Bookplates, Archival papers, inks and adhesives

In our ephemeral everchanging world of the present, it comes as a pleasant surprise and challenge when you have to consider your work lasting for at least the next 80 years. This was the challenge when asked to produce bookplates for a client donating his scholarly collection to a college library.

The most obvious element is the paper - it has to be acid free to prevent browning and decay with age. Interestingly, most modern papers are much less acidic that in the past (Wikipedia article), however, for archival purposes, it is still best to use materials adopting the archival standard ISO9706. I set out enquiries with two potential printers of which one passed me on to the excellent support team of Xerox who recommended their Colotech+ paper that met the standard.

Digital printing is now common and very economic, would the colour toner also meet the requirements in terms of not damaging the book and and lightfastness? The message came back "Tests have shown that EA Toner is light fast for 15 years indoors with 10 hours light exposure per day. It's light that makes the toner degrade, so keeping the colour plates closed in a book and viewed once in a while for a few minutes should mean that 80 years is OK." Using EA toner (which the DC250 uses), along with Xerox colotech would conform to ISO9706.

Colotech+ did come in a selfadhesive form, however, I had requested that reversibility of adhesion would be desireable in case there was a need for conservation in the future and that could not be met. The bookplates therefore needed to be glued with a reversible archival adhesive.

The recommendation from Harvard was for very dilute methyl cellulose, from the Australian Museums and Galleries online for the starch pastes used for centuries with known consequences. Some establishments did use dilute PVA but there appeared to be concerns about the potential brittleness of the adhesive and its impact on delicate papers.

For me, starch paste would appear to be the obvious choice!

Now I only need to wait another 80 years or so to see if the advice that I received and have passed on is accurate!

Seminar Writing for Promotional Purposes

Fridays educational theme continued with an HBN Seminar by Jon Beal of Netflare on Writing for Promotional purposes.

In the past Jon had directed me to Paul Gorman's book with an incredibly long title, which also dealt with this subject. i was therefore familiar and regularly use the 7 point strategy for writing copy:

• Headline
• Promise
• Benefits
• Proof
• Consequences
• Sumary
• Call to action
  

The new gem that Jon gave us was a structured way for preparing to write good copy by identifying our customers and what products and services we were offering. This was done by identifying your customer type, their relationwhip with you/your product and the qualities that they would be looking for. By considering the possible scenarious and asking yourself pertinent questions, you could come up with responses that were of immediate use to your copywriting!

Telesales Tips from VELC Seminar

Friday began at an ungodly hour for me, at a breakfast meeting organised by Jo Morgans's Very Early Lunch Club. I'd been attracted to this meeting by Sureya Landini's short talk on Telesales. The key messages that I came away with were 1. that your attitude and posture when phoning are transmitted in your voice when you call and can have a real positive impact on your success and 2. that it is better to listen than talk!

Interestingly, there was an article in this weeks New Scientist "Why we are all Creatures of Habit" which included mention of studies that demonstrated that a persons success in a business or other transaction was less dependent on what they actually said, but on how they said it and their overall body language and could be accurately prediced within a matter of seconds. the broader tone of the article sparks a debate on whether we are actually creatures of habit and instinctive reactions and therefore extremely predicatable!

Peter Brooks Nimrod Launch at Landbeach

Milton Contact had invited the residents of Landbeach to attend Peter Newman's book Launch of Nimrod - A Memoir of Mishief and Mishap on Peter's behalf for last Friday. Peter had booked the Village hall, arranged food and drinks for what he saw as a celebration for the Landbeach community, of which Nimrod, the cat in tale, had also been a part of.

Over 40 guests attended to hear Peter read extracts from his book and then hand over a special copy to his Grandson Richard to whom it was dedicated.

Whilst the party then got into full swing with guests enjoying the wine and Grace's (Peters Wife) excellend finger buffet, Peter and I were busy with the book sales and signing.

The evening was a tremendous success for Peter, with copies of the book going like hot cakes!

Some guests were already through several chapters of the book during the evening and I'm looking forward to some positive reviews in the near future that can be posted on the web.