If a library or archive is serious about moving ahead with mass deacidification technology, it must honestly explore the problems inherent in selection of one or more mass deacidification processes.

First, the nature of the decision to be made is highly technical, involving scientific and engineering expertise that is usually not available from staff in most institutions or a part of a current preservation officer s training. The majority of individuals who have had the responsibility for moving decision making forward in libraries or archives have not had either sufficient background themselves or the technical expertise in-house to be able to understand fully what was needed in order to proceed.

Second, experience in actual mass preservation operations has been limited, for many years, to actual production operations that can be observed only in Canada and in Europe. This aspect has improved somewhat in recent years with several pilot facilities in the United States.

Third, there is an aspect of the selection of any mass chemical preservation technology that has a significantly higher risk factor associated with it than do other technical decisions made in libraries and archives. For example, if a library goes about buying a new piece of computer equipment, the worst mistake is that the equipment will not work correctly. and time and money will be wasted. However, an error in judgment in selecting a mass chemical treatment technology could have an irreversible negative impact on the integrity of the very collections that require preservation and possibly on the users of these collections as well. This type of risk management understandably raises the anxiety level of most decision makers.

Fourth, there is a wide variation in the degree of development and information about existing processes, because some of them have been under study for over a decade and some for less than three years. This situation has tended to complicate the selection effort, in that all vendors may not be prepared to respond equally or even at all to the field’s request for technical data about their processes. This rapid emergence of new and sometimes under-tested solutions to the acid paper problem has left many a potential user sitting on the bench still looking around the corner for the one and only ideal process that will prove to be the universal solution to the problem. This in turn has delayed selecting the best choices from the currently available group of technologies, so that libraries and archives can get on with the urgent matter of stabilizing their collections.

Fifth, extensive funding and logistical support are required for mass deacidification projects. Even though per-item cost may seem low, the large number of items and time required for mass processes involves the commitment of large sums of money over long periods of time. In addition, the long-term operational support for moving collections to and from a deacidification facility requires a high level of staffing and planning.

In summary. it would appear that lack of progress in the selection of one deacidification process or another centers around these five issues–the technical nature of the decision, limited experience with mass chemical processes, managing higher risk decisions, the variable availability of technical information, and the high, continuing funding levels required–and there may be other issues at work that are not as apparent as these. How, then, can this inertia be overcome? One solution is to develop assistance and assurance in key technical areas for potential users of these technologies, and to chart a path that goes responsibly and directly to the goal of solving problems with acid paper while taking minimal risks with the collections.