spectrum
The complexity of modern materials
Required readings
Course packet
Ball, P. (2001). In Bright earth: Art and the invention of color (pp. 24-71). New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. !!!
Barnett, J. C. (2008). Synthetic organic dyes, 1856-1901: An introductory literature review of their use and related
issues in textile conservation. Reviews in Conservation, 8, 67-77. !!!
Ellis, M. H. (2002). Daylight fluorescent colors as artistic media. In The Broad Spectrum: Studies in the Materials,
Techniques and Conservation of Color on Paper (pp. 160-166). London: Archetype. !!!
Lussier, S. M., & Smith, G. D. (2008). A review of the phenomenon of lead white darkening and its conversion
treatment. Reviews in Conservation, 8, 41-53. !!!
Mills, J. S., & White, R. (1994). Dyestuffs and other coloured materials. In The organic chemistry of museum objects
(pp. 141-159). Oxford: Butterworths. !!!
Lab Ante Room (Some may be found on-line)
Mayer, R. (1981). Introduction; Chapter on pigments. In The artist’s handbook of materials and techniques. New
York: Viking.
Varichon, A. (2007). Colors: What they mean and how to make them. New York: Abrams.
Electronic resources
Abramowitz, M., Spring, K. R., Parry-Hill, M., Flynn, B. O., Tchourioukanov, K. I., Fellers, T. J., et al. (2000-2008).
Physics of light and color. In Olympus microscopy Lab Ante Room . Retrieved July 16, 2009, from
http://www.olympusmicro.com/primer/lightandcolor/index.html
Arnold, Dean E.; Branden, Jason R.; Williams, Patrick Ryan; Feinman, Gary M.; and Brown, J.P. (2008) The first direct
evidence for the production of Maya blue: rediscovery of a technology. Antiquity 82, no. 315 pp. 151-164
Dube, L. (1998). The copying pencil: Composition, history and conservation implications. Retrieved July 16, 2009,
from http://www.pencilpages.com/articles/bp17-05.html
Pigments through the ages. (n.d.). Retrieved July 16, 2009, from http://webexhibits.org/pigments/
Microscopy. Small world image gallery. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from http://aic.stanford.edu/sg/emg/juergens/
School of Information, Kilgarlin Center
University of Texas at Austin
Karen L. Pavelka, Lecturer
6
<<<<< Class 8 - 14 October >>>>>
IRON GALL INK: WHEN GOOD MATERIALS GO BAD
Electronic resources
Eusman, E., & Reissland, B. (n.d.). Ink corrosion project. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from http://www.knaw.nl/ecpa/
ink/index.html
<<<<< Class 9 - 21 October >>>>>
HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Required readings
Course packet
Coe, B., & Haworth-Booth, M. (1983). Guide to processes. In A guide to early photographic processes (pp. 9-29).
London: Victoria & Albert Museum. !!!
Lab Ante Room (Some may be found on-line)
Frey, F., Heller, D., Kushel, D., Vitale, T., Warda, J., & Weaver, G. (2008). The AIC guide to digital photography and
conservation documentation (J. Warda, Ed.). Washington, DC: AIC.
Granowski, C., Wise, A., Drover, C., & Stachurski, Z. (2007). A preliminary investigation into acrylic glazing
deterioration. Topics in Photographic Preservation, 12, 99-113.
Lavedrine, B. (2003). In A guide to the preventive conservation of photograph collections (pp. 3-142). Los Angeles:
Getty.
Penichon, S. (2009). The Making of In The American West. Journal of the American Institute for Conservation, 47,
175-182.
Reilly, J. M. (1993). IPI storage guide for acetate film. Rochester: IPI.
Rosenblum, N. (1997). A world history of photography. New York: Abbeville.
Vernallis, K. (1999). The loss of meaning in faded color photographs. Journal of the American Institute for
Conservation, 38, 459-476.
Graphics Atlas. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from http://www.graphicsatlas.org/
Electronic
Wilhelm imaging research. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from http://www.slate.com/id/2221963/
<<<<< Class 10 - 28 October >>>>>
DISCUSS PAPERS
<<<<< Class 11 - 4 November >>>>>
PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESS IDENTIFICATION
<<<<< Class 12 - 11 November >>>>>
PLASTICS AND POLYMERS
Required readings
Course packet
Fischer, M. C. (2007). Creating long-lasting inkjet prints. Topics in Photographic Preservation, 12, 77-85. !!!
Nicholson, J. W. (1997). Polymer Chemistry. In The chemistry of polymers (2nd ed., pp. 1-26). Cambridge: RSC. !!!
O’Loughlin, E., & Stiber, L. S. (1992). A closer look at pressure-sensitive adhesive taper: Update on conservation
strategies. In Conference Papers Manchester (pp. 280-287). Leigh, England: IPC. !!!
School of Information, Kilgarlin Center
University of Texas at Austin
Karen L. Pavelka, Lecturer
Schellmann, N. C. (2007). Animal glues: A review of their key properties relevant to conservation. Reviews in
Conservation, 8, 55-66. !!!
Szczepanowska, H., & Wilson, W. (2000). Permanency of reprographic images on polyester film. Journal of the
American Institute for Conservation, 39, 371-390. !!!
Electronic
Does plastic art last forever? Retrieved July 16, 2009, from http://www.slate.com/id/2221963/
<<<<< Class 13 - 18 November >>>>>
PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESS IDENTIFICATION
<<<<< Class 14 - 25 November >>>>>
ELECTRONIC AND MAGNETIC MEDIA
Required readings
Electronic
Friedlander, A., Flecker, D., Romano, F., Lyman, P., Brylawski, S., Ide, M., et al. (2002). Building a national strategy
for digital preservation: Issues in digital media archiving. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from CLIR Web site:
http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub106/contents.html
Frost, H., (Ed.). (2008). Audio preservation. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from Conservation On-Line (COOL) Web site:
http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/bytopic/audio/
Digital media and nuclear disaster: An animation. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbBa6Oam7-w
<<<<< Class 15 2 December >>>>>
PARCHMENT, LEATHER AND PROTOPAPERS
Required readings
Course packet
Johnson, J. L. (2006, January 11). In human bindings: People’s skin covers aging tomes in many top libraries. Fort
Worth Star Telegram. missing
Lab Ante Room
Parkinson, R., & Quirke, S. (1995). Papyrus. London: British Museum.
Electronic
The manufacture of leather. (n.d.). Retrieved July 16, 2009, from http://www.hewit.com/sd1-leat.htm
Overview of parchment and leather manufacture. (n.d.). Retrieved July 16, 2009, from National Library of the
Netherlands Web site: http://www.kb.nl/cons/leather/chapter1-en.htmlPith paper. (2005). Art
information. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from http://www.artfacts.org/artinfo/articals/pith_paper.html
7