ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Seattle ’84

While planning your attendance at the ACRL National Conference in Seattle, you may wish to plan a few days before or after the conference to sample a little of the variety of the Pacific Northwest. Late March or early April are early spring in this region. From the bulb fields of the Skagit Valley to the rhododendrons blooming in the lowland forest, the ever present green, blue, and brown of the landscape is accented with the brighter colors of spring.

Here are a few suggestions for short trips out of Seattle in the early spring. Skiing, both downhill and cross country, is still possible at this time. There are resorts and ski lifts within an hour of Seattle, and further afield in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, and in Idaho.

Sail through the San Juan Islands, on Puget Sound, or on the inland sea between Vancouver Island and the British Columbia mainland. You may charter sailboats or take a commercial cruise vessel. The ultimate in this type of cruise is from Seattle to Alaska through the inland sea. For any of the commercial cruises, make early reservations.

Go to the beach! For residents of Washington and Oregon, that means head for the Pacific Coast. At this time of year you may get to experience the exhilaration of a storm, or gentle sunny but cool days. Ocean fishing and clamming seasons are set by the individual state Fish and Game Departments. There are motels, resorts, and campgrounds along the developed beaches of Oregon and Washington. Or bring your hiking gear and hike into the ocean part of the Olympic National Park, the last wild, undeveloped coast in the northwest corner of Washington. There are charter boats which specialize in whale watching tours. The northern migration past the coasts of Oregon and Washington begins in early March and continues through May.

Tour a Washington or Oregon winery or just stop in the tasting room and sample the northwest’s vintage wines.

Rent a car and tour away from the cities to the other side of the Cascades, to the high plateaus of eastern Oregon, or to the inland empire of eastern Washington, or to the Columbia Gorge between the states where the Columbia River overcame the mountains on its way to the sea.

You may want to visit our national parks and monuments, our state parks and our mountains, both those with their peaks intact and those without, such as Mt. St. Helens or Crater Lake. In the early spring, most of the mountain parks are partially open, depending on weather and road conditions.

An extensive ferry system connects many points in western Washington and British Columbia.

Explore our forests, from the drier eastern slopes through the wetter western slopes of the Cascade Mountains to the really wet rain forests of the Pacific slopes of the Coast Range or the Olympic Mountains.

Visit some of the other cities of the Pacific Northwest. Portland, the gateway to the Columbia River Gorge and to the Willamette Valley and Oregon wine country, is 180 miles south of Seattle. Its attractions include Old Town, the Oregon Historical Society and Washington Park. Vancouver, British Columbia, 160 miles north of Seattle, has a spectacular setting. Visit Chinatown, the second largest on the West Coast, the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology with its outstanding collection of Northwest Coast Indian artifacts, and Stanley Park, a large natural park five minutes from the business district. A ferry ride across the Strait of Georgia is Victoria, B. C.’s capital, noted for its beautiful gardens and British atmosphere. Visit the Butchart Gardens, the Parliament Buildings and the Provincial Museum. End the afternoon with high tea at the Empress Hotel.

There is a great variety of things to do in this region. For more information contact the following: Washington State Department of Commerce and Economic Development, Tourism Division, General Administration Building, Room G-3 AX-13, Olympia, WA 98504, or call toll free (800) 541- WASH; Oregon State Department of Transportation, Travel Information Section, 101 Transportation Bldg., Capitol Mall, Salem, OR 97310, or call (800) 547-7842; or the Ministry of Tourism, 1117 Wharf St., Victoria, British Columbia, Canada V8W 2Z2.

Be sure to visit the ACRL booth in the exhibit area at the ALA Annual Conference in Los Angeles for more information about vacationing in the Pacific Northwest and the ACRL National Conference in Seattle. ■ ■

SPECIAL NOTICE: The deadline for submitting a Notice of Intention to Submit a Paper at the ACRL National Conference has been extended to July 1. Write: Sarah C. Michalak, Suzzallo Library, University of Washington, Seattle 98195.

NEW NONPRINT EDITOR AT CHOICE

Claire C. Dudley has been appointed assistant editor for nonprint materials at Choice magazine, effective May 1.

Dudley brings to this position ten years experience as an audiovisual librarian in the junior college and university environment. Her most recent experience was as media librarian at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, New Jersey. In this position she was responsible for development of the nonprint collection, selection and evaluation of materials for classroom use, reference services, and supervision of staff. She previously worked as the audiovisual librarian and as cataloger at Pierce Junior College in Philadelphia. She is also a freelance photographer and filmmaker.

Dudley received a bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College with a major in English and a minor in science. She has an MLS from Drexel University where her focus was on college and university libraries.

Choiceis the principal reviewing medium for scholarly materials in the United States and is located at 100 Riverview Center, Middletown, Connecticut. ■ ■

Claire C. Dudley

UCSD SAVES FLOODED NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE

Over 1,000 waterlogged issues of the San Diego Union and the San Diego Tribune‚ damaged in a flood at the San Diego Public Library, have been restored to near-perfect condition through a technique developed by employees of the University of California, San Diego, and the Convair Division of General Dynamics.

The flood, discovered December 13, 1982, was caused by an overflow of the heating/ air conditioning drainage system in the library. Several inches of water covered the first, second, and third floors in the west end of the building. The newspaper storage room on the second floor contained the only existing copies on file of the last 15 years of the two papers. Water, air conditioning fluid, and dirt from the flood damaged a total of 1,236 newspapers stored in the room.

After discovering the flood, senior librarian Rhoda Kruse contacted Karin S. Ozudogru, curator of the Slide and Photograph Division at UCSD and chair of their library preservation team. Ozudogru directed the San Diego Public Library to wrap the damaged newspapers in butcher paper. The papers were then stored in a freezer room at a shop in San Diego. The move from flooded library room to cold storage was accomplished within 36 hours. This quick action on the part of the library staff ensured that paper swelling, color bleeding, and mildew growth would be minimal.

Ozudogru had determined in an earlier disasterpreparedness study that Convair possessed suitable equipment for drying soaked books. When notified of the recent flood she contacted Gene Butler, op erations general supervisor of plastics at Convair’s Lindbergh Field plant, who agreed to help dry the newspapers as a community service. Convair’s preservation efforts were timed so as not to interfere with the plant’s regular workload, on a space and time-available basis.

Credit: University of California, San Diego

Top: Newspaper before drying in bonding press. Bottom: Restored newspaper.

By consulting Butler and studying the most recent research, Ozudogru has devised a new way of drying water-damaged paper that retains the necessary 6 % moisture content of the paper and avoids the usual high cost of the process.

Convair transferred the frozen papers to its own freezer locker and put them in an autoclave for drying. Because the autoclave could process only a few papers at one time, another device with the same properties as the autoclave was sought. Butler and Mike Perry, the group leader of bonded structures at Convair, found that their bonding press could accommodate 80-100 newspapers at one time. The press is usually used for bonding metal assemblies such as DC-10 components.

The press is lined with a polyester blanket, absorbent paper, and the frozen newspapers. The press is closed and heated uniformly by steam to 160-170 degrees while a partial vacuum is created. Damp papers take about 8 hours to dry, but the saturated ones may take up to 16 hours.

The UCSD-Convair method of using heat induction to retain moisture in the paper is a significant improvement in paper preservation. Previous rescue efforts, most notably that of Stanford’s Meyer Library flood in 1978 (see C&RL, November 1979, pp. 539-48), had used the techniques of wrapping, freezing, and vacuum-drying, but these left the processed paper very brittle. Paper needs a moisture content of 6 % to be flexible, and the previous method extracted more water than was desirable. Often the vacuum-dried books would be wetted again and re-dried by hand. The time and labor costs were large and the results unpredictable.

The San Diego newspapers dried with the bonding press at Convair have been returned to the public library. The restoration was completed on March 28. The dollar value of the papers saved is not calculable. The collection is unique and they were not insured. ■ ■