Details cannot be given out until the process is patented. When the time comes, the process will be widely announced in the library and conservation literature. No information on the other mass deacidification process has been -made publicly available yet. One of the two paper-strengthening processes is being developed by Nova Tran, Inc., in Clear Lake, Wisconsin. It uses the Parylene process, a preexisting method licensed by Union Carbide.
Results obtained with bound books look good.
The deposition of the strengthening agent is done at room temperature in a vacuum, without catalysts. The other paper-strengthening process was developed for the British Library, and was also announced at the PLMS meeting in January. Peter Sparks, preservation officer of the Library of Congress, recently visited the British Library to coordinate the research efforts of the two national libraries, and learned that their process uses an acrylic copolymer and initiates polymerization with a radioactive source. The principle was worked out by a local university research team for the BL on contract, but the method has not yet been patented or put into practical operation. It increases the strength of brittle paper by a factor of seven or so, and makes it flexible.