Philadelphia, PA
12 June 2000
Just after 7:30 am, Chair, Nancy Purinton opened the meeting with an introduction of officers on the podium: Glen Ruzicka, Incoming Chair; Stephanie Watkins, Secretary-Treasurer; Jane Klinger, Program Chair; and Miranda Martin, Assistant Chair. There was spontaneous applause for Jane as Program Chair. Nancy had kind words of praise for Stephanie's performance as Secretary-Treasurer during the previous year.
Kate Maynor made a motion to approve the minutes from the 1999 BPG business meeting in St. Louis. Theresa Fairbanks seconded.
Nancy first thanked the Nominating Committee members, Chair, Abigail Quandt, Maria Fredericks, Rachel Mustalish, and Sarah Stauderman for their work on the committee. Nancy then thanked "those willing to be on the ballot and those for whom the election did not go in their favor. Do not be dismayed. Please be willing to participate in the Book and Paper Group again." This year, Janice Stagnitto Ellis, Holly Huston, and Leslie Hill Paisely ran for the position of Assistant Chair; Holly Herro, Erika Mosier, and Barbara Rhodes ran for Assistant Program Chair. Abigail gave the results of this year's elections: Assistant Chair: Leslie Paisley and Assistant Program Chair: Erika Mosier. Abigail added her thanks to the nominating committee and those willing to run. Those who said they might run in the future will be contacted by Nancy this coming year (2001). Erika and Leslie stood for recognition by the membership.
Nancy opened the floor for nominations for the 2001 nominating committee to be chaired by her. Olivia Primanis, Katrina Newberry, and Amy Lubick were nominated and agreed to run during the meeting. Martha Smith and Theresa Fairbanks contacted the chair directly, volunteering to help with the committee.
Walter Henry, Publications Committee co-chair with Kate Maynor, announced the handout from the luncheon would be available and could be sent via email for those interested. [A copy of this handout is included in this mailing]. The ANNUAL is being put on line via the AIC web-site. Volunteers are needed with a scanner and OCR software, someone willing to put in some drudge time and scan earlier volumes of the ANNUAL. They are working backwards and are down to volume 10. They are also looking for volunteers to write abstracts for the online catalog, copy cataloging, and for some ANNUAL articles. If interested contact Walter at whenry@lindy.stanford.edu.
Nancy next asked new ANNUAL editor, Shannon Zachary to make brief comments: Spontaneous applause erupted for Shannon's efforts as ANNUAL editor.
Shannon announced that an AIC brochure, "Caring for Books", is out in proof thanks to the hard work of Betsy Eldridge and Nancy Schrock who heroically pulled the information together. Vol. 18 of the ANNUAL was at the printer and was expected to be mailed by the end of June or early July. CONSERVATION OF SCRAPBOOKS AND ALBUMS, post-prints of the joint Photographic Materials Group and Book and Paper Group presentation session at the Annual AIC 1999 St. Louis meeting, was also at the printer and expected to arrive in the same package as the ANNUAL, vol. 18.
A financial report showing the costs of publishing and mailing the ANNUAL for the past several years was made available. [This handout is included in this mailing]. The publication is a little cheaper to print since switching to a commercial vendor.
Shannon asked for volunteer proofreaders for the coming year. If interested, please contact her at 734-763-6980 or szachary@umich.edu.
Shannon requested the membership discuss, then vote on a question that had arisen in the Publications Committee's discussion luncheon held the previous day concerning the one time post-prints publication, "The CONSERVATION OF SCRAPBOOKS AND ALBUMS". A commercial vendor wanted to sell the book through their catalog. In conjunction with the Photographic Materials Group since they are also sponsoring the publication, BPG needed to decide whether or not to sell the publication outside AIC through a commercial vendor or retain sales exclusively through the AIC office.
Kim Schenck informed the membership that the PMG business meeting had been held the previous day and the PMG membership had discussed this issue. The PMG membership felt that the sale of the items should be through the AIC office.
Abigail Quandt noted that this special publication and the ANNUAL were not juried. Some people are concerned that perhaps this type of publication should not be made available for general sale to the public. She was in favor of distributing information but felt the level had to be extremely high, especially if information is disseminated beyond AIC members.
Maria Grandinette requested summation of the issues surrounding this topic for those who were not able to attend the Publication Committee's discussion luncheon and asked Shannon to give her opinion about the topic if she felt comfortable doing so. Shannon stated that "The CONSERVATION OF SCRAPBOOKS AND ALBUMS is a post-prints that was made of last year's joint session. Therefore the presenters did undergo the process of being chosen by the committee that put together the program. The articles have not been peer reviewed after, which is a distinct process and one that's been circulated for review except for editorial proof reading. Questions are 1.) How do we want to present ourselves to the public?, 2.) Do we want to have a peer reviewed, official as possible presentation?, 3.) Do we wish to provide a great deal of very useful information which is contained within the articles which is useful to people beyond our immediate membership?" Shannon noted that the information contained in the scrapbook and album post-prints would be very useful to curators in understanding the questions and options available when conserving scrapbooks and albums. "4.) There is a chance for us to make some money on it although I don't think the potential market is so great that that needs to sway the decision one way or the other.", she concluded.
Jan Paris was not in favor of having this publication distributed because it was not a refereed journal. Jan mentioned that non-juried publications may have an uneven quality. With faster availability of information made possible through computers, more non-conservators may discover the publication. It will be available through AIC. Jan felt that "curators that aren't working with conservators anyway, won't be looking for that information as they are not in the context of thinking about preserving. If a curator in that context is thinking about preservation, a conservator could then provide that publication to them."
Niccolo Caldararo spoke of our culture being in an era of change. He wanted the membership to keep in mind that the idea of a rigidly peer reviewed article that represented the field is rapidly being challenged. Niccolo pointed out that in recent scientific literature, summation of articles were available on the internet and included a wide variety of commentary. Articles were now published along with the commentaries by peer reviewers.
Alan Puglia reiterated a comment he made at the Publications Lunch discussion: "The Publications Committee have already made the decision that the ANNUALS at the very least will be placed on the internet on the AIC web site. These items are already freely available to anyone that would want to download them." Alan was in favor of selling volumes that people could otherwise get for free.
Stephanie Watkins pointed out that BPG made the agreement for a joint post-prints publication with the PMG. Therefore, PMG's wishes needed to be considered on the issue of distribution. Whatever was decided by the BPG membership was only half of the equation. The intent by BPG for the publication had changed since making agreements with PMG.
Jim Stroud concurred with Kim Schenck and Stephanie Watkins stating that if PMG didn't want to sell the publication through an outside vendor, BPG really couldn't proceed.
Glen Ruzicka asked for clarification on the sales policy of AIC. AIC membership is not a requirement for sales.
Kim Schenck reiterated that PMG felt that all publications are available through the AIC, so was not in favor of a separate distribution.
Shannon closed the discussion and asked, "For this specific publication, should THE CONSERVATION OF SCRAPBOOKS AND ALBUMS be offered for sale outside the AIC office?" Twice as many voted for sale through AIC office (not distribute outside AIC) as those wishing to go to an outside vendor.
Glen mentioned that the AIC publications committee had extensive discussion at the annual meeting and encouraged submissions to the Journal of the AIC in addition to the submissions to the ANNUAL.
Niccolo Caldararo had a question related to the vote just made. He was concerned that during the first couple of days of the conference, some AIC publications such as Paintings and Object Group's post-prints were left dumped on the tables for anyone to take because AIC doesn't have storage facilities for a lot of these publications. If BPG will be using the AIC office to sell it's publications, Niccolo thought BPG "should consider what the lifetime of this sale is going to be and the ability of the AIC to function as distributor."
Nancy also considered AIC's storage capability a problem as it came up several times during her tenure as chair. She has volunteered over the next year to address the problem. She proposed that two complete archival sets of the ANNUAL be created (as AIC no longer has a complete set of back ANNUALS). One set will stay at the AIC office and the other set will go with the ANNUAL editor, currently Shannon Zachary. Discussions have been going on and will continue regarding the fate of the back copies.
Nancy informed the membership of a thank you gift given recently to Robert Espinosa for his many years of labor on behalf of the Publication Committee and as chair of that committee. He was given a series of CD's that would tie together his past, present, and future interests: CD's of rare books, a Jones Grammar of ornament, and a Palladian volume. Robert responded to this gift with the following note:
"Dear Fellow BPG-ers past and present,
Yesterday I was home relaxing after minor surgery and the mail came with a wonderful box full of CD's from Octavo. Nope, not your top forty picks, but ten of the most beautiful books in the world captured in loving color. I love them and I am very happy to have such a stunning collection for my personal perusal. I am familiar with a few, but I look forward with great anticipation to the moment when they will all become intimate friends with me and my iMAC. Thank you for all your thoughtfulness and the card and the works of appreciation and all the years of good cheer we've had together.
Roberto Espinosa"
Robert was on his way to Italy this summer and Nancy felt the "Roberto" was probably in the spirit of that trip. Spontaneous applause followed from the membership in acknowledgement of Robert's contributions.
Book Conservation Catalog Chair, Olivia Primanis said the sewing chapter of the Book Conservation Catalog is progressing and the first incarnation will be on the web with text and images. It will therefore be different than the Paper Conservation Catalog. Perhaps by the end of this year or the beginning of next year (spring 2001) comments can be added to the topic. Contact Olivia at 512-471-9117 or at primanis@mail.utexas.edu if you wish to contribute to this project.
There was not a report on this catalog this year.
Jane Klinger, Program Chair, first thanked Nancy Purinton for her level headedness and patience with her during the year. Her report was not a summation of the program because she felt the strength of the program could be readily observed. Instead Jane spoke of the inspiration that led her to the program. Jeanne Drewes had encouraged her to explore the idea that "everything we do, our concerns, our ideas, our knowledge is really on an international level." Miranda Martin, Assistant Chair, summarized the discussion into a title that became a focal point in developing this year's session. Jane thanked the numerous colleagues who responded generously to the development of Sunday's half-day session devoted to international conservation efforts. The sessions were broad in scope with reappearing themes between the two days. "Often it is the luck of the draw regarding the abstracts that the program chair receives and I was blessed with a very good year." Jane closed with thanking "everyone who submitted an abstract and expressed a willingness to attend the meeting and share with us their knowledge, expertise, and enthusiasm for our field."
Miranda Martin, Assistant Program Chair, thanked Jane and stated it was a pleasure to work this year with her. Miranda announced she had prepared a questionnaire regarding the structure and topics of next year's annual meeting program. Miranda encouraged all attendees to fill it out, take home blanks for colleagues that couldn't come, and return it to her either at the meeting or shortly thereafter via facsimile transmission.
Meg Brown, the LCCDG program co-chair with Ethel Hellman, announced the Saturday night meeting was a full house with standing room only participation. It was a great meeting about statistics and dealing with technician issues and a short discussion about heat set tissue. Updates will be put in the AIC News and BPG mailings and newsletter throughout the impending year. Really great ideas were suggested for next year, so they look forward to seeing many if not more of you in Dallas.
There was not a re-cap of the ACDG session on deacidification as the session occurred after the business meeting.
Nancy started the general business section by announcing the recipients of the year 2000 Carolyn Horton Fund Award. These were Laura Wait and Kazuko Hioki. The Carolyn Horton Fund is a professional development fund for BPG members. It is administered by the AIC and the next application deadline is in February 2001.
The Kress Foundation Grant went to Julie Biggs for her work concerning iron gall ink. [Julie's questionnaire is included in this mailing. You are invited to fill it out if you have not already done so.] Glen Ruzicka reminded the membership that the Kress Foundation Fellowships through AIC will be available again this coming year. The brochures concerning the Kress Publication Fellowships will only be distributed to PA's and fellows. The deadlines for submissions for proposals is November 1, the PA deadline is July 1. Grants are now available up to $24,000 and they cover an 18 month time period.
This year's Keck Awards went to Christa Gaehda and Jose Orraca.
At last year's BPG meeting we voted to contribute $3000 to a conference in Chicago: The Broad Spectrum. The funds were well appreciated and contributed to a wonderful international conference.
Bobbi Pilette spoke on behalf of Janet Gertz, Director of Preservation at Columbia University, regarding membership in the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM). During the BPG program, Bruce Arnold spoke about a new set of accelerated aging test methods for predicting paper life expectancy and the standards will be coming out next year. Janet encouraged individual conservators to join ASTM so that they would be eligible to review and vote on these standards. Membership is $65. Bobbi provided a memo by Janet Gertz that is included in this mailing.
Nancy next spoke of the tremendous amount of work that the BPG publications committee had done this year that was evident at the luncheon and at the meeting. Each year, the group has met during the winter months to discuss issues pertinent to the committee. Each year, the BPG membership must re-approve reimbursement for travel funds to allow the winter meeting to occur. The membership has always voted unanimously for an amount of $1500. Nancy opened the floor for discussion for considering making a line item expense in the budget for the purpose of having funds available for reimbursing travel expenses of Publications Committee members to attend the winter meeting instead of the yearly procedure of proposing, discussing, and voting. Past Chair and past Publications Committee Member, Abigail Quandt, spoke enthusiastically in favor of a set allotment of money in the BPG budget. Abigail noted our reserves would allow us to easily cover this annual expense. She also noted that the committee had several new members who lived farther away than previous members. A motion from the floor came from Mary Wood Lee for a line item in the budget for $2000 for the Winter Publications Committee meeting for travel reimbursement funds. Several members seconded. The vote passed unanimously.
Stephanie Watkins provided the membership with a handout of the actual expenses for 1999 and first quarter (March) of 2000. [This mailing contains this financial information through the second quarter (June)]. At the time of the meeting, the membership had a balance of $58,830.69 with $11, 671.12 allocated to the Paper Conservation Catalog. Neither annual meeting expenses nor publication costs had yet been billed and these remain the group's largest expenses. Therefore, expect the balance to reduce accordingly.
Jeanne Drewes made a request for incoming chair, Glen Ruzicka, to write a letter to AIC in support of Kendra Lovette's generous donation of her entire paper lab to the conservators of Cuba. This step was recommended to Jeanne by Debbie Hess Norris to facilitate an AIC president's award or other official acknowledgement. Nancy suggested Glen, Jeanne, and she get together after the meeting and discuss details. Jeanne made a motion that was seconded by Jim Stroud and others to proceed with official recognition. The motion passed unanimously.
Background: Kendra is a paper conservator who worked for many years at the Library of Congress and Baltimore Museum of Art and then in private practice in Baltimore. Kendra is now ill and unable to use her lab. Upon donation, her lab was shipped to Cuba with MacArthur Foundation funding. If others would like to send personal acknowledgement, please write to Kendra Levett at 1200 Branch Lane, Glen Burnie, MD 21061.
Bill Minter brought up the topic of the unsold ANNUALS that are in his barn (3 hours west!) in Pennsylvania. Nancy volunteered to attend to this issue through the coming year.
Betsy Eldridge noted that BPG ran a surplus of $3500 in 2000. This is in addition to the roughly $36,000 cushion after subtracting the funds allocated for the Paper Conservation Catalog. Of this $3500, $2000 was allocated during the business meeting for a line-item in the budget for the Publications Committee meeting. Betsy suggested we allocate a line-item in the budget for the program committee for the purpose of having invited speakers. Betsy requested discussion on this.
Because the meeting was running behind schedule, Nancy tabled the discussion for next year's business meeting in Dallas, TX. Nancy mentioned that the idea of having funds available for the program chair was an important issue that had been discussed by the executive council this past year. Continued discussion during the next year would perhaps generate a motion for the membership's vote. Betsy noted that the BPG executive council does have the discretion to spend up to $1000 without prior vote by the membership.
Incoming chair, Glen Ruzicka added that as part of his agenda as chair next year will be to take a look at the mechanisms for programming within the group. He would like to consider perhaps funding and looking at the mechanisms BPG follows to plan programs of all types not only the annual meeting but perhaps supporting other activities. Nancy, Glen, and incoming assistant chair, Leslie Paisley had already been in discussion. The new executive council officers will be looking into this during the next year.
Nancy concluded by thanking everyone for coming and stating she looked forward to the day's program of presentations. She hoped the passing of the gavel would be a smooth transition and closed the Book and Paper Group breakfast business meeting with the traditional bang. This meeting was adjourned at 8:35 am, Eastern Standard Time.
Respectfully submitted to the membership by Book and Paper Group Secretary-Treasurer,
Stephanie Watkins, September 2000.