The eighteenth volume of the Book and Paper Group Annual includes six papers presented to the Book and Paper Group Session at the AIC 27TH Annual Meeting in St. Louis Missouri. For the first time the Annual has also included abstracts of papers that were presented at the meeting but for which full text was not available; many of these authors have expressed plans to submit their papers future volumes of the Annual or to publish their material through other venues; be on the watch for them. Additional articles in this volume were originally presented as posters or tips at the BPG Session. Three papers have been submitted independently by the authors. The article "Architectural Drawings on Transparent Paper," which first appeared in German in Restauro in 1998, is here revised by the authors and translated into English.
At the St. Louis meeting the Book and Paper Group joined the Photographic Materials Group sponsoring a special session on the topic of albums and scrapbooks. Papers presented at that session have been gathered into a separate publication, Conservation of Scrapbooks and Albums, and distributed to the membership of both specialty groups.
The Annual, volume 18, and Scrapbooks have been my first essay at compiling publications for the Book and Paper Group. I have benefited greatly from the dedication, enthusiasm, and support of the Book and Paper Group Publications Committee: Walter Henry, Jane Klinger, Kate Maynor (chair), Olivia Primanis, Alan Puglia, Kim Schenck, Dianne van der Reyden, and Shannon Zachary. Nancy Purinton (BPG chair, 2000) and Abigail Quandt (BPG chair, 1999) attended meetings ex officio and provided valuable perspectives.
Whitney Baker, Normandy Helmer, and Olivia Primanis assisted with proofreading to very tight deadlines. I am grateful for their sharp eyes and impressive collective knowledge; any typos that remain are my own. Walter Henry continues to facilitate web publication of past issues of the Annual, an undertaking for which I have gained increasing appreciation and respect. Beth Kline in the AIC Washington office has been an anchor of experience and accommodation. The University Library of the University of Michigan has provided technology, flexibility, and tolerance—especially on the part of the Conservation Services staff.
With the publication of Volume 17 in 1999, Robert Espinosa retired from the position of compiler after producing twelve (count 'em, twelve!) consecutive volumes of the Annual. Over those twelve years he has raised our expectations high; but he has been generous and more than generous in passing along not only the habit but the makings.
Shannon Zachary