Is the Bookkeeper Deacidification Process effective?
Treated materials have been tested and compared with untreated control samples in independent tests conducted by the Library of Congress, the Institute of Paper Science and Technology (Atlanta), the Image Permanence Institute (Rochester), the Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique (Belgium), TNO Centre for Paper and Board Research (The Netherlands), Berner Fachhochschule (Switzerland), and the American Philatelic Society (State College). By using accelerated aging, these tests have shown that treatment by the Bookkeeper process should extend the usable life of paper based materials by a factor of at least 3-5 times. Although artificial aging does not exactly reproduce natural aging effects, the nature of the test is to err on the low side, and we expect the resultant life extension of treatment will exceed the predictions of accelerated aging.
