.. Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material (Inc.) ISSN 1834-0598 No 129 November 2014 ;fi . ~I· · /'!. Contents x.·~ •'' Pres . ~ : 3 iden t's Report .' t~':. 5 Publications update it \~ AICCM Student of the ,, 7 i· Year Awards 2014 i 8 Review - ICOM-CC " 1 7'h Triennial - Conference t 11 Review - IIC Hong Kong Congress 13 Environmental Guidelines- IIC and ICOM-CC Declaration :. ' 14 R~v i e w - iPRES20 14: 11 ehInt ernational Conference on Digital Preservation 15 Review - Conservation of Phot ographs Mas terclass ' 16 Review - Sy mposium and Workshop 18 Na tional Trust ACT Iiio., He ritage Awards 2014 19 Open Palace .~-•. - Programme \. 20 Workshop: Recons truction of ~. ... cloth case bindings 21 SIG News 22 The Social Pages 23 Division News 24 The Retiring Type: Farewell, lan Ba tterham 25 Profess ional News Masterclass: Conservation IIC Hong Kong Congre Open Palace program of Photographs STERILISATION AS A CONSERVATION TOOL Around the world, museums, universities, galleries and libraries are increasingly using industrial sterilisation techniques, such as irradiation, to strengthen their protections against mould, pest infestations and bacteria. Irradiation is widely used in the medical, pharmaceutical and agricultural industries and is at the front line of Australia's quarantine system. lt is a physical means of sterilisation whereby products are exposed to gamma rays. These rays act as a source of ionising energy that eliminates bacteria, pests and other pathogens, while having minimal impact on the treated item. STERITECH BENEFITS OF IRRADIATION Steritech is a member of the Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Materials and we would welcome Steritech is a proud Australian family owned company and the Steritech has worked with a number of major Australian the opportunity to discuss opportunities to help Australian leading contract sterHisation processor in the Asia-Pacific region universities and State libraries to help manage pest and mould conservators protect their materials. For more than 40 years, Sterhech has been helping eRminate problems in archived materials. pests and disease, in order to make products safer for consumers For more information, contact Raymond Bryden in 'and to protect the environment. The benefits of irradiation for professional conservators are: Melbourne on 03 8726 5514, Jamie Crighton in Sydney on 02 8785 4403 or Glenn Robertson in Brisbane on 07 3293 • 11 is effective aga1nst mould and bacteria and depending on With plants in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane offering gamma 1566, or vi sit www.steritech.com.au. the dose will elminate a broad spectrum of insect pests at all irradiation, ethylene ox)de and heat treatments, Steritcch is the stages of development, includng moths, booklice and silverfish. only contract stenlisation company in Australia. • The gamma rays penetrate packaging and as such are the only S!P.ritAr:h 1s llr.AnAArl Rnd accredited by a number of Goverrvnent sure way to obtain total penetration of archived materials. authonties. including the Australian Quarantine and Inspection • The process is chemical free and leaves no residues. Service, Therapeutic Goods Administration, Australian Pesticides and Vetennary Medicines Authority and the relevant State • lt does not involve heating or cooling the treated products and Environmental Protection Agencies. does not expose the products to water. • The process is relatively qLick and simple and can be applied to archived materials in bulk. • lt is a recognised quarantine measure for goods travelling interstate or overseas. Images from ICOM-CC (Photos: Meghan Ellis) , see review page 8. 2 AI CCM e wsle tte r President's Report President's Report Having a lready presented an overview illuminating, perhaps, is the anal ogy to community of all that the AICCM h as achieved this the m ap of Europe. Putting as ide the of experti e ... year (a nd will continue to plug away at fact that A hley-Smith's comments But our over the n ext) at las t rnonth's AG M, I were proffered in the light of the mer ge r conservation 2 thought I wo uld use the opportunity of fi ve UK preservation or ga nisations , data .. provided by the final Newsle tter of 2014 I find his ob servation th at we are consists of to refl ect on the role that the AICCM pote ntially b ecoming a much more unlinked case might be thoug ht to play within the 'stratified' and 'segmented' profession histories and broader con servation p rofe ss ion. a poigna nt one for the AICCM to fragmentary con ide r. deter ioration Plenderleith Memo rial In his Or Haro ld studies. Sma ll I rea d in Ashley-Smith's commen ts a Lecture to the Institute of Conservation groups convene to explore mutual thought th at there w ill be an increase (ICON), Jona than As hley-Smith, interests and concerns without ntly re tired H ead of in the number of specialisation ; the then r ece sufficient concern for inclusivity the V&A, speculated va riation in the phys ical envi ronments Conservation at and outreach. And our profes ion 'conservation futures'. or or ganisations in which we work; on the topic of rema ins, as has recently been noted, (both insightful and a diffusion in the disciplines with The sp eech invisible to the population as a which we en gage in multi- and inter­ entertaining in its frankness ) includes whole. It is time to change."4 a re fl ection on a number of chan ges disciplinary th eories and practices; and within the museum profess ion that have expanding analy tical a nd technical This might seem an over- whe lming had a direct b earing on the n ature and interests. This certainly seems to be a proposition. It is certainly one that influen ce of conservators. He concludes trend as professional bodies (including many individual a nd partnered with the thought that: our own) seek to define/re-define/re­ organ i sations are seeking to addre re-define the role of the conse rvatorl. thro ugh o n-line p rojects, databases "Museums as we know a nd love C l ear a nd accurate de finitions aside, of and the like. A leading example is the them will probably not s urvive. greatest concern will be whether this group INCCA who are a dvancing Conservation as we know and fragmentation l eads to det achment, contemporary conservation knowledge love it will jog along much as ever. disengagement or division. through a membership that is bo th servation will become so But con geographically dispersed but engages Many h ave already commented on the ho rizo ntally stratified a nd vertically the sp ecialist s kills ·of professionals that it w ill never be a dispersed na ture of current conservation segmen ted dea ling with the problems of pre erv ing knowledge. Jerry P odany, Senior powerful or united fo rce. Just as the contemporary a rt. Persona lly, I f eel rope h as chan ged over the Conservator of A ntiqui ties at the ]. Pa ul map of Eu these concerns a nd provocations Getty Museum, not es: centuries as countries merged into revitalise our understa nding of the larger groups a nd then plit into "There is no doubt that conservation necessity for a professional or ganisation smaller na tion s, so the c urrent m ove is far more complex than it was just a such as the AICCM. to convergence in conservation w ill, decade ago and that this complexity in the long -term, proba bly not r esult is a good thing. The profession h as in an irreversible union ." 1 Professional organisation and taken on much broader r esponsib ility a learning community As a museum professional I find the first and enj oys the input of a lar ger The AICCM is commonly d escri bed line dish eartening, although I r ealise as the 'professional or ganisation' fo r that it depe nds on wh at one m eans The Care of Coll ecti ons Forum , the Insti tute of Paper Conserva tion (I PC). the Photographic Materi als conservators in Australia but it is worth by 'we' and 'know' and 'love'. But as Conservation Group, the Scottish Society for noting that, internationa ll y, similar tho e who h ave or c urrently wo rk in Conserva tion and Restoration ( SCR) and the United Kingdom Institute for Con erva ti on of Historic and bodies u e the te rm 'learned society'. cultural institutions can a ttest, sweeping Artistic Works (UKIC). W ikipedia de fi nes the first term as "a chan ges are de finitely af oot, the na ture 3 The expanded ICOM·CC definiti on of the 'conservator' was presented at th e 1 7th Tr iennial non-p rofit organisation seeking to and impact of which is far b eyond Confe rence whilst the ICO M web page ex plains "The further a pa rticular p rofess ion, the what can be covered her e. More scope of conservators' work has widened in recent years and conservators now expect to be in volved with exhi bi tions, conservation science, preventive 4 Podany, J. (2009) 'Sustainable stewardship: Preventive Ashl ey·Smith, j . (ZOOS) Scottish Society for ~o nse rva ti o n , project management and ad vocacy Conservation in a chang ing world ' Available at h ttp:// Conse rvation and Restoration jo urnal Vo l. 16 No. I work." (I CON website. Careers in Conse rvation) www. neh .gov/fi les/di vision /preserva tion/podan y. pdf o l29 Nove mber 20l4 3 President 's Report interests of individuals en gaged in that each o ther through the ongoing process Committee Members from both profession a nd the p ublic interest" of what it means to preserve cul tural AICCM and the University of and while it defines the s econd as "an mate rial ac ross space a nd time, a nd Melbourne organisation that e xists to promote an shar es the gr eat work that each of us Committee Co-cha irs: Susie Collis, academic discipline or p rofess ion ..