In the 1980s, the film documentary, Slow Fires: On the Preservation of the Human Record, sent a chill through librarians and preservationists everywhere, with its explanation of how acid destroys paper. From roughly 1850 through the middle of the 20th century, the wood pulp used to make paper became a death warrant for just about every book written. As decades slip by, acidic paper yellows, appears singed at the edges, and crumbles to the touch.

Pitt’s University Library System (ULS) has taken steps to preserve at least 50,000 of its four million books, using the Butler County-based Preservation Technologies’ groundbreaking method of neutralizing acid in paper. Provost James Maher earmarked $80,000 to start the work, which will continue with $50,000 in endowment money each year for the next 10 years.

“It’s disheartening, in a way, that we have so many volumes that are just time bombs, acidifying, and starting to deteriorate,” said Rush Miller, Hillman University librarian and director of the ULS.

Miller and Jean Ann Croft, head of the ULS preservation department, have worked with Pitt librarians to identify rare and important books that should be protected. Croft said they started by targeting prominent collections and those that reflect Pitt’s academic strengths. Croft works with Preservation Technologies employees to pull and pack books to be deacidified, and then return and reshelve them afterward. Currently, Preservation Technologies is in the process of treating:

• Many sets of books on art and architecture from the Frick Fine Arts Library, including a 25-volume reference set on Italian art that had been repaired and rebound in 1998 after suffering damage in a water leak.

Jean Ann Croft

• The Russian literature collection, a heavily used group of books printed on very acidic paper.

• The works of Jorge Luis Borges, Cesar Abraham Vallejo, and Pablo Neruda, all in the Latin American Collection.

• Much of Special Collections, including the Hervey Allen Collection and the Mary Roberts Rinehart Collection.

“We judge things by the title’s relevance to faculty teaching and research needs, the author’s reputation and importance to art historical literature, as well as the value of the title as an artifact,” she said.

“The deacidification process doesn’t reverse the damage already done,” Aston pointed out, “but it can stop it from going any further. It gives the paper a reassuring permanence.”

IN SEARCH OF A METHOD

Throughout the 1980s, librarians became increasingly concerned about acid in paper. The Library of Congress also shared that concern and, as a library of record, needed to preserve paper documents.

While chemists continued to experiment, Pittsburgh resident Dick Spatz, a book lover and an executive of the Koppers Company, Inc., wood products division, started mulling over all of the attempts at deacidification. Why, he wondered, couldn’t paper be preserved like lumber? Both lumber and paper are composed of cellulose materials.

Spatz worked with Koppers chemists to develop suspension-tiny particles of magnesium oxide suspended in inert chemistry. The idea was that the acid would be attracted to neutralizing particles of magnesium oxide in the paper. Koppers received a patent for the process and filed it away. Upon his retirement, Spatz asked for and received a three-year license to develop the process.

Several years later, the Library of Congress was still looking for a deacidification method for its vast holdings. It was clear that Koppers’ patented process was safe and effective in neutralizing acids, but the challenge was whether it was able to deacidify massive numbers of books at one time.

In the mid-1990s, the Library of Congress awarded Preservation Technologies a developmental contract to deacidify 75,000 books. In 1997, the company was awarded its first non-experimental contract to do 225,000 books. It wasn’t long before Rush Miller became intrigued by the possibilities the new technology could hold for Pitt.

“I had known about Preservation Technologies since they started, and we had discussed things with them for the last few years,” Miller said. “Once they perfected their process and got the Library of Congress work, they approached us. We toured the facility and were quite impressed. By far, this is the best method to do this on the scale we need.”

How does it work? Workers load anywhere from eight to 24 books into canisters filled with a milky solution. The canisters gently rotate, and the books come out dry and with a new lease on life. The process takes two hours from start to finish, instead of days or weeks, like the earlier methods of deacidification.

According to Bob Strauss, vice president of marketing for Preservation Technologies, Pitt and other libraries are taking a wise approach by identifying collections of distinction to be neutralized — not necessarily the rarest books, but those that are related to the University’s strengths in faculty and research.

“Pitt’s commitment is very forward thinking of a library director,” emphasized Strauss. “He (Miller) found a way to make sure faculty and students at Pitt will have these resources for years to come.”

And as the ULS works to extend the lives of these treasured resources, area librarians and preservationists may breathe a little easier, knowing that the slowly burning acid, creeping for decades through their very shelves, is finally under control.

—Emily Tipping