Mass Deacidification

Coordinated by Debbie Huyvaert, under the direction of Julie Arnott, the Mass Deacidification Program targets premier Notre Dame collections that are printed on acidic paper, but are not yet brittle. These significant collections are at risk of becoming brittle and unusable due to the acid degredation process which attacks improperly processed wood pulp paper, common to books printed c.1850-1970.

Mass deacidification is a process whereby paper is treated with an alkaline chemical to retard paper degredation and significantly extend its useful life. Our vendor, Preservation Technologies, Inc., utilizes the Bookkeeper® process to mass deacidify books and other paper-based materials for the Notre Dame Libraries.

Items deacidified or qeued for deacidification are cataloged to make this information available in both the local online catalog and OCLC. See MARC 21 Field 583 Preservation Action Note for detailed instructions on this process.