CCRP Grants

The vendor must maintain a qualified staff, hold a membership with the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC), and adhere to the standards and ethics of the conservation field as defined by the AIC in their published Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Practice. For the purpose of ensuring that the vendor has complied with these requirements, Clerks reserve the right to request credentials documenting the abilities of the staff, including resumes, records of prior employment, and/or any other applicable documentation. The vendor must notify the Clerks in advance of any replacement of staff and must be provided with appropriate Documentation of the credentials of such staff.

Vendor's conservation staff must be specifically proficient in the removal of degraded laminate materials, and in the removal of degraded pressure sensitive tape and other adhesives and old repairs. Staff must also be proficient in 18th and 19th century leather binding repair, including re-sewing, re-backing and rebinding. Encapsulation and post- binding of bound materials will be requested only for extremely brittle materials, as determined by Clerks and LVA - Staff, and for previously laminated materials.

Solvents and other supplies used in these treatments must be of laboratory-grade quality, obtained from conservation and scientific lab suppliers. The Clerks or their designees reserve the right to visit any facility used to conduct conservation work for grant-funded projects, inspect equipment and materials used as well as to observe staff at work. No facility, equipment, materials, or staff may be used to conduct work for grant funded projects without the knowledge of the Clerks.

All work will be inspected by Library of Virginia staff before it is returned to the locality of origin. LVA staff will conduct quality control inspections and reserve the right to return any work not meeting the standards of quality or completion specified in the statement of work. The work must be corrected by the vendor at no additional charge. Failure of the vendor to correct these discrepancies at its own expense, or to come to a mutually acceptable resolution within 30 days after receiving the returned materials, shall constitute default. Any extra transportation costs resulting from such errors shall be paid for by the vendor.

Clerks and LVA-Staff will determine the nature of the treatment required. The vendor may not return work without performing the requested treatment, nor perform other treatment not specifically requested without prior consent. For example, if lamination removal or tape/adhesive removal is requested, this treatment must be performed and completed to the satisfaction of LVA before any payment will be made for services provided to the items in question. If it is determined by the vendor that the requested services cannot be performed for any reason, the items must be returned as is, without any further treatment such as deacidification or encapsulation, and no remuneration may be requested. No partial or incomplete treatment will be accepted or paid for unless prior agreement is made in writing. No treatment may be performed or invoiced that was not previously agreed to in a formal treatment proposal or subsequent approved amendment.

A condition report and treatment proposal must be supplied by the vendor for each individual item submitted to them for treatment prior to the commencement of work.

These documents must be in accordance with the applicable Statement of Work provided by the Clerks. The documents must also be specific to the items to be treated and must not contain generic verbiage or phrases that refer to possible conditions that may or may not exist, such as “mold may be present”, or “may require treatment for mold”. Detailed, itemized cost estimates must also be supplied for each item, which estimates will constitute vendor's binding offer to complete the work at the prices specified if the applicable grant application is approved.

Archival Materials: Material intended to be long lasting due to its high chemical stability and low acid content.  
 
Brittle: Character of an item that is easily broken, weak or inflexible.  In paper items, it is usually associated with high levels of acidity.
 
Cockling:  Distortion or waviness caused by rippling of the paper  or parchment support.
 
Deacidification: Application of an alkaline solution to neutralize harmful acidic compounds in an
object.
 
Delamination: Removal of cellulose acetate or other plastic laminate material using solvent or heat.
 
Dry-cleaning: Removing surface dirt using specialized dry sponges or grated eraser crumbs.
 
Encapsulation: A transparent Mylar enclosure used  to protect paper artifacts from the environment.
 
Endpapers: The two or more pages placed in the front and back of a book between its covers and text block. The part of the endpaper nearest the cover is called the pastedown while the part of the endpaper that is not pasted down is called the fly sheet or fly leaf. Endpapers can be blank or printed with a design, map or other information.
 
Flyspeck: Small dots of fly excretions encrusted onto paper that can cause staining, weakening and other damage.
 
Foxing: Reddish-brown spots appearing mainly on paper objects, associated with mold growth and/or iron deposits and exposure to high humidity conditions.
 
Heat-set Tissue:  A lightweight paper coated with thermoplastic acrylic adhesives used for mending paper.
 
Hinge:  The interior juncture of the spine and covers of a book. The outside of this same juncture is called the joint.
 
Humidification: Controlled application of moisture to relax paper items and their supports.
 
Insect damage: Losses and staining caused by insects feeding off of an object’s compositional material.
 
Japanese Tissue: All-natural, long-fibred paper produced in Japan and used for mending tears and lining paper supports because of its inherent strength and long-term stability.
 
Linen tape: A cloth tape with a water-activated adhesive used for hinge repair.
 
Lining: Supporting and strengthening the original paper by backing it with a secondary support on the reverse side, usually using Japanese tissue.
 
Loss: A missing area in a physical support, such as a paper page.
 
Mold:  Minute organisms that grow and feed on organic matter in high humidity conditions that can cause staining and weakening.
 
Mylar:  A brand name for archival polyester film.
 
Onion skin tape: A thin, translucent, brownish colored paper tape historically used to repair paper.
 
Post-binding: A type of binder using metal posts that hold bound material in place through drilled holes. May be used with or without Mylar encapsulation.
 
Pressure sensitive tape: Tape with a ready-made sticky adhesive, such as Scotch tape or masking tape.
 
Red rot: A degradation process found in vegetable-tanned leather which manifests as a powdering of the leather's surface, structural weakness through loss, and a felt-like consistency.
 
Signature: A gathering of flat pages that are folded, usually in half, to create a unit. A signature usually contains multiples of 4 printed pages.
 
Text block: The pages of a book as an entire unit. In other words, what is left if one removes the cover of a book.
 
 

Control of temperature and humidity is critical in the preservation of archival collections. Heat accelerates the rate of most chemical reactions, including deterioration. High relative humidity provides the moisture necessary to promote harmful chemical reactions in materials and, in combination with high temperature, encourages mold growth and insect activity. Fluctuations in temperature and relative humidity are also damaging. Archival materials are hygroscopic, readily absorbing and releasing moisture. They respond to changes in temperature and relative humidity by expanding and contracting. Dimensional changes accelerate deterioration and lead to such visible damage as cockling paper, flaking ink, and warped covers on books.
 
Installation of adequate climate controls will retard the deterioration of materials considerably. Recommendations are a stable temperature no higher than 70°F and a stable relative humidity between a minimum of 30% and a maximum of 50%. Relative humidity levels at the lower end of this range are preferable since deterioration then progresses at a slower rate. In general, the lower the temperature the better. You should adjust the settings of your HVAC system if the temperature and humidity in your records room are not within the recommended ranges.
Maintaining stable conditions will be crucial. You should choose a temperature and relative humidity within the recommended ranges that can be maintained twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year. The climate-control system should never be turned off, and settings should not be lowered at night, on weekends, or at other times when the archives room is closed. After making any changes to your HVAC system, temperature and relative humidity should continue to be systematically measured and recorded because this will indicate whether climate-control equipment is operating properly and producing the desired conditions. Remember that changing one factor may alter others. The importance of continued monitoring after the institution of a change cannot be stressed too much.
We recommend you purchase digital indoor thermometer and humidity monitor that will provide you with regular updates on the high and low humidity/temperature, allowing you to compare the current readings to those of the past. Place one in each room where your archival records are stored. Should the measurements be consistently outside the recommended range, you can provide this information to contact the persons responsible for the HVAC system so that they can make the necessary adjustments.