Here are the last three tips in our series on Preservation Tips.

Tip #8: Access and Preservation Go Together

When it comes to protecting your special items, you have to remember that as important as they are to preserve, you also must also be able to enjoy and admire your collections. So, here are several more tips you can use to protect them and ensure that others can enjoy them for years to come.

Make sure to document information about your photos or documents. Although some people write very carefully on the back of photographs, you can also create a digital reproduction of the image and have the information included there or keep a record book describing the items together in a special place. It’s important that you keep your collections organized and properly label things so others will understand their importance and details. It also helps to store them in properly labeled enclosures so it will minimize the items being damaged because someone was rummaging around in a box.

Another thing to consider, is that if you’re displaying an item, consider giving it “a rest.” Have it out and then put it away for a while and let something else go in its place. You should also consider making an inventory and detailed list of all your special items in case of a disaster. This will be important if it’s necessary to make an insurance claim.

Tip #9: Be Informed

Like anything, it’s easy to get bad advice when it comes to protecting your valuables. Here are just a few excellent online resources that offer solid advice:

Library of Congress Preservation Directorate

National Archives and Records Administration

American Institute of Conservation

Tip #10:  Have Professionals Do Repairs

When something you treasure gets damaged, ask yourself how important it is to you. If it’s something with a lot of value either sentimentally or monetarily, have it professionally repaired. Unfortunately, most people try repairing their important item or keepsake and end up damaging it even more. Here’s a link on how to find a good conservator.

A special thanks to the Preservation Underground for this wonderful information!

Another day of preservation tips to help you keep your special items protected.

Tip #7: Preserving Non-Paper Collections

There are many different types of items that may need protecting, but this post is all about non paper collections.

Photographs and Home Movies:

Pictures and film are very sensitive to the environment so you need to minimize the dust, light pollutants and handling that can damage them. Like we’ve discussed before, try to protect them in pH neutral enclosures (pH 7.0) or archival products.

When it comes to protecting home movies, always have a duplicate made and keep the original in a safe place. And, for your old movies, it’s always best to get them digitized. If you don’t have your special movies, made it the latest digital medium, you run the risk of having trouble watching them because of the technology changes.For example if you have VHS video tapes or something older, make sure to transfer them to DVD or MPEG format.

Textiles:

Many people have special textiles they keep, like family wedding dresses, baby clothes, christening gowns or other items that have special meaning.

Like photos, textiles are also very sensitive to environmental factors. You have to watch out for high humidity, exposure to light, insects, pollutants like dust or cooking vapors and alkaline environments.  For those that may not know what alkaline is- is a pH above 7.0 also called basic (the opposite of acidic).  All of these factors can degrade the material and decrease the longevity of your special item. A good way to protect your textiles is to store them in pH neutral enclosures. For cleaning e a special piece of textile, always consult a professional.

Digital Items:

With so much information stored digitally, it is critical that you protect your important digital documents.  Unfortunately, digital items are vulnerable to format and hardware obsolescence, chemical instability and unpredictable failure. The best thing you can do is create multiple copies and send them to different family members for storing.  Or, for some items, print them out and store them in a safe place.

Another important thing you should do is perform regular back ups of your electronic media. When backing up your digital information, consider keeping a physical backup in a safe place or doing a remote backup using a service. Just remember that if you need to access your remote backup, you’ll need an internet connection to access the information.

In continuation with the Preservation series of blog posts….here are Tips #5 and 6 courtesy of Duke University Libraries Preservation Department.

Tip #5 – Make Duplicates

As we’ve mentioned in our articles and other blog posts, you should always make high quality copies of your originals. Although this may be impossible for some collections, but if you have photographs you really have no excuses in not protecting them.

However, if you’re going to take the effort to duplicate them, then make sure that you do it right using high quality professional photo paper and high quality ink that will last longer. The good part is that there are lots of people who claim to be able to do this, however, the tough part can be finding a reputable photographic reproduction company. I admit that I’m a bit biased because my family has been restoring photographs for decades and know how to do it properly.  The point is go with someone you trust or who comes recommended to you.

Tips #6 – Be Prepared for Disasters

Although disasters are one topic that we don’t want to think about- do you know what items in your home would be important to save? Obviously it goes without saying that your safety should always come first, but if you have time to save your most valuable possessions what would they be?

In cases like this, the best thing you should do is get prepared in advance and make duplicates of the things that are truly irreplaceable like family photos, important documents and financial records.

Our recommendation is to make duplicates of these important items and store the duplicates in a separate location like a safety deposit box or for a less expensive option, a safe place at a family members home. There are also resources available that can help you create lists and get organized. If you have a lot of important family records and photographs, here is one site that was recommended to me: Council of State Archivists Family Records Disaster Planning Guide. They sell both a family records kit and a business records kit that’s available in paperback form or electronic download.

Hope you enjoyed these two tips….now we have only four tips more to go!

Here is a continuation of the ten tips that was written by the Preservation Department at Duke University Libraries.

Tip #3: Handle with Care

Although this may seem rather obvious, there are some rather simple things that you can do to help increase the longevity of your special belongings. Here are a few things that you should  do:

Never eat or drink around your valuables as you could accidentally spill or leave food residue. The food residue can cause premature aging and also can attract insects or small critters that could damage your items.

Always wash your hands before touching your special keepsakes. Even though you think your hands are clean they naturally have oil and can leave a residue behind. One way to use extra caution is to wash your hands, and then put on cotton gloves.

Make sure that you are careful while handling. Pay attention to how you hold your keepsake and that you’re not handling it a way that could damage it. For example, don’t pull a book off the shelf by its spine or leave a bunch of fingerprints on your pictures. You should also be careful where you place your special items as you want to make sure that the surface is clean and free of clutter before setting it down on something.

Tips #4: Display Responsibly

Any time you want to display your special photographs or collections, you want to be careful how you display them. A few things that you want to watch out for are:

Avoiding Light – Exposure to light to cause fading and make your photographs and textiles brittle. Try to avoid hanging your special items, near windows or light where the light could shine on it. Before displaying anything you should also pay attention for light patterns as sunlight will enter your house differently at different times of the day. If there is no way to avoid light, then make a copy or replica of your item and put the original in safe keeping.

Environmental Conditions – Although we’ve said this in other posts, make sure that you keep the temperature and humidity stable. Ideally a temperature of between 60-70 degrees Farenheit and a relative humidity of 40-50% is best (assuming minimum fluctuations).

Framing Carefully – You want to make sure that all of the materials used to frame your picture or collection won’t prematurely age it. That means, you want to use acid free archival products that have a low pH (7.00-8.5) and are lignin free. If you want to be extra careful, you can use UV glass or UV acrylic that are help minimize UV light, however regular glass or plexiglass or acrylic do work fine for most cases.  (If you’re wondering if we offer any frames with UV glass or UV acrylic, currently the majority of our wooden oval frames do have the option of UV glass or UV acrylic and we do plan to offer more frames with this option). Another thing to consider is how your item is secured in the frame. Non adhesive methods are best, however there are options such as linen tape and archival adhesives that can be used if needed.

Stay tuned for tips 5 and 6….

If you love antiques and have old pictures at home, you want to make sure that you properly protect them. However, we often think that if we put them in archival albums or frames, that our belongings will be safe. However, that’s not always the case. Here is a series of blog posts I came across that was written by the Preservation Department at Duke University Libraries. These folks really know how to preserve things, so here is a summary of the 10 preservation tips they offered. However, to avoid writing a super long post, we’ll cover all ten tips throughout the week.

Tip #1: Provide a Good Environment

Part of protecting your photos and collections is controlling the environment- meaning you try to keep the temperature between 60-70 degrees Farenheit with a relative humidity of about 40-50%. You want to keep the temperature and humidity stable and avoid big fluctuations (greater than 5 degrees or 5% relative humidity). So, you never want to store your items in basements, attics, garages or any place where the temperature isn’t controlled. And you should always keep your items stored in places a minimum of 6 inches off the floor to avoid insect or water damage.

Tip #2: Provide Proper Enclosures

An enclosure is simply a way to help protect your item from direct exposure from the elements. An enclosure could be a picture frame, box or any other covering that would help to insulate your item. A proper enclosure should have a pH between 7.0 and 8.5 and be lignin free. This is often referred to as  archival or acid- free which means that it has a neutral or basic pH and is lignin free. The enclosure should also be slightly larger than the item it protects.

That’s the first two tips….just 8 more to go! And, if you were wondering we do offer archival picture frames. Right now, our most popular archival frames are our Cirrus Metal Floating Picture Frames. However, in the next several months, we will be adding an entire portfolio of archival picture frames which even include museum archival glass.