Conserve

O Gram
September 1996 Number 19/18

How To Care For Bound Archival Materials

Many archival and manuscript collections include bound volumes , such as albums, scrapbooks ,
ledgers, journals, notebooks, diaries, and published or rare books. This ConserveO Gramprovides
general guidelines for caring for these materials.

To Preserve Your Archival Bound Volumes You Must

Do This ...... Don't Do This ...
Environment
• House books in a space with a stable, low relative humidity € Don't allow temperature and humidity
(e.g., 45% RH ±2%) and temperature (e.g., 20°c [68°F] to fluctuate widely .
± 2 degree ).
• Shield windows and lights with ultraviolet filters.
• Check annually the effectiveness of filtering material and
replace when necessary.
• Ensure space is clean, free of food, beverages, and pests.
• Establish an Inte rated Pest Mana ement Pro ram.
Storage Do This. Don't Do This.

• House books in good condition by size and type so that large €Don't shelve books spine-side up.
books do not warp over small ones. ·• Don't house books together tightly on
• Use full size, weight-bearing book ends. a shelf.
• Wrap books in historic house libraries in polyester four-flap • Don't hou se books of different Sizes
enclosures to provide protection from red rot. next to each other on a shelf without
• House rare, valuable, damaged, or weak books in acid-free, protection '.
lignin-free, archival custom-fitted boxes. • Don't house books with powder ing·
• Store oversize, fragile, or heavy books flat in weight-bearing leather bindings next to books with
acid-free boxes on shallow shelves. cloth, board, or paper bindings,
• Box damaged books in neutral pH book boxes fitted to their • Don't use small bookends unless you
size until they can be evaluated by a conservator. If this is place a full-size sheet of buffered
not possible, wrap books in labeled neutral pH light-weight board between the bookend and the
archival board using wide ( ¼ "-½ ") cotton twill tape to hold book to avoid indenting or embossing
the package together. Label all boxes or wrapped books. the book .
• Wrap books with powdery or flaking leather or loose pieces • Don't use slipcases for books if they
in neutral pH paper and tie them until they can be boxed. will abrade the covers and edges Of
• House boxed books that are not oversize, fragile, or heavy, the book .
upright on their bottom edge on the shelving. • Dort't stack books on the Shelves
• Label all boxed or wrapped volumes with the collection title, unless they are housed in weight-
accession/catalog numbers, original box number, book title, bearing boxes.
author, and condition.
• Store boxed books on fused powder-coated steel shelves ,
instead of on wood shelves.
• Include these collections in your Emergency Operation Plan.
National Park Service Conserve O Gram 19118

To Preserve Your Archival Bound Volumes You Must

Do This ...... Don't Do This
Storage (continued)
Cold Storage
• Place deteriorating rare bound volumes in a polyethylene € Don't stack books in cold storage,
bag before placing the book in cold storage. This action unless they. are housed in weight -
protects from condensation. bearing boxes.
• Place a piece of conditioned neutral pH board behind the
book to support it and to help absorb moisture, then place
a moisture indicator label on the board to monitor humidity
inside the bag.

Storing Oversize Volumes DoThis. Don't Do This.

• Store oversize volumes flat because their weight may damage • Don't stack or box books so as to
the bindings if housed upright. place pressure on their bindings.
• House these items if possible in labeled custom-made • Don't place oversize materials where
weight-bearing boxes or archival print boxes on book they project into aisles or sit directly
shelves. on floors .
• House oversize volumes, alternatively, in labeled archival • Don't place oversize materials on the
wrappings on shallow shelves or in mapcase drawers. top shelf because they may be dropped
due to their weight.
Storing Undersize Volumes Do This. Don't Do THis.

• House small volumes spine down in standard archival • Don't assume that undersize books fit
folders within archival boxes, within labeled custom- easily in archival storage boxes in a
made support boxes, or vertically upright in archival standard collection. You may need to
boxes with no leaning. replace them with a separation sheet
• Use acid-free wedges if necessary to hold books upright. and house them separately .
• Place a separation sheet in the original location of the • Pon't allow books to slump or bend
volume if you use customized boxes, then place the boxed within storage containers.
book in a special storage area, such as a mapcase.
• Use separation sheets for undersize items to provide
better security; the item will then have to be specially
requested before viewing.
Interleaving Do This. Don't Do This.

• Use pH-neutral, lignin-free, high-alpha cellulose ( > 87 %) • Don't use interleaving materials and
slip sheets only where interleaving is essential, for example: slip sheets excessively, particularly in
-where platinum prints are producing ghost images on rare books, albums, and scrapbooks,
facing pages because they place pressure on the
-where retouched, friable, or highly acidic media (for book binding.
example, iron gall ink) are damaging facing pages • Don't automatically remove historical
• Produce a reformatted copy of the book (see Reformatting enclosures.
below) instead of interleaving all pages of an acidic or
mixed-media volume (album or scrapbook).
• Replace historical inserts, such as pressed flowers, with
separation sheets or slips if removed from a book. Place
removed items in labeled archival albums and ensure that
they are identified so as to maintain the link between the
original book and the removed item.

2 How to Care for Bound Archival Materials

 Conserve O Gram 19118 National Park Service

To Preserve Your Archival Bound Volumes You Must

Do This...... Don't Do This...
Handling
• Limit handling of fragile or rare materials by providing • Don't allow use of extremely fragile,
copies for reference and duplication. brittle, or self,destructing volumes.
• Set up handling and access policies and procedures. • Don't use pressure to fully open a
• Wear clean white cotton gloves when handling rare book if it doesn't open readily or you
books, books with photographs, or books with flaking may crack the spine.
or powdering leather. • Don't place tightly. bound books on
• Remove a book from the shelf by pushing back the books xerographic copiers or photographic
on either side (or pushing the book forward from behind) copy stands and force the books flat.
and grasping the cover, not the top, of the spine (headcap This may destroy the binding.
or headpiece). Grasping the top can detach the spine • Don't allow tracing from book pages.
from the book. • Don't allow researchers to eat, drink,
• Move books to researchers on book carts, not by hand. smoke, chew, use pens or magic
• Use book cradles, preferably cushioned, to support weak, markers; or other potentially
fragile, rare, oversize, or tightly-bound books for damaging materials around books.
viewing or exhibit. •• Don't leave books with torn or
• Use book supports, such as alkaline board or padded wedges, ripped tops, loose spines, red rot,
to prepare volumes for use. or other damage unprotected on the
• Remove horizontally-housed books or book boxes one-by-one shelves.
from a stack until the desired item is reached instead of • Don't throw out.any portion of a book
pulling it out from the pile. when it becomes detached.
• Protect a rare book with deteriorating leather covers by • Don't apply oil, saddlesoap, lanolin,
wrapping the book in pH-neutral paper; wrapping and then or other leather dressings to leather or
tying it up with wide cotton twill tape (see Storage above); skin on books. See Conserve O Gram
or using a polyester film book jacket or band. See NPS 9I 1, Leather Dressing: To Dress or
Museum Handbook, Part I, Appendix S, Curatorial Care of Not to Dress
Objects Made from Leather and Skin Products. € Don't use spray or gel treatments
for dust removal or preservation
on doth, board, or paper volumes.•
Reformatting Do This. Don't Do This.
• Reformat or copy a volume to provide access to the .• Don't make copiesof items unless
information of a book, while the original is protected they are unique because it may be
and preserved. cheaper to buy another copy of a
• Make copies by using a customized preservation standard publication whenjt self-
xerographic copy machine, by microfilming the book, destructs ·
by photographing the book, or by digitizing the book • Don't xerogrnphically (photocopy)
for access and producing acid-free printouts or copy damaged books on regular copy
computer output microfilm copies for preservation. 1nachines:
• Keep the copies in the same sequence as the original
volume to maintain the semblance of the original.
• Send the citation of a microfilm copy of a unique item
to the International Registry of Microfilm Masters for
inclusion.

How to Care for Bound Archival Materials 3

National Park Service Conserve O Gram 19/18

To Preserve Your Archival Bound Volumes You Must

Do This...... Don't Do This.

Security
• Discourage theft by registering and monitoring researchers. € Don't allow researchers access to rare
• Identify your bound volumes by cataloging them. This will orunique item without professional
make replevin (the legal return of stolen items) easier. supervision.
• Use a #2 graphite pencil to mark volumes on the reverse of • Don't allow researchers to do their
their title page with park name and catalog number. own photocopying .
• Watch for volumes that have page stubs (plates stolen). • Don't leave small volumes unprotected
• Check researcher registration records to see who has used in the midst of an archival collection.
the volumes most recently and report losses to the police. • Don't't allow researchers. to carry
• Use separation sheets and secure storage for small volumes coats, briefcases packages, or other
in an archival collection. ,large objects into research room or
• Remember that undersizt. such as artist handmade collection. storage rooms.
books, photo albums, for note books and autograph books,
are articular! attractive to thieves.
Conservation Do This. Don't Do This.

• Call a conservator when you notice the following: • Don't counton conservators to restore
cracked or broken book bindings or spines your rare books to their originalstate
very brittle or fragile paper or board of perfection after they have
mechanical damage (rips and tears) deteriorated significantly.
mold growth (staining, haziness on paper or leather
surface, a musty smell, or clusters of fiber-like growth)
significant foxing (brownish-red spots)
significant insect or vermin infestations or damage (frass,
chewed areas, perforations, dark specks, media removal,
or surface cratering)
tape stains (dark adhesive stains where tape was placed)
i ment acidit ( a er loss in areas with ink or i ment)

References Light Impressions Corporation, 439 Monroe Avenue,

P.O. Box 940, Rochester, NY 14603-0940; (800)
Canadian Conservation Institute, CCI Notes 11/8 828-6216 or (716) 271-8960; Fax (716) 442-7318.
"Display Methods for Books." Ottawa, Canada,
CCI, 1994. University Products, 517 Main Street, P.O. Box 101,
Holyoke, MA 01041-0101; (800) 628-1912 or (413)
Clarkson, Christopher and Sherelyn Ogden, "The 532-9431; Fax (800) 532-9281.
Book Shoe: Descriptions and Uses." Northeast
Document Conservation Center Technical Leaflet.
Andover, MA: NEDCC, June 1994. Diane Vogt-O'Connor
Senior Archivist
Sources National Park Service
Museum Management Program
See NPS Tools of the Trade (available only to NPS Washington, DC 20013-7127
staff) for housing and interleaving materials and a list
of vendors. Archival-quality materials can be Dianne van der Reyden
purchased from suppliers, such as the following: Senior Paper Conservator
Smithsonian Institution
Gaylord Bros., Box 4901, Syracuse, NY 13221- Conservation Analytical Laboratory
4901; (800) 448-6160 or (315) 457-5070; Fax (800) Washington, DC 20560
272-3412.

The Conserve O Gram series is published as a reference on The.series is distributed to all NPS umts and is available to non-NPS
collections management and curatorial issues. Mention of a product, institutions and interested individuals by subscription through the
a manufacrurer, or a supplier by name in this publication does not Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office,
constitute an endorsement of that product or supplier by the National Washington, DC 20402; FAX 202/ 512-2250. For further information
Park Service. Sources named are not all inclusive. It is suggested and guidance concerning any of the topics or procedures addressed in
that readers also seek alternative product and vendor information in the series, contact the NPS Museum Management Program. P .0. Box
order to assess the full range of available supplies and equipment. 37127, Washington, DC 20013-7127; 202/343-8142.

4 How to Care for Bound Archival Materials