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ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 45 | June 2000


Inaugural national symposium for preservation of cultural material

Rowena Jameson & Lisa Jeong (NLA Preservation staff)

Paper conservators Rowena Jameson and Lisa Jeong, from the National Library's Preservation Services Branch,
display the poster they prepared for display at the symposium. Photograph: Damien McDonald

Book, paper and photograph conservators held their first national symposium at the National Library of Australia from 23 to 25 March.

One hundred and thirty-two delegates from Australia and New Zealand attended the Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material (AICCM) symposium. The proceedings commenced on Thursday with a keynote address by Andrew Sayers of the National Portrait Gallery.

The program was roughly divided into lectures and workshops on works of art on paper on Thursday, books on Friday and photographs on Saturday. Topics included an analysis of treatment of rare items such as one of the artist Donald Friends books, Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique, Gould’s limited edition pictorial works and the preservation and rehousing of the Richard Daintree Collection.

Other issues included mould, the conservation issues being raised by contemporary bindings, motion picture film collections and the use of Raman Spectroscopy in conservation. The National Library was well represented with staff speaking on such diverse subjects as the Australian cooperative digitisation project and the search for cellulose acetate. The workshops looked at visual identification of printing and photographic processes, consolidation of friable and flaking material, wrappers for books with detached boards, headbands and matting and framing techniques.

The symposium concluded with delegates being invited to a private viewing of the Book of Kells as guests of the National Gallery of Australia. The symposium was a great success with its informative and instructive program.

Joy Tonkin

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