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Survey on national standards on paper and ink to be used by the administration for records
D. L. Thomas
INTRODUCTION
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 This survey is the result of an expert consultation convened by the International Council on Archives on behalf of Unesco, at Bari, Italy in 1979 which recommended the collection, dissemination and keeping up-to-date of a corpus of national standards relevant to records and archives management.
1.2 The report is based on three sources: i) The returns to Michael Roper's survey for his proposed RAMP study: Directory of national standards relating to archives administration and records management. ii) The collection of standards held in the library of the British Standards Institution, Linford Wood, Milton Keynes, Bucks, United Kingdom. iii) A questionnaire submitted to all national archives or equivalent institutions in member countries of ICA.
1.3 The report is arranged in six sections : summary of standards for paper (section 2); summary of standards for inks (section 3); directory (section 4); conclusion (section 5) and bibliography, giving references to published works other than standards (section 6).
1.4 Section 2 lists and details all standards for permanent paper and lists other standards for paper. It omits those standards which specify paper sizes or which describe methods of testing paper, as there are existing ISO standards on these subjects. Slightly less relevant standards, such as those for drawing papers, carbon paper or for designs of forms, letterheads, etc have not been included.
1.5 Section 3 summarises standards for inks used in fountain or dip pens, ball point or fibre tipped pens, typewriter ribbons, stamp pads, and for printing and duplicating, as well as one solitary standard for the image of photocopiers.
1.6 Section 4 lists all standards by country, as well
as indicating those countries which have not been identified as
having relevant standards and those for which no information is
available.
Addresses are provided from which copies may be obtained. Cross
references are provided to those standards which are summarised
elsewhere in the report.
1.7 Standards are produced in very many languages in considerable technical detail and for this reason it has not proved possible to provide summaries of all of them. Although every effort has been made to produce accurate summaries, there is not sufficient space to provide full technical details and it is important that anyone wishing to make use of any standard described in this list should consult the original
5. GUIDELINES
5.1 The first conclusion must be that, in general, archives and archival institutions are not, in themselves, major producers of standards. Apart from Denmark (where the national archives in conjunction with the state purchasing office issued guidelines for the use of paper by state institutions) and Finland (where the national archives is responsible for implementing a state administrative standard) the standards listed here are all either issued by governments, or, in the majority of cases, by national standards institutions. It does appear, however, that archivists were members of many of the committees which drafted them.
5.2 The only other possible source of standards which has not
been explored in this report and which might be interesting to
pursue at a later date is government printing offices and
purchasing departments, some of which do appear to have their own
standards.
5.3 Standards for Paper:
There has been considerable research, over many years, into the reasons for the decay of paper and this research has been reflected in the publication of a number of standards for permanent paper (section 2.2). Archivists wishing to purchase or recommend a permanent paper have a number of possible standards which they could specify.
5.4 It would probably be of considerable benefit if an international standard for permanent paper could be issued. It is suggested that the American National Standard - Permanent Paper for Printed Library Materials (Z39.48-1984) would form a suitable basis for such a standard as it contains elements which are common to most other standards, is very up-to-date and is relatively simple (section 2.1.4).
5.3 Standards for Ink:
There has been a great deal of research over a very long period into techniques for producing permanent inks for use in fountain pens and dip pens; monks in the tenth century and even earlier were capable of making such a material. As a result, there are many national standards for these products, all of which are very similar and any one of which could be used by archivists as a source of information or as a basis for ordering inks (section 3.2).
5.6 It appears that there has been little research into the fading or long term performance of inks for ball point pens, marking pens or similar products. There are a number of standards for these products, some of which specify lightfastness and resistance to certain chemicals. In the absence of the detailed published research and long term experience of use which applies to fountain pen inks, it is not possible to provide a critical assessment of these standards (section 3.3). There is clearly a need for further research into the permanence of modern writing materials in order to provide accurate guidelines for archivists.
5.7 Standards for Typewriter Ribbons:
There are only a few standards for these and they are for fabric, rather than film ribbons; they do, however, include specifications for lightfastness. In view of the rapid rate at which the technology of typewriters and computer printers is changing, it is probably not an appropriate time to attempt to set standards for these products.
5.8 Standards for Stamp Pad Inks:
There are a number of standards for these. The most interesting one is not a formal national standard, but a product specification issued by the Library of Congress for its own in-house ink. This specification covers all the requirements for a secure, safe and permanent stamp pad ink and would be a good model against which to test the products of other manufacturers (section 3.5.9).
5.9 Standards for Printing Inks:
Experience has shown that printing ink is normally long lasting and that the major threat to books is the quality of the paper and binding materials, not the quality of the ink. The standards are primarily concerned with the performance of the ink and its suitability for its intended application, although some standards do specify lightfastness, resistance to water and solvents.
5.10 Standards for Inks for Duplicators:
These standards are not archival and the process does not appear to be capable of creating permanent records (section 3.7).
5.11 Standards for Photocopier Images:
Only one such standard has been identified and it appears to be in applicable to modern photocopier systems (section 3.8). Because of the enormous popularity of these machines and the large number of photocopies which are being transferred to archives, more research is needed in this area and appropriate standards should be issued.