Information for Community Archives: Preservation

Information for Community Archives

Preservation / Paula Jabloner

PRELIMINARY DRAFT

Common activities such as re-housing materials; removing staples, paper clips, rubber bands; flattening documents; cleaning documents; and making photocopies--go a long way toward preserving records for their research use. The sheer bulk of twentieth century collections demands that we take a hard look at the amount of preservation work that can be done on any one collection (hence the importance of appraisal and weeding). Preservation must be based on the collection's research and artifactual value (value as an artifact as opposed to the information contained within) and the degree of its physical deterioration.

When looking through a collection, keep in mind these questions.

• Never do anything that cannot be safely and totally undone!
• Is there any serious mold, bug infestations, and/or water damage to materials in the collection?
• Are there large quantities of news clippings and fragile documents that need to be preserved by preservation photocopying or sent to a conservator?
• Are there large quantities of non-paper items (film, video, audio cassettes, computer disks) that might present preservation problems?

The most basic preservation measure for all repositories is good environmental controls. This means keeping the temperature and humidity stable. This means between 55° & 65° with around 50% relative humidity for paper. Constant fluctuations in temperature and humidity are worse than consistently high or low temperatures.

Also of great importance is the use of acid-free materials to house collections in. Most paper is manufactured with a large acidic content. Eventually the acid will be released and break down the paper fibers causing the weakening and eventually destruction of the paper. You most likely have witnessed this when leaving a newspaper out in the sun for a few days and observed it turning brown and eventually crumbling. The links page provides a number of websites for companies that preservation quality supplies which will help slow down this process.

Beyond putting documents into acid free folders you should be aware of some further preservation techniques for individual items.

Unfold and flatten documents assuming they aren't too brittle , remove letters from their envelopes.

Remove fasteners including staples, metal paper clips, plastic paper clips, rubber bands, and other fasteners that damage paper. Also remove material from binders (3 ring, spiral, accu press, etc.).

Photocopy on acid-free paper documents in immediate danger of crumbling or fading. Newspaper clippings, carbon copies, and highly acidic paper (already yellowed) are obvious choices. You also want to be on the alert for thermo-fax paper. This is an early photocopy process where the image was transferred through a mechanical process that involved heat. Thermo-fax paper is slippery and shiny on one side. Be especially on the lookout for this paper with dates from around 1965 to 1975. Over time the characters will just fade away or the whole page will turn brown obliterating the characters.

Immediately separate any materials from the collection that have any serious mold or evidence of bug infestations. You do not want these items to contaminate the rest of the collection.

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