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United States National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health

Acid-Free Paper for Biomedical Literature


NLM microfilms deteriorating publications, conserves in their original form those that are rare and valuable, and provides good long-term storage conditions for the collection. To lessen the need for preservation treatment in the future, the NLM Board of Regents policy encourages the publishing industry to use permanent, acid-free paper in the production of biomedical literature.

Alkaline Paper

During the past decade, paper-making processes that employ alkaline chemistry have come into use. Paper so produced is acid-free and available in commercial quantities at competitive prices in most paper grades, and will last for centuries in ordinary library use. The alkaline paper process has been increasingly adopted by paper manufacturers because of technological and economic incentives -- it results in reduced water consumption, facilitates waste treatment and saves energy and materials costs. It is also cleaner and less corrosive to machinery than acid- based paper making.

Task Force

In 1987 the Library appointed a Permanent Paper Task Force composed of commercial, academic, and professional society publishers, editors, authors, paper manufacturers and distributors, printers, librarians, and preservationists. They employed a variety of means to make publishers and printers aware of the problems of acidic paper use and its solutions; to help authors and editors with their concerns about making their works lasting by using acid-free paper; to alert professional societies to the need for permanence of their publications; and to encourage the application of realistic standards in the making and use of permanent paper. By disseminating information about acid-free paper use, the Permanent Paper Task Force helped to resolve the problem of acidic paper and facilitate the preservation of the printed record in biomedicine and other fields of scholarly endeavor.

Permanent Paper Standards and Acid-Free Notices

Publishers of the biomedical literature are encouraged to ensure that their publications are printed on paper that meets the American national standard, Permanence of Paper for Publications and Documents in Libraries and Archives (ANSI/NISO Z39.48. - 1992 (R1997)) or the international standard Information and Documentation - Paper for Documents - Requirements for Permanence (ISO 9706: 1994).

It is also important that the use of permanent paper for a publication be identified by a notice in that publication. Without it, libraries would have to test for the kind of paper used in each publication and may in the future inadvertently apply preservation treatments to publications that do not need them. Beginning in 1990, journals indexed in MEDLINE® and Index Medicus® that are printed on acid-free paper and carry a notice to that effect are marked as such in NLM's published journal lists, and in LocatorPlus, the Library's online catalog.

It is not a responsible act to publish material of enduring value on acid paper. It is also inefficient and illogical to continue using costly preservation measures when much of the problem can be prevented by publishing on permanent archival media, such as acid-free paper. The use of acid-free paper is the preventive medicine for reducing the problem of deterioration of publications and the threat of their being lost to the record of civilization forever.

For further information please contact:

Preservation and Collection Management Section
National Library of Medicine
8600 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, Maryland 20894

Phone: (301) 496-8124
Fax: (301) 435-2922
Email: pres@nlm.nih.gov

A complete list of NLM Fact Sheets is available at:
(alphabetical list) http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/factsheets.html
(subject list): http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/factsubj.html

Or write to:

FACT SHEETS
Office of Communications and Public Liaison
National Library of Medicine
8600 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, Maryland 20894

Phone: (301) 496-6308
Fax: (301) 496-4450
email: publicinfo@nlm.nih.gov

Last updated: 13 May 2004
First published: 27 September 2001
Metadata| Permanence level: Permanent: Stable Content