Word: acidic
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...library's money problems are exacerbated by what is known in preservation circles as the "acid paper problem," which has caused a sizable portion of Harvard's collection to turn brittle from decay...
...what price out books? Many of the books printed on "acid paper" in the 19th and early 20th centuries that are housed in Widener library are decaying due to the lack of climate control in the library. According to Harvard College Librarian Nancy Cline, "We're baking those books.... We're not providing [the books] the proper level of stewardship...
...very concerned about the "acid paper problem," as Widener's current predicament is often referred to, because every book that is left to turn into dust represents a piece of lost heritage that will never be recaptured...
...acid paper problem is not new. Scholars and librarians have known for years that the poor quality with which books were printed for much of the last two centuries would eventually leave us with a heap of dust. The question now is what to do about...
Suddenly, the forest corner has come alive. An unseen fan whirs on and begins to flip the pages of the book, which actually have letters printed upon them in ferric sulfate. Tea, or tannic acid, drips from the oak leaves and unites with the letters to form ink. According to Reynolds, "The wind is in effect writing itself, because the text is in onomato-poetic sounds of the wind." Thus, the figurative becomes the literal, and the metaphors that spring to mind when one first peers through the bubble windows reach a new and wonderful level...