Standards
The company Hercules Incorporated developed the first alkaline sizing in the 1950s that made acid-free paper possible. Despite the advances in paper making and the identification of and concern around the brittle book problem, it took decades before the adoption of ANSI NISO Standard Z39.48-1984 - Permanence of Paper for Publications and Documents in Libraries in 1984. This voluntary standard covered pH value, tear resistance, alkaline reserve, and lignin thresholds for paper to last thousands of years and was developed to encourage the use of acid-free paper in library materials. The development of the initial standard was a result of the work of the Council on Library Resources, which effectively lobbied ANSI to adopt the guidelines.
In 1986, Standards Committee II of NISO was established to expand Z39.48-1984 to develop standards for coated paper, and was again called upon in 1988 to review and revise the standards for uncoated paper.
There are various standards for "acid-free" paper, with differing requirements. In some quarters, slightly-acidic paper having a pH between 6 and 7 is often also considered "acid-free". Acid-free (alkaline) paper that additionally is uncoated and meets certain standards for folding and tearing is authorized by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to carry the following notice: "The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standards Institute for Information Sciences — Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992."
The objective of ANSI Z39.48-1992 "is to establish criteria for coated and uncoated paper to last several hundred years" under optimal conditions in libraries and archives. The desired outcome of the standard is to reduce future preservation problems.
The scope of the standard is to cover publications and documents bought and maintained by libraries and archives. Such works include scholarly journals, periodicals, monographs, government documents, original documents, and significant works in fiction and non-fiction.
An equivalent international standard, ISO 9706, was published in 1994.
Manufacturers of acid-free paper can indicate the compliance of their product with the test requirements of the ISO 9706 or ANSI Z39.48-1992 standards using a circled infinity symbol (Unicode codepoint 267E, ♾).
Read more about this topic: Acid-free Paper
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