Saving old documentation

From: Pat Barron <pat_at_transarc.ibm.com>
Date: Wed Nov 24 09:59:41 1999

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?

--Pat.
Received on Wed Nov 24 1999 - 09:59:41 GMT