After much agonizing over whether this was indeed a General Question, and not better posted in the Cafe, I decided to try here first.
Our family is fortunate enough to own eight or nine bound editions of Popular Mechanics from the early 1900’s. I believe the most recent is ummm 1915? They are leather-bound volumes containing the whole year’s magazines.
However, as these books are durn near a hundred years old, they are beginning to show their age. They are still readable, but carefully and delicately, and the edges flake a little.
How might we conserve these works in a readable fashion?
What is the best method, and where do we send our precious folios, so that future generations (of our family, at very least) might enjoy them?
No airtight displays filled with noble gases, please - it defeats the point.
Carefully scanning them into a computer in an open, ubiquitous format and then putting them on a variely of media. ie CD ROMs, Hard Drives, Web storage, DAT tapes etc.
In a pinch, that might be what we’ll have to do. But what we’d like, if possible, would be to conserve the original printed volumes. We’ve heard rumours of ways to treat acidified paper, and all sorts of other stuff that some of the libraries/museums are using, and we’re trying to track down specifics.
In the interim, try to keep the books in a dry place that is fairly cold. I’m not sure about the paper used in that magazine, but you want to make sure it doesn’t turn start to crumble from exposure to oxygen.
Since you are posting from the Yukon Territory, I would assume that finding a cold place isn’t that hard.
They’re definitely cold and dry - kept by the floor in a wood-heated home. (The floor’s always cold, and wood heat sucks every drop of moisture from the air, trust me on this.)
You could try BookKeeper Deacidification Spray. I know you can buy it from Demco.com. I’ve never used it, heard very mixed reviews from other librarians. Basically, you can try to take good care of the item, Tapioca Dextrin gave a good link, but eventually, your cool mag-books are likely to fall apart due to acidity This is giving me flashbacks to repeated viewings of “Slow Fires”, see : http://www.americanfilmfoundation.com/order/slow_fires.html
Thank you. That’s the sort of thing we’re looking for. I’ll run this over to Mom for discussion.
Any other ideas? We know they’re going to disintegrate eventually, we just wanna put it off as long as possible. We’d like 'em to be grist for science projects, research, and amusement for at least one, maybe two more generations.
The grass-bound first edition Willa Cather is surviving nicely, though. As are the school texts from 1910.
-Keep away from any direct light source (esp sunlight).
-Don’t handle them with your bare hands. The acids and oils are damaging. Thin cotton gloves would be good.
-Attempt to minimize changes in temperature and humidity. where they are stored Conservation experts at the British Museum have found that even just putting items in a cabinet (not specially sealed or anything) offered significant protection from atmospheric changes. In the summer, switch them to an airconditioned room, or invest in a small dehumidifier.
-Take any bookmarks, etc. made of regular paper or newsprint out of the books. Make sure that no regular (non-acid-free) paper ever gets left in the books.
At the museum I work at, we keep books and magazines in a room that is 50 degrees and 50% humidity. Keeping them too dry will also cause them to disintigrate.
Gently remove any scotch tape you see in the magazines. Scotch tape is every conservator’s enemy.
You will be able to tell if the room is too humid by “staple rust.” Do not ever use any paperclips unless they are covered by plastic.
You may want to invest in acid-free boxes to keep them in. Placing them in a box will keep them flat. If not, plastic envelopes will keep the covers from being knicked and abraded. Be on the lookout for insect infestations. Paper is yummy.
If the magazines are dusty, use a soft, clean paintbrush to remove surface dirt, and then gently wipe with a dry cloth (a scrap of an old T-shirt is great for this purpose).
I want to second what ** Hello Again ** said about the gloves: fingerprint oil is very damaging for paper items.
In addition to all the climate advice, make certain the books are stored spine-side down if the pages are coming loose from the spine or if the spine is sagging. Storing them any other way, especially “page side down” will put too much gravity on the spine and cause even more problems.
I work in archives and have never used a Deacidification Spray. This sounds kind of scary. If our books and records are only foxing or yellowing, we leave them be. If they have serious problems, they are taken to a professional conservator for treatment. Of course this costs lots of $$$, but I’ve never heard anyone advocate do-it-yourself conservation. Instead, most people teach preservation which involves a good climate and storage in acid free materials.
Making electronic copies of records is seen as a very good idea these days, as it allows you to make a working copy and keep the original books safe in storage.
I told Mom this was the right place to go. Cotton gloves will be purchased, and stored with the books, and we’re looking at a barrister’s bookcase to store them in.
They are actually in surprisingly good shape, given their age 'n all. No sagging spines, no loose pages, and only one torn one (I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I was only nine :eek:…).
This is giving me flashbacks to repeated viewings of “Slow Fires”, see :