Saving old documentation - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

24 Nov 1999

Upon the date 10:59 AM 11/24/99 -0500, Pat Barron said something like:
...
 I just posted this to alt.sys.pdp10, but I think
it's an appropriate
inquiry for this list, too:

So, I have a few old manuals:

 > "PDP-10 Processor Handbook", dated
1970 and describing the KA10;
> "PDP-10 Timesharing Handbook", same vintage, describing monitor      
 utilities and such;
 > "DECsystem-10 Assembly Language
Programming", dated 1972 (? unsure,        and the book isn't here with me
right now), describing KA10 and
       KI10 and some programming utilities (MACRO, DDT, Loader, etc.)

These are all phonebook-style manuals, printed on newsprint, and are all
beginning to fall apart - the paper has turned yellow/brown, and some of
the pages are starting to crumble like dry leaves.

Can anyone suggest any ways these books could be preserved (or at least,
have their disintegration slowed down)?  I'm inclined to try to scan them
in and OCR them to preserve the information, but I believe that would
require me to take the pages out of the binding, destroying the books
immediately.  Can anyone suggest any other preservation methods? 
Tough call. They are on their way to self-destruction because of that
doggone cheap acid paper. This indicates they will be eventually unusable
without disintegrating in your hands. Libraries and book collectors use
some sort of process which neutralizes the acid and virtually reduces
degradation. I haven't investigated this myself but I would suspect it
could be somewhat expensive relative to the actual value of the document.
Maybe when the document is relatively far along with acid destruction as
you say yours are, neutralization may be fruitless. Anybody have any
comments on that neutralizing process?

I think to simply preserve the information I would have to carefully
dismantle the manual page by page and copy them using a high quality
scanner or Xerox machine. The loss of the *information* will at least be
prevented. With that process I would be able to use the original covers and
make a replica manual (plus a coverless second 'working' manual I could use
at my programming terminal). I've got a couple of the DEC Handbooks which
are breaking down like this -including the 1976 PDP-11/10 Handbook which I
think is the first in that series. These Handbooks would be quite tricky to
preserve in either manner as they're thick and page size is small.

Regards,  Chris
-- --
Christian Fandt,         Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY  USA      cfandt(a)netsync.net
        Member of Antique Wireless Association                         
        URL: http://www.antiquewireless.org/