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Many types of guidance documents inform conservation by providing practical recommendations for the management of species and habitats. To ensure effective decisions are made, such guidance should be based upon relevant and up‐to‐date evidence. We reviewed conservation guidance for mitigation and management of species and habitats in the United Kingdom and Ireland, identifying 301 examples produced by over 50 organizations. Of these, only 29% provided a reference list, of which only 32% provided reference(s) relevant to justify the recommended actions (9% of the total). Furthermore, even this guidance was often outdated, lacked a methodology for production, or did not highlight uncertainty in the key evidence that supported the recommendations. These deficiencies can lead to misguided and ineffective conservation practices, policies, and decisions, and a waste of resources. Based on this review and co‐design by experts from 14 organizations, we present a set of principles for ensuring sufficient and relevant evidence is transparently incorporated into future conservation guidance. Producing evidence‐based guidance in line with these principles would enable more effective conservation outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Woven fabrics commonly referred to as 'aerocotton' and 'aerolinen' are frequently used in the conservation of books and manuscripts and are valued for their strength and flexibility. Although textiles have a long history in the production and repair of books, aerocottons and aerolinens are relatively recent materials adopted from early aircraft production. In 2007, the main supplier of these woven fabrics to the UK conservation community ceased production, and new producers started supplying a range of woven fabrics under the labels of 'aerocotton' and 'aerolinen'. Understanding the strength, composition, and longevity of repair materials is central to conservation practice and this investigation tested two linens and two cottons alongside the discontinued cotton to quantify the relative strengths of the fabrics. Each fabric was tested before and after laundering, and in three directions (warp, weft, and bias). The tests conducted measured mass per unit area, thickness, sett, tensile strength, folding endurance, and dimensional change. In tensile strength tests the bias-cut fabrics were weakest but extended the most, whilst those cut in the weft direction were strongest. The cottons lasted longest in terms of folding endurance and the samples cut on the bias were the fastest to break. The dimensional change tests showed that washing affected the linens more than the cottons and that across all fabrics there was a greater amount of shrinkage in the warp direction. It is hoped that these results will provide concrete information to guide conservators in the preparation and use of aerocottons and aerolinens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers new information regarding a little-known manuscript of the Historia Mirabilis Parliamenti by Thomas Fovent, found in a private collection in New York, and presents a more complete portrait of the author's life. Fovent's Historia is a lively account of the Merciless Parliament of 1388 and has long been known to scholars from May McKisack's 1926 edition published in the Camden Miscellany, based on the only known manuscript in the Bodleian Library. The recent digitization of Thomas Fovent's will by The National Archives provides readily available definitive proof that Fovent lived and worked as part of London's bureaucratic milieu in the later fourteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses several hidden aspects of the quire structure of St. John's College in Cambridge, England's Manuscript S. 54. A quire is a set of 24 or 25 sheets of papers of the same size and quality. These were discovered by manuscript conservators and digitizers while working on a project funded by Great Britain's Arts and Humanities Research Council titled "Scriptorium: Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts Online." According to the article, S. 54 is a collection of sixteen carols and two other lyrics dating from the late 15th century. The disbinding and photography of the manuscript revealed that the eight bifolia or two-leaved folds, were joined together in pairs at the top of the manuscript spine. Information is given for the S. 54's quadrifolium and binding.

On March 20, 2003, military forces of the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia invaded Iraq. In the course of this invasion and subsequent occupation, Iraq's cultural infrastructure suffered a great deal of destruction. Iraq's international attention has focused primarily on the immense destruction done to the country's pre-Islamic archaeological assets, domestic Iraqi attention has focused equally on the losses suffered by the country's manuscript collections, archives, and document collections. This article provides a general overview of the latter category, including a brief discussion of the events involved, damages sustained, and current status of the collections in question. While in certain key cases the damage sustained by collections was not as severe as initially reported, there were significant losses and a great deal of work lies ahead to reconstitute the facilities involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to identify the major issues in the management of music manuscripts within the UK. With knowledge of current practice gained through the investigation of five case study repositories, from both archive and library domains, aspects of management are explored and considered within an archival context. Three major aspects of management are identified—collecting (collecting policies, storage and preservation), describing (finding aids, standards) and providing (access, outreach)—and each of the five case studies is tailored to fit these key areas. Exploration of these issues facilitates the ultimate aim of producing an approach to better, more consistent methods in this neglected area. Suggestions for improvement include the development of specific standards or guidelines for preservation and description, and the establishment of a specialist, cross-domain working group, prompting formal networking between the music library professional body, the International Association of Music Libraries, and representatives from other domains. The continued development of collaborative music resources such as Cecilia is also found to be key to the unified provision of user access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the effort of the National Preservation Office (NPO) to adopt a planned approach to preservation by libraries and archives in Great Britain and Ireland. Information on NPO Preservation Assessment Survey; Developments in digital preservation in Great Britain since 1996; Examples of a potential collaborative projects which could be taken forward with project funding drawn from a variety of sources.